How Potholes Can Damage Your Car

Now that spring is around the corner, every driver should be actively avoiding potholes forming in the roads across Britain. As the ice and snow melt away, the base layer of a road is disturbed and the surface in certain areas is weakened. Because of this, potholes are abundant and you can only avoid them for so long. If you drive over a particularly bad pothole, you should check the tyres and wheels of your car and be aware of any changes in the car’s handling characteristics. This is the safest way to ensure your car hasn’t been excessively damaged…

MOTs: UK motorists aren’t prepared to do basic checks!

It would seem that 1 in 10 of Britain’s motorists are shy about car maintenance. As research by LV discovered, over 1 in 10 admit they are not happy carrying out checks or basic car care before their MOT test. Even though most drivers know a quick look over their vehicle could save them time and money, more than half of surveyed motorists are reluctant to check their headlights and indicators are working. Lights were the number 1 cause of instant MOT failures in 2016, accounting for 18.9% of all test fails. This is just a portion of the 35.3%…

Child Safety: Car Seats and the Dos and Don’ts

Child safety seats are a grey area for many parents and while you want to keep your child as safe as possible while riding in the car, it can be hard to understand the rules and recommendations regarding child seats. Thankfully, we’re here to spell it out in black and white. So, without further ado here are the dos and don’ts of child safety seats.   The law and child safety seats To abide by the law, your child must use a child car seat up to the age of 12 or 1.35 metres tall. Children over this age and…

How to correctly defrost your windscreen

We’re now in the thick of winter and to avoid costly accidents, it’s worth knowing how to safely defrost your windscreen. Making this part of your morning routine through the colder months will ensure you stay safe on the road, even when you’re up against the icy side of mother nature. Here’s our top tips on how to correctly defrost your windscreen. Use lukewarm water If you’re using water to defrost your windscreen, never use boiling water. This is because the temperature differences are too extreme and will cause the windscreen to expand too quickly, leading to a crack. You’ll…

Preparing Your Car for Winter: Maintenance Tips

Tis the season to pack your winter emergency kit and place it in the boot, ready for any long delays during the winter weather. Along with your emergency winter kit, here at Universal Tyres we recommend you thoroughly prepare your car for the harsh winter ahead. Here’s a few suggestions from our experienced mechanics. Have your car serviced A professional mechanic is qualified to inspect every major component of your car and check it for damage and wear. Not only that, they can monitor every fluid level and replace or top up fluids as required. A professional service is therefore…

Don’t be caught out by the £2500 MOT fine!

Take your car for its MOT before the expiry date written on the current certificate and you’ll be forgiven for thinking you’re doing yourself and other motorists a favour. However, you’d be wrong. Many UK motorists are feeling the full force of the law and being caught out with fines costing up to £2,500 because they don’t know a simple rule regarding their MOT certificate. The Law If you take your car for an early MOT test and it fails, you could be risking prosecution by taking the car back out on the road as it is immediately deemed unroadworthy.…

Bald Tyres: The Main Reason for Most MOT Failures

Out of sight, out of mind simply doesn’t cut it when it comes to the tread depth on your tyres. That’s because failure to monitor the condition of your tyres is a danger to both yourself and other road users. Eventually, the tread depth on your tyres will wear away below the legal limit of 1.6mm, and as such your tyres will fail to deliver appropriate, safe traction. As the law states that your tyre tread depth should never fall below 1.6mm, negligence isn’t an excuse – and it won’t stop you from failing your MOT either. In fact, the…

Happy Motoring: Winter Checklist for Cars

The winter months can bring with them treacherous driving conditions that’ll put any driver’s skills to the test. However, a lot of the problems facing drivers are avoidable, so long as you ensure your car is in optimum working condition. In the first of this month’s articles, you can find just some of the checks you can carry out on your car to ensure it’s ready for the harsh winter weather. Check Your Battery If you run into some serious bother, your battery might be the only thing that stands between the warm safety of your car and the freezing…

Breaking Bad: Extreme MOT failures

If there is one feature of your car that is absolutely indispensable in ensuring safety, it has to be your brakes. Keeping them in prime working condition, therefore, is essential. Regularly servicing your brakes can be one way that you ensure they’re working properly, but failing to do so can have dire consequences. In the first of this month’s articles, we’ll be looking at some of the worst cases of brake neglect in the country, to give you an idea of what’s at stake. Unfitted Caliper Bolts DIY car repairs are, simply put, the wrong way to go about fixing…

Where in the UK Has the Most MOT Fails?

A MOT is a mandatory road safety test that ensures that your car is suitable to be driven on the road, and they are essential. Thousands of vehicles fail their MOTs every year for a variety of reasons, most avoidable. However, MOT failures are not spread evenly throughout the country. This can be because of the environment and the stresses a vehicle is subjected to in different areas, for instance. So where in the country has the most MOT fails, exactly? MOT Failures Occur Most in Cornwall and Scotland The top 10 areas where, statistically speaking, a car is most…