Car brakes may only have one purpose, but it’s an absolutely essential purpose for not just yourself, but everyone on the road. We take for granted that when we press the brake pedal, the car will slow down and come to a stop. But what happens if you press the pedal and nothing happens? This is a terrifying situation, for sure, but knowing what to do if your brakes stop working can help you navigate through this rare problem to safety.

What to Do If Your Brakes Stop Working

Depending on how fast you are driving if your brakes stop working, it can be challenging to react quickly. Brake failure is a rare situation, so hopefully you will never need to use these tips!

What to Do If Your Brakes Stop Working

1. Don’t panic. The worst thing you can do when your brakes fail is to panic. When you panic, you are far more prone to lose control of your car and the situation, leading to a far worse outcome and possible personal injury. Whether you are stuck in traffic or driving down the highway when your brakes fail, keeping a cool head will ensure the safety of yourself and drivers around you.
2. Use your emergency brake. Emergency brakes are a separate system from your regular rotors. They will work in the event of brake failure. But, use the emergency brake carefully! Emergency brakes are not designed with anti-lock features, however, so it’s important to use them with care; otherwise, you could lock your brakes and lose control of your vehicle. Apply gradual pressure to help slow the car.
3. Shift your car into a lower gear if safe to do so. Downshifting uses the engine to help slow the car naturally. Shifting the car into neutral is another way to slow your forward momentum.
4. Pump the brakes to help build brake fluid pressure. If you can regain enough pressure in the brake line, you can slow your car down and get to a safe place.
5. Use terrain to your advantage, if possible. This includes steering onto the shoulder of the road, into gravel or sand (such as in the case of a runaway truck ramp), or into grass.
6. Don’t turn off your car until you’ve come to a stop. By shutting off the car, you will also shut off your power steering, making maneuvering almost impossible. Keep your car running until you have come to a stop to reduce your chances of causing damage to yourself, your car, or to others around you.
7. Get to a safe place and call for roadside assistance. Once you have moved your car off the roadway, call roadside assistance. You’ll want to set the emergency brake to make sure that your car doesn’t roll away while you are waiting!

Causes of Car Brake Failure

With modern technology, exhaustive testing, and rigorous standards – in addition to failsafes and double circuits – brake failure isn’t something that happens all too often.

Common causes of car brake failure include:

• A catastrophic loss of brake fluid is the most likely culprit when it comes to brake failure. In this case, the amount of pressure in the brake line is unable to engage the piston that presses against the brake pads.
• Grease or oil on the brakes can cause brake failure because they interfere with the friction necessary for them to function properly.
• Problems in the brake line, such as excessive rust or severance, can interrupt the signals between the pedal and the pads, and lead to unresponsive braking.
• It’s also possible for something to become lodged underneath the brake while you’re driving. This could be a loose water bottle, canister, or anything that could become wedged between the brake and the floor of the car preventing you from fully depressing the pedal.

Brake Service at T3 Atlanta

If you have noticed your brakes acting less responsive or making strange sounds lately, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are about to fail. Brake failure is a very rare occurrence, thankfully! However, it’s still important to get any changes in your brakes checked out so your car can be in top shape to react to unexpected situations on the road.

Should You Eat in Your Car?

As car owners, most of us have eaten in our cars at least once during ownership. Drive-throughs are convenient for road warriors and work commuters alike. Time is money, after all, and there’s not always time to take a leisurely meal when you’re on the go. But should you eat in your car or not? There’s a lot of debate on both sides, so let’s take a look at the pros and cons of this practice.

Eating in Your Car: Pros

Whether you’re a casual driver or a road warrior, there are a lot of pros to eating in your car.

Can be Fun: If you’ve never had a picnic in your car before, why not give it a shot? Sometimes your planned trip to the park can be rained out. Or, perhaps there’s not a park nearby. With the right mentality, a picnic in your car can be a lot of fun. Grab a good friend, pack a bag (or a picnic basket if you have one), and drive to your local park for a quick nosh before enjoying a day in the sun.

Timesaver: It’s 7:40am and you haven’t eaten breakfast yet, but your boss expects you to be at a meeting at 8am. You’ll want to be at your best, so instead of skipping the most important meal of the day, stopping by the drive-through can help you fill up and give you the energy you need to rock your meeting.

Convenient: As nice as it is to have a sit-down meal at a restaurant, nothing beats convenience like eating in your car. Depending on whether you grab something at the grocery store, bring something from home, or stop at your favorite fast food spot, eating on the go is convenient to not have to leave your car to be served a meal.

Eating in Your Car: Cons

While eating in your car has a lot of conveniences, there are some cons to consider as well.

Danger: Driving safely requires your full attention to be on the road. Multitasking on anything – whether it’s driving and being on the phone, driving and talking with your passenger, or driving and eating – reduces how much attention you have to focus on the road.

Health Considerations: As convenient as it is to stop at your usual fast food joint, eating fast food isn’t always the healthiest option. If you have special health considerations or are just trying to watch your waistline, it may be a good idea to keep track of how often you’re eating on the go.

Cleanliness: When your attention is split between driving and eating, it can be easy for stray crumbs to escape even the best-intentioned driver. If you’re a clean freak, this may be a deal breaker for you. After all, crumbs accumulate in the most difficult of places – and that’s not even to mention spills. Unless you have a membership at your local auto wash, you may wind up spending a good chunk of change to keep your car spotless if you eat in your car on the regular.

Splitting the Difference

As you can see, there’s no single answer to the question, ‘Should you eat in your car?’ Ultimately, this choice comes down to preference and your particular situation. Some of us want to keep our favorite cars in pristine condition while others don’t mind a few crumbs here and there. Some of us are on a tight deadline and can’t spare the time to stop for a meal.

Whatever you decide, just remember to keep your eyes on the road and a hand on the wheel. It’s also probably a good idea to avoid foods that are messy or require both hands.

If you drop something, don’t reach down and grab it. While it might cause a mess, leave it or, if you have a passenger, ask them to grab the item if they are able. No matter how you look at it, it’s better to cause a small mess than a large car accident!

There are few more alarming sensations than when your car suddenly behaves in a way you don’t expect. Fishtailing is one of those loss of control situations that happens when you least expect it. Without knowing what to do if your car starts fishtailing, you could spin out of control.

What is Fishtailing?

Although the name sounds silly, the term ‘fishtailing’ is a good way to think about what happens during this type of loss of control. While the car is moving, the rear end of the car slides out of alignment with the front wheels and may waver back and forth, much like a fish swimming.

The movement can be small and easily corrected, or it may be significant and could pose a traffic hazard. In any case, you’ll want to know how what to do if your car starts fishtailing so you can get to your destination safely.

Why do Cars Fishtail?

Whether a car is new, old, AWD or 4WD, every vehicle can potentially fishtail in the right (or wrong!) conditions. These reasons include:

• Road conditions, especially icy, snowy, wet, or slick conditions
• Curves and turns in the road
• Weight distribution where the front of the car is heavier than the rear

Cars are not limited to fishtailing on curves; this phenomenon can happen on straight roads too, such as when you are changing lanes or avoiding an unexpected obstacle in the road.

Fishtailing vs Hydroplaning

You may have heard of a phenomenon known as ‘hydroplaning’. Fishtailing and hydroplaning are similar in that you lose control of your vehicle by skidding, but they actually refer to two different issues.

Hydroplaning is a type of vehicle loss of control that only occurs when water is present on the road surface. During this type of loss of vehicle control, water gets between the surface of the road and the tire, causing the car to skid.

What to do If Your Car Starts Fishtailing

When your car starts to fishtail, your car will unfortunately not correct itself, instead turning into a full spin if you don’t act as quickly as possible. Spinning out will make it that much harder to redirect your vehicle and pose a potential hazard to other drivers too.

Correcting a fishtailing car is a fairly straightforward process. The sooner you can react to correct the issue, the more quickly you can get back to normal driving!

• Stay calm
• Let go of the accelerator and brake
• Gently turn the wheel in the direction of the spin or skid
• Let your car naturally slow
• Correct the fishtail and adjust your driving speed

It’s important to remain calm when your car starts to fishtail. Once your car begins to skid out of control, you could actually cause the car to fishtail to the other side if you oversteer to correct the problem. This could lead to a series of fishtails and pose a potentially serious hazard to yourself and other drivers.

Although it may be difficult to remember in the moment, gentle movements and adjustments will help return your car back to control. Jerking the wheel will make things worse.

Fishtailing most often happens when driving too quickly for conditions. If your car has fishtailed once during a particular stretch of road, chances are it will happen again. Adjust your driving speed to fit the conditions.

Unless you’ve lived in a place where it snows a lot, many Atlanta drivers may not be familiar with the challenges of living in a city where heavy snowfall is a common occurrence. Knowing what to do if your car is stuck in the snow will help you get back on the road as quickly as possible.

What to do If Your Car is Stuck in the Snow

The first thing to remember when your car is stuck in the snow is to stay calm. Getting frustrated is a pretty normal reaction; we’re all used to being able to hop in the car and start driving without a second thought. Staying calm will help you think clearly so you can quickly get your car out of the snow. Here’s what to do if your car is stuck in the snow.

1. Dig out your car

If you have a snow shovel, it’s time to grab it out of your garage and get to work. Remove the snow from the area in front of the car leading to a part of the street that has been cleared.

If you’ll be traveling in snowy regions during the winter, consider keeping a small shovel in your vehicle so you can dig yourself out of any unexpected heavy snowfall.

2. Clear a path for the tires

This is definitely a case of ‘working smarter, not harder’. Unless the level of snow is higher than the vehicle’s clearance, you only technically need to shovel snow away from the tires and your intended path.

Make sure to clear ice away from the tires as well. In certain situations, ice can freeze tires to the ground and make getting out of a snow drift far more difficult.

3. Make sure the tailpipe is uncovered

While you’re digging your car out of the snow, it may be a good idea to start your car and let it warm up. Make sure your tailpipe is uncovered so that dangerous gases don’t build up in the cabin of the vehicle.

4. Turn off traction control

Traction control reduces the power to the wheel when the onboard computer detects slippage. In most situations, this feature can improve your overall safety by preventing the car from oversteering or going out of control. In snow, on the other hand, you’ll usually need that extra boost to get out of a snow drift.

At the same time, it’s important to be aware of how much your tires are spinning. While it’s tempting to gun the engine and apply maximum power to the problem, you could actually dig yourself in further.

5. Try the ‘rocking’ technique

This technique involves shifting your car between drive and reverse to gain momentum so you can get your car moving. Turning off traction control will generally help. If you have a friend or neighbor handy, they can help push as well – but be careful!

• First, put your car into drive and go as far forward as you are able
• Then, quickly put your car into reverse and go back as far as you can
• Return your car to drive and move forward again
• Repeat these steps until you are able to drive out of the snow

6. Create traction for the tires

If you’re having a really difficult time getting your car out of the snow, consider sprinkling an abrasive substance like cat litter, sand, salt, or gravel in front of the tires. If ice has accumulated on your car or tires, you could even sprinkle broken up ice to improve traction for your tires.

Visit T3 Atlanta to Winterize Your Vehicle

If you haven’t winterized your vehicle yet, it’s not too late! Winter in Atlanta is usually coldest between January and March, so getting your car winterized before then will help keep you from getting stranded in the cold.

Driving in winter weather is much different than driving in your average rainstorm. Snow, ice, and poor visibility can all contribute to hazardous conditions as well as reducing traction on the road. Here are our top winter driving tips to help you and your family stay safe this season.

Top Winter Driving Tips

These tips can not only help you stay safe while driving this season, but they can help your car stay in top condition year-round so you’ll be prepared for whatever surprises the weather may hold.

Pack an Emergency Kit

Emergency kits are a good idea to have in your car at all times, but they can be especially handy during the winter. A well-stocked emergency kit can make a huge difference if you become stranded on the side of the road.

If you already have an emergency kit, all you need to do to get it winter-ready is add a few items to your emergency kit. These items may include:

• Snow shovel
• Ice scraper
• Salt
• Sand
• A blanket
• Boots
• Gloves

Not sure what else to pack in your kit? Check out our blog about what to have an emergency kit here»

How to Build Your Own Car Emergency Kit

 

Check Your Tires

When the thermometer starts to dip towards the freezing line, it’s a good time to check on your tires.

Look at the tread on your tires and use the ‘penny test’ to judge whether it’s time to get replacements. Turn the penny so that Lincoln’s head is facing you and place the end into the tread. If you can see the top of his head, then it may be time to get new tires.

Check the inflation on your tires. Your owner’s manual and the tires themselves will list the recommended PSI for the tires on your particular vehicle. Tires naturally lose some air with cooler weather, and underinflated tires can not only lead to uneven wearing, they can reduce the amount of traction and decrease the fuel efficiency of your vehicle.

Get a New Battery as Needed

The maximum life of your battery will vary depending on where you live. If you live in a colder climate, you can generally expect batteries to last 3 – 4 years. In warmer climates, such as Atlanta, most batteries last between 4 – 5 years.

If your battery is reaching the end of its lifespan, it may be a good idea to replace the battery before it gives out unexpectedly. Most mechanics and auto shops can test your battery to determine how much charge is remaining.

Drive to Fit the Conditions

When visibility is poor and conditions are slick, it’s usually a good idea to slow down and exercise more caution. Use your best judgment and stay safe during inclement weather!

Give yourself extra time to get to your destination if you expect heavy traffic or challenging driving conditions.

Change Your Windshield Wipers

On average, most windshield wipers last about six months before they need replacement. By changing your windshield wiper blades twice a year – once in the fall and again in the spring – you’ll always be ready for whatever the weather may hold.

Keep Your Gas Tank Above Half Full

Keeping your gas tank above the half full mark has a few different benefits. For one, you can prevent long term damage to your vehicle. Condensation collects in the gas tank during colder temperatures and may lead to rusting. However, if your gas tank is at least half full, the gasoline itself absorbs any excess moisture and prevents this problem from developing.

In case you get stuck in snow or ice, having a mostly full gas tank will make your wait for emergency services considerably more comfortable too. Sure, you may have to visit the gas station more often than usual, but you can rest easy that you’ll never run out of gas at an inopportune moment!

Have Your Car Inspected at T3 Atlanta

Although Atlanta doesn’t have the regular heavy snows of northern states, we do get unexpected ice storms now and again! Don’t let a preventable issue leave you stranded on the side of the road. Make an appointment with T3 Atlanta so you can rest assured that your vehicle is in top condition to handle any unexpected winter storm.