Archive for August, 2011
Brake Rotors Replacement Cost
Posted by in Car Brakes on August 22, 2011
This article tells you the cost involved in replacement of brake rotors. They are an important part of the braking system of a vehicle, you know. So read on and find out how much you might need to spend on getting your car brake rotors replaced.
You know how a car starts, but do you know how it stops? Yes you apply brakes, but what after that? How do brakes make the wheels halt in seconds? The brake rotors play a major role here. When you apply brakes, the brake rotors, also known as brake discs, fix on the brake pads and cause the wheels to stop rotating, which makes the car stop. Brake rotors are aligned on the same axis as that of the wheels. When a brake pedal is pressed, a hydraulic mechanism is activated, whereby rotors clamp down on the brake pads which stop the rotational motion of the wheels. So braking of speed hugely depends on the functioning of the brake rotors in the vehicle. The strength of these rotors depends on their design and composition. They are made of casting iron and have high tensile strength. Over time, due to wear and tear, brake rotors might need repair or even replacement.
When to Replace Brake Rotors?
Wearing down of brake rotors and presence of hard spots on them are indicators to brake rotor replacement. Resurfacing rotors may also cause hard spots on them. So confirm the reason from a car repair professional before you decide on replacing the rotors. If you hear a squealing sound or a loud noise on applying brakes, it could be time you get the brake rotors replaced. Excessive braking and driving downhill generate heat in the rotors. Larger the rotors, greater the heat they can take. Brake rotors may reach a point when they cannot sustain the rising temperature and the brakes fail. So, it’s important to ensure that the brake rotors of your vehicle are of the right specifications. If not, get them replaced.
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Why Are ‘Good’ Parents Forgetting Their Kids in Hot Cars?
Posted by in Auto News on August 22, 2011
It seems so unbelievable when we read it on the news, but child deaths from hyperthermia are on the rise—and it’s because parents are simply forgetting their children are in the car.
By Anastacia Mott Austin
It’s beginning to sound distressingly familiar. Mr. Goodfather leaves home with his infant strapped into a carseat in the back of the minivan. Usually he drops the baby off at daycare before going to his high-stress job, but for some reason on this particular day he forgets, and heads straight to work. The baby is forgotten in the back seat, and the father walks in to work, leaving the child to suffer heatstroke and die in a car that can reach temperatures of 130 degrees or higher.
These cases are on the rise, and they are not simple matters of negligence or child abuse. We are not talking here of the mom who leaves her toddlers in the car all day while she is passed out drunk inside, or who gets her hair done while her babies overheat outside in the van.
Many of the recent cases in the news are of hardworking, caring, responsible “good” parents who love their children and would never dream of leaving them in a hot car, even for a minute.
On August 23rd, a seven-month-old baby was discovered inside a car in a parking lot at the Washington University School of Medicine. The baby had been left in the car by his parents, a doctor and a medical researcher at the university. The infant had apparently been in the car for over three hours on a day that reached into the 90s. According to statistics posted on the website for Hyperthermia Deaths of Children in Vehicles, the inside temperature of a vehicle will rise 19 degrees in 10 minutes, and up to 50 degrees in one to two hours. That means that the temperature inside that car was as high as 140 degrees.
On the same day, a two-year-old girl was found dead in a parked car at a middle school near Cincinnati, after her mother, an assistant principal at the school, had left her there by mistake.
The two recent incidents mark the 21st and 22nd vehicle heat-related deaths of children this year.
Small children and babies have immature respiratory systems, and their bodies heat up at much faster rates than adults’ bodies do. “Children have a higher anabolic rate than adults” said Dr Lynn Sears to reporters at WMTV in Madison, Wisconsin. “So their body heat rises two or three times as fast [as] adults. Given a child in a hot car and an adult in a hot car, the [child] will overheat much more quickly and the results can be much more severe than adults.”
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