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3 Tips to Finding Electric Car Parts

Josh Razgunas — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:09:57 +0000

When selecting a car it is extremely important to ensure that you will be able to find replacement parts in the future. This is especially important when shopping for less common cars such as electric vehicles.
In recent years car manufactures have responded to the green movement by producing hybrid and electric cars. These vehicles are highly sought after as they significantly reduce and even eliminate fuel costs, but many electric car owners report finding it difficult to find electric car replacement parts. Check out these 3 tips to finding the right electric car parts:
Finding Electric Car Parts
Do Your Research:
Make sure you are familiar with the specific details of the electric car part for which you are shopping. Not only do you need to know the make and model of your car, make sure you know the name and serial number of the electric car part you need. You do not want to spend time locating and ordering a part just to learn that you in fact ordered the wrong one.
Shop Local Classifieds:
Browse the classifieds in your local newspaper and check out sites like Craigslist.com to see if the parts for which you are looking are being sold locally. While this is viable options make sure that you do not buy used electric car parts because they will not come with a manufacturer guarantee.
Browse Online:
There are many online car parts dealers who specialize in electric car parts. If you search the web you will find a number of reputable, licensed electric car parts dealers. During your search pay attention to prices in order to determine which dealers are the most competitive. It is also important to research return policies, the dealer with the lowest price may have not be as easy to deal with should you have a problem with a part.
When shopping for replacement parts, OEReplacement.com is a one stop shop for all of your replacement part needs. OEReplacement.com is a leading provider of OEM electric car parts to both commercial and private buyers. Nowhere else can a customer have access to such diverse product line of OEM replacements at a guaranteed low price.
If you are in the market for OEM parts for an electric vehicle, or any car for that matter, visit OEReplacement.com online today.

Cabin Air Filters: How and Why to Change Them

Josh Razgunas — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:36:11 +0000

Changing your cabin air filter is as important for the health of your car as it is for the health of those who rides in your car. Not only does your air filter clean the air that passes through your engine but it filters the air that passes into your cabin. If your cabin air filter is clogged the passenger compartment is virtually sealed, letting very little air in or out. If your windows quickly fog when you have a carload of passengers this is an indication that it is time to change your filter.
The frequency with which you should change your cabin air filter is dependent upon the quality of air in which you drive. It is however safe to assume that you should be changing your air filter annually or every 12k to 15k miles.
Locating Your Cabin Air Filter:
Air filters are generally found under the hood or the dashboard. If you cabin air filter is under the dashboard it is more than likely outside of the car’s air intake, next to the HVAC case or behind the glovebox. Some luxury vehicles have two or three air filters. The quickest and easiest way to locate your cabin air filter is to review your owner’s manual.
Replacing Your Cabin Air Filter:
If your filter is located in the outside air intake, you must first remove the air intake screen. It is common to break the air intake screen when removing it so it is a good idea to have a replacement on hand when changing your air filter. You can now remove the cabin air filter. Use a vacuum to clean out the air duct before replacing the air filter. When recovering the cabin air filter, with the intake screen, be sure to seal it tightly to protect your filter from water damage. If your cabin air filter is behind the glovebox, you may not have to remove the entire glovebox to change the filter. You may be able to flex the sides of the box until it pivots and allows you to access the filter. In some case the entire glovebox does have to come out, which can be difficult. Again this is a time that referring to your owner’s manual will be of assistance.
Purchasing Your Cabin Air Filter:
Using the proper replacement air filter is just as important as replacing your cabin air filter on a regular basis. OEReplacement.com is a leading provider of OEM replacement parts to both commercial and private buyers. If you are in the market for a top quality, cabin air filter visit OEReplacement.com online today.

The Importance of Preventative Maintenance

Josh Razgunas — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:30:29 +0000

Preventative maintenance is essential to the health of any vehicle. Following the scheduled maintenance outlined in your owner’s manual and regularly checking fluids and filters can save you time and money, down the road, and extend the life of your car.
Benefits of Preventive Maintenance:
• Ensures the safety of you and your passengers; a properly maintained vehicle is much less likely to breakdown or lose control.
• Maintains the efficiency of your vehicle.
• Saves on fuel costs, a car running at an optimal level uses less gas than one that is not.
• Saves on replacement part costs and repairs, a vehicle that runs optimally requires less repairs and needs less replacement parts.
Scheduled Maintenance:
Every vehicle is manufactured to perform at its best when the maintenance schedule is followed. Newer cars are programmed to warn the driver when it is time for scheduled maintenance. It is extremely important to pay attention to the warning lights on your dash and react accordingly.
Oil Changes:
Regular oil changes help your engine to run optimally. Depending on the vehicle, and your driving conditions, an oil change should be performed anywhere from every 3,000 miles to every 10,000. New cars are being designed to need oil changes less frequently. Consult your owner’s manual and be sure that you follow the recommended oil change schedule.
Air Filters:
Changing your air filter(s) as recommended by your manufacturer is yet another important part of preventative maintenance. Cabin air filters clean the air that travels through your engine as well as your cabin. Regularly replacing your filter is again important for the health of your engine.
Regular Checkups and Repairs:
When your auto technician completes scheduled maintenance it is also important to have them check for wear and tear. Replacing worn belts and spark plugs before larger problems arise is important for the health of your car and can save lots of money in repairs in the future. Be sure to use a technician that you trust to help you maintain the integrity of your vehicle and prevent unforeseen repairs.
OEReplacement.com is a leading provider of OEM replacement parts to both commercial and private buyers. If you are in the market for top quality, replacement parts, for the continued preservation of your vehicle, visit OEReplacement.com online today.

Safe Winter Driving part II: Wheels, Tires, Brakes and Suspension

Josh Razgunas — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:08:17 +0000

Even a cautious, experienced winter driver with good tires can get into trouble, however, if the rest of the car isn’t up to the task. We already know snow tires are vital, but their effectiveness is dramatically reduced if they’re not also in good condition.
Tire inflation should be checked year-round. Proper tire pressure improves fuel economy and extends tire life dramatically, but in winter, it makes a difference in how well the tire grips the surface, whether that’s snow, ice or a cold road.
Tire wear is the next factor. A properly inflated tire will wear slower than an under- or over-inflated one, but alignment, camber, caster and other factors affect wear as well. Rotating tires–moving them from one corner of a vehicle to another–will to some extent ameliorate the effects of uneven tire wear.
Suspension parts, especially shocks and struts, should be in top condition for winter driving. They play a big role in keeping tires in contact with the road. They are a wear item and no matter how little a car is used, they will wear out in time. A new set of OE shocks or struts when it’s time for replacement is important for stopping ability and car control.
Speaking of stopping, brakes wear far faster in winter than in summer. Salt and continuous moisture take their toll. Even new brakes will develop a layer of rust after as little as a single day of sitting in snowy, wet conditions. If a brake job was approaching, winter will bring it on fast. In very salty conditions, seized calipers are not unusual, especially if a car is driven through salty slush and allowed to sit. Brake lines are vulnerable as well. Regular trips to the car wash will help, and slow down rust on body and chassis parts.
Heavy snow can even build up in and around wheels. This throws off wheel balance. Shaking or rumbling from snow packed into the wheels is not unusual, and sometimes it can become so severe it’s dangerous. Fortunately, it can usually be knocked out with a window scraper.

Safe Winter Driving Part I

Josh Razgunas — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:06:11 +0000

There’s law associated with winter driving. It’s the same law regarding weather as the rest of the year, but it means something different. Essentially, the law says that if you have a weather-related accident, it’s your fault, not the weather’s. Legally, you are required to do whatever it takes to avoid trouble in winter weather. And if you haven’t made the proper preparations, that might mean staying home.
Some parts of the world–Quebec comes to mind–have legal requirements for winter driving, like approved snow tires during certain months. Snow tires, certainly, are the most basic and most helpful item in your arsenal; as the old saying goes, “All season tires are no-season tires.” It’s not just the specialized snow treads that matter. Tire compounds are formulated for temperature. In the summer, road surfaces can easily reach 140 degrees F; rolling tires heat up much more. Summer tires are formulated with rubber compounds that resist heat; in the winter, they become hard and slippery. Snow tires, on the other hand, stay pliable in subzero conditions, and additionally usually have silica or other particles embedded that interact at a molecular level with ice to provide extreme grip. All season tires are a compromise, at best.
There was a time when if you lived in Louisiana, of course you didn’t need snow tires, but with major blizzards all across the south, and many feet of snow on the ground as far south as Georgia and Arizona, that’s no longer true. Everyone in the country has by now seen how useless all-season tires are in real snow, even on an all-wheel drive vehicle; after all, they don’t stop any better than any other car, and often worse, because of their weight.
That leads to the single most important factor in safe winter driving: awareness of your limitations. Anyone who lives in snowy areas has seen big four-wheel drive trucks and SUVs, driven by overconfident owners, on a flatbed destined for the crusher after going off the road. Expensive all-wheel drive cars give their owners a sense of invulnerability, but they do nothing about the laws of physics. Nor do they do anything about written laws, which also have a real problem with bad winter driving.

Industry Changes (How They Affect You, the Consumer)

Josh Razgunas — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:56:00 +0000

The auto industry has been hammered by bad news, seemingly for years now. First, there was the collapse of General Motors and Chrysler, bailouts and bankruptcies. Then in the restructuring, brands like Pontiac and Saturn were killed off, while painful, drawn out legal battles were fought over the sale and survival of Volvo, Hummer, Opel and Saab. Now, Fiat owns Chrysler, Spyker owns Saab and Chinese heavy equipment maker Sichuan Tengzhong owns Hummer.
The industry was still reeling from that one-two punch, and now it was Toyota’s turn. Over eight million cars, and counting, recalled worldwide. Had they all been recalled in America, it would be three out of four cars sold in 2009. And more recalls of import cars from Japan and Korea were on the way.
People started to get scared, thousands of dealerships which had served their communities for decades closed up, and brands that had been rolling for over 80 years rolled no more. How would you get service and parts?

While it’s true that in some places there might not be a Chrysler or GM dealership nearby, you can still get original equipment quality parts as good as from the factory from OE Replacement.

But what happens when the manufacturer is gone? How do parts get made? Fortunately, OE parts don’t come from the manufacturer. They come either from Tier One original equipment suppliers, or from other high-end manufacturers who are making parts to the same specifications as those that came on your car. And if there’s a problem with, say, the accelerator pedal sticking, OE parts suppliers will address that in their manufacturing process, so they can offer an improved version without the need to wait for eight million other people to get their cars fixed.

OE parts supplies aren’t affected by the comings and goings of dealerships, CEOs or brand names. If there are cars and trucks that need parts, they’ll make them, and OE Replacement will sell them. There have been big changes in the industry and more are sure to come, but OE replacement parts are always a good idea.

Detroit Auto Show

Josh Razgunas — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:46:09 +0000

There are great auto shows around the world: Paris, Tokyo, Berlin. But only one takes place in the cradle of the automobile industry: Detroit.
The North American International Auto Show–NAIAS–is not just a car show where you can go to look at the latest crossover, although it is that, too. Held every January, the Detroit auto show opens the new year with a look at future cars that might see production, concept cars that are flights of engineering or styling fancy, and examples of both the current cutting edge of technology, and dreams of what tomorrow might bring.
As exciting as it is to get a look at new models that won’t go on sale for months yet, the biggest attraction is usually the concept cars. All are styling exercises of some sort, but they can have very different intentions. A designer might want to showcase design language for the model, or maybe gauge public reaction to an idea. If a redesign of a car is upcoming, concepts can build interest and excitement. While some bear a relationship to a production model, whether it’s the complete shape or just a few lines, others are exercises in fantasy. They demonstrate new ideas in how a car or truck can be driven, how it can be used and how it can be propelled.
Hybrids, alt-fuel and experimental powertrains can be seen at the Detroit auto show. Sometimes, working cars powered by fuel cells, hydrogen or solar power will be displayed by the manufacturer, showcasing new technologies under development.
Detroit is also the first look that many reviewers get at new cars, before they drive them and write car reviews. Looking them over on the press days that precede the general show is a chance to see them within the context of the full model line, compare them to last year’s models, and get a sense of where the model is going.
Most of all, the Detroit auto show, held in the backyard of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, is a chance for American manufacturers to show that, once again, they’re making the best cars and trucks in the world.

Importance of Following Vehicle Maintenance Schedules

Josh Razgunas — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:42:49 +0000

Trade-offs are a fact of life. Since we can’t do everything at once, and most of us have more things to do than for which we have time, we put things off, cut corners where we have to, and muddle through the best we can. If that involves getting a sandwich from the corner deli, rather than making one at home, we’re no worse for wear. But in a car, cutting corners can have serious consequences.
Vehicle maintenance schedules aren’t just made up as random numbers, 3,000 of this, 7,500 of that, 60,000 of those. They’re the result of years and years of experience, experimentation and observation, backed up with science, testing and all those millions of miles cars are driven every year.
There was an era of planned obsolescence in car manufacturing in the Seventies and early Eighties, when it didn’t matter what you did: Your car was going to die at 90,000 miles. That strategy, designed to keep people buying cars every few years, backfired horribly, as imported cars and trucks were built to go hundreds of thousands of miles, provided the owners maintained them the way the factory intended. Remember those Toyota and Volvo million mile stories? They were aimed directly at Ford, GM and Chrysler.
Detroit caught on. Quality will sell a lot more vehicles than quantity, as Ford and Toyota, respectively, can tell you today. Cars and trucks can’t last forever, of course, but with proper maintenance, they can last as long as possible.
Scheduled maintenance intervals are developed because engineers have determined how long car parts can go before likelihood of failure increases. Take engine oil changes as an example. Since the advent of the modern car, it’s been three months or 3,000 miles. But as metallurgy, machining and the oil and oil filter themselves have improved, oil change intervals now stretch out to 7,500 miles for many new cars, after their break-in period.

Preventative Maintenance

Josh Razgunas — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:39:42 +0000

Neglect your oil change, and you’ll shorten the life of your engine. That’s your choice, just like ordering that triple-salami sandwich for lunch. For other items, such as timing chains, CV (constant velocity) boots and joints, they might not actually need replacing, but they do need inspection, because the consequences can be as serious as a heart attack.
Today’s cars are so well built that it can be tempting to leave that air filter in there forever, but what you’re really tempting is fate.
Many scheduled maintenance items aren’t just important for the overall longevity of your car; they’re vital for safety. Otherwise, you might not know about a problem until it’s too late. If you’re lucky, that will just be the horrible grinding noise brakes make when you’ve used up the pads, and are wearing away the rotor with the caliper. If you’re lucky, you’ll have time to stop and call the tow truck.
If you’re not lucky, it’ll be a breakdown that damages the car, strands you or causes an accident. Either way, following vehicle maintenance schedules, and using only original equipment quality parts when needed, will not only prevent premature wear, damage and possible collisions, but also keep your vehicle running as well as it did when new for as long as possible. That’s why it’s called “preventative:” it prevents problems.
Taken together, the three factors, safety, reliability and longevity, are a convincing argument that following vehicle maintenance schedules, and maintaining your vehicle with OE parts from OE Replacement, is the only way to get you money’s worth out of a car. It might seem as though you’re saving a dollar today, but all you’re doing is ensuring that you spend ten tomorrow, and any way you look at it, that’s a bad deal.

The Importance of OE Replacement Parts Part II

Josh Razgunas — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:35:23 +0000

We’ve looked at the extreme measures carmakers and their suppliers go through to build car parts and truck parts that will last. But some parts, no matter how well built, do need replacement. Oil filters, transmission filters, cabin air filters and engine air filters fill up with contaminants and should be changed, sometimes along with filter gaskets. No HID headlamp is immune to a rock, and the soft compounds that make premium flat wiper blades work so well wear out in time.
Literally anyone can scrape together a few thousand dollars and get an offshore manufacturer to start popping out replacement parts. But compare those no-name aftermarket auto parts to an OE replacement car or truck part. One is made by some guy looking to make a buck, with no quality control, no care and usually no warranty. But the OE part is manufactured to meet or exceed the same standards as the original part itself. OE parts will fit like new, look like new, work like new and last like new. To produce OE automotive parts, the parts maker has an agreement with the manufacturer and access to their original specifications. The processes and materials are as least as good as the original, and for performance parts, better than the original. In some instances, the countless driving miles of cars and trucks on the road show up some small weaknesses in the original parts, and OE replacements can be improved versions that fix even those small issues.
Using OE parts is the only way to guarantee that a car or truck will perform the way it was intended, the way it did when it was new. For home mechanics, car repair is simpler and faster with OE replacement parts, because they fit right every time. At the garage, it means less time fooling around with cut-rate replacement auto parts, and that means happier customers, faster repairs and lower costs. There’s no downside to using aftermarket Original Equipment quality replacement parts, just dependable performance, exactly as the manufacturer intended.