Ural

A car engine produces a lot of heat when it is running, and must be cooled continuously to avoid engine damage. Read more

Mud and dirty water thrown up by the wheels is the principal cause of body rust on cars. If the underside is unsealed, keep underbody dirt to a minimum to reduce the chance of rust damage. Read more

Fitting a new disposable cartridge is a simple task, but you must make sure that the new sealing ring that comes with it is correctly fitted in its proper place, on the inner end of the cartridge. Smear its outer face with clean engine oil. Read more

Damage to a tyre sidewall or carcass can make the tyre useless, even though the tread is hardly worn. A major cause of damage to wheels and tyres is debris on the road - such as pieces of broken silencer and objects dropped from trucks and lorries. Read more

When you take the wheels off to inspect the tyre walls, clean the wheels thoroughly and look closely for cracks starting around the stud holes, and at the joints between the rim and centre. Read more

Two aspects of safety at the wheel are covered in this article. First, it is important to adopt the right driving position and to make sure that the seat is positioned correctly in relation to steering wheel and pedals. Second, a car's safety features — items like mirrors, safety belts and head restraints — need to be used properly. Read more

To be an advanced driver you need to become a skilled observer. Good powers of observation, which demand practice and thought, can keep you out of trouble in 90 per cent of all potentially dangerous incidents. You need to absorb all the information you see around and ahead of you when you drive, and select what is useful. All drivers do this to a certain extent, but the real value of skilled observation does not come until it has been developed into an art. Just as a ship's master reads his chart in difficult waters, you must read the road ahead so that you can anticipate potential dangers. Read more

Twenty-five years ago it was considered quite adventurous for a British driver to take his car on holiday on the continent, but nowadays over a third of Britain's motorists have experienced the pleasures of driving abroad. If you keep off the busy trunk roads, autoroutes, autostradas and autobahns, you can follow quiet highways which carry much less traffic than you usually find on our crowded island. There is no reason why a competent driver should not feel perfectly confident when driving in an unfamiliar country, on the wrong side of the road. Even busy cities such as Paris and Rome — with their reputation for devil-may-care traffic — should hold no fears as long as you follow the basic rules of advanced driving. Read more

The importance of adopting the correct driving position was outlined in Safety at the Wheel . To recap, you should sit neither hunched over the steering wheel nor too far from it. You should be comfortable, but not too relaxed. You should hold the wheel with your hands at the 'ten-to-two' or `quarter-to-three' position, and your arms should be bent to an angle of between 90 and 120 degrees. With your hands correctly positioned, you are best placed to make a sudden yet accurate and controlled movement of the steering, should a violent change of direction be demanded. It is impossible for a driver with both hands close together gripping the '12 o'clock' part of the wheel, or one fondling the wheel with one hand at '6 o'clock', to cope properly with an emergency manoeuvre. Read more

Considering the importance of tyres from the safety point of view, it is surprising that so many motorists seem to take them more or less for granted. Many drivers fail to check their tyres often enough for pressure , damage or wear. Although tyres have been developed by manufacturers to the point where they offer remarkable levels of grip on dry and wet roads and are extremely resistant to punctures, their qualities are compromised if they are under-inflated, badly worn or damaged. As these four footprints of tread are your only contact with the road, it is vital for everyone's safety that your tyres are in good condition. Read more