How To Improve The Sound From You Car Audio System

An car audio system is an essential piece of kit that is needed to keep you entertained on the go. There are many different elements of an car audio system that you can improve. The first and most important thing is the upgraded all four speakers in your car. In the front, there are usually two speakers in the front doors making component speakers better suited. From the factory, these are made from poor materials usually paper and produce horrible distortion at high volumes. Upgrading them to an component speakers, will help improve the sound as they will contain an dedicated crossover. You can also improve your upgraded car speakers further, by adding an car amplifier onto them. Most people tend to install coaxial style speakers in the rear as they are more affordable.

Upgrading the car stereo from factory to aftermarket can can provide an great improvement on volume, you can improve the quality of sound by adjusting the car equaliser. This can provide you with an great level of treble and bass, as you can adjust the sound of each different parametric frequency. This gives you full control of how the different sounds your car speakers produce. Try look for an car headunit that has 8 or 10 band car equaliser and a built in digital sound processor. Android car stereos are ok if your on an cheap budget, but they have high distortion levels and don't really produce an clean sound. Pioneer, Kenwood and Alpine produce high sound quality and have great sound enhancing features.

Add an car subwoofer is always good if you don't have issues with taking up space in your trunk. Ideally, you can also install an small car underseat subwoofer, if space is an concern. An subwoofer comes in 10, 12 and 15 inches in size, there are two types of main enclosures in the car audio world. The ported enclosure is the best for gaining the most loudness from your car subwoofer, but the trade off is that the enclosure is twice the size as an sealed box. Sealed subwoofer boxes tend to provide an flat frequency response and more of an punch sound, with better sound quality. Sealed enclosures are also more compact and small making the ideal if you want to keep as much boot space as possible.

Are Cheap Android Units From Ebay Worth The Money?

android head unit

Over the years, android car headunits have been massively popular in the UK. We have fitted more of these than branded headunits from kenwood, pioneer, alpine and JVC. The main reason being price, android headunits are much cheaper to purchase and are all over Ebay and Amazon. You can get an decent android headunit for around £120 that supports wireless apple car play and has google maps, that supports bluetooth music playback. However, on the other hand an more expensive branded headunit will cost you around £300 or more with similar features. Today, I am going to help you make the decisions between an cheap Chinese unit and branded unit. 

Firstly, android units are cheap for an reason. The parts that they are made from are not long lasting, you be lucky to get an couple of years from an android radio without running into problems. I have seen android units randomly give up after an few years, from restarting to not booting up. The touchscreen on them is very slow and laggy. The overall quality and feel seems cheap, but they do get the job done and provide you with the features you need. They have sat nav, dab radio, you can download applications onto them use Spotify and waze with apple car play. In terms of good value for money, you can't really complain if you're on an cheap budget for an headunit upgrade.

Sometimes fitment can be slightly off with cheap android car stereos because when they cut the plastic from the factory it is not always finished off the right size. In my opinion, android headunits are ok for the price, but one thing to note is the sound quality is very poor and distorts very easily at high volumes. The have cheap internal amplifier chips inside and they are not very powerful. If you are serious about an car audio sound system, android headunits are not going to provide you with quality sound output. Even if you add an car amplifier to an android headunit, the output signal from the RCA outs are going to be weak and have lots of interference. 

If you have that extra cash, then save up for an branded unit. There are several makes that have an good reputation of providing good quality car audio products. Kenwood, Pioneer, Alpine, JVC and Sony provide the best sounding headunits in the market right now. They also provide an real warranty, so if anything does go wrong there is no hassle or worry about getting an replacement unit or to get it repaired directly by the manufacturer. Also they have much better sound quality, they have better DAC chips on the circuit board and well built amplifier to make your factory speakers sound better and high output RCA to provide an clean signal to multiple car amplifiers. Fitment is much better too and the screen responsiveness is very quick and not laggy.

Do I need a Car Equalizer? Waste of money and time?

An car audio equaliser used to be an 90s thing. This is because headunits of that generation usually had two main settings bass and treble, thats it. You could either turn the bass or treble up or down. This is why you could purchase an standalone car equaliser either an 5 band or an 11 band eq to be fitted in the dash. They even made some that fitted in an spare din slot with an visual spectrum. They have sliders that look cool that allow you to adjust the each frequency. This allows more control and better sound adjustments to help you get the sound you want out of your car audio system. They are an hassle to fit personally and its not always straight forward to find an space on your cars dash. 

So the car audio forum question today is, do you need an car audio equaliser? The answer is no. If you have an modern generation car headunit, it will have an built in parametric equaliser built into the software of it. Pioneer, JVC, Kenwood and Alpine have an built in car equaliser as an mandatory requirement. This will allow you to adjust the sound digitally. The concept is the same as having a eq built into the headunit or not and you are not going to gain better sound if you have an separate car eq installed. An kenwood car equaliser is more of an retro piece now. Yes they look cool, but in 2023 you don't really need one. 

What are Car Audio Capacitors Used For?

 

An car audio capacitor is often heard at car shows or found on the internet. It looks like an fascinating thing in the boot that lights up in bright colours. What does an power capacitor do? Today, you are going to find out. An power cap is basically and short term storage bank for your car amplifier, when your car amp requires power when the bass hits, the power capacitor will quickly release any energy stored. This can help with issues such as dimming headlights and other electrical problems. It can help, but only to an extent, the power cap has to be at least 5 farad or more to help and an true rated capacitor. Don't bother with 1 farad power caps, they don't hardly provide any benefit, which is why when people install them say power capacitors are an waste of money in the car audio world.

Power capacitors, also have an handy volt meter placed on them. This shows the overall voltage rating of your vehicles electrical system. This can help you troubleshoot if there is an problem with the car battery or alternator. If the voltage is above 13.00 V is usually perfect, anything lower than this is means your car electrical charging system is struggling to keep up with bass demands. If this is the case, then upgrade your car battery to an yellow top optima battery. This contains deep cycle technology that allows better performance for demanding car audio systems that contain multiple car speakers and car amplifiers. An bigger alternator and the big 3 upgrade can also be considered for car audio systems over an 1000 rms.

In order for an car audio power capacitor to actually provide some benefit, it has to be wired as close as possible to the positive terminal on the car amplifier with the thickest gauge wire you can possibly get. There is no good having an massive wire in the back, as this increase the time the charge to get dispensed to the car amplifier. Proper branded power cap, at least 5 farad, charged up properly with an bulb and mounted as close as possible to the amplifier, will make an difference. 

It is always important to do your research before buying an vehicle. Many cars have an hidden past that people try to cover up as best as possible. With doing an quick VIN search you will find all the information to help you make the right decision. VIN lookup can help you find an vehicles history in seconds.

What is an car audio equalizer? Do I need one?

 

In the early 90s, car audio equalisers had been very popular. There were many brands such as Kenwood, Alpine and Pioneer making high tech funky looking designs. There are two types of equalisers, an DSP based one that has an spectrum analyser, more of the expensive style, allowing you more control and precision geared towards optimal sound quality. Then you also get the cheaper based car equalisers that have just adjustable sliders or turntable knobs on them to control the frequency. In the old days, car stereos had been very basic, they used to usually have two settings. One is bass, the other one was treble and thats it no more other than that. So it was an must to add an equaliser to expand the level of control you can have, in terms of adjusting the bass, midrange and treble. 

I have used an car equaliser and it does provide better sound. But I feel that it is now more for looks than functionality, as almost ever single new generation headunit already has an equaliser setup from the factory integrated in. In an nutshell, an car equaliser contains different frequencies bands, can be from 5 bands all the way up to 11. If you have an upgraded car audio system, that consists of upgraded door car speakers, an car subwoofer and multiple amplifiers, adding an car audio equaliser will allow you to add more sound quality into your car. With an standalone, car equaliser, you also have figure out were you are going to mount it for easy access. If you have an spare DIN slot that is usually the spot or inside the glove box would also work well.

If you are an car enthusiast, the VIN decoder website that I use can come useful in many situations. It can help you check vehicle history as it does an VIN lookup. This is great if you want to find more about an particular vehicle.

How To Add Engine Coolant To Your Cars Engine

 

Engine coolant is very essential to be applied into an vehicles engine when it is low. It is basically coolant that is pumped around the cars system to keep things cool. When the engine is switched on it produces heat, engine coolant allows your engine to keep cooler during the summertime. It is essential that you actually use high quality coolant as your engine will benefit from it more. A lot of people always ask me, would water be ok? The answer is yes in an emergency situation it will do fine, however it doesn’t have special ingredients that prevent rust and corrosion. Overtime, if you keep using water the rubber pipe work will eventually give it. Another thing with using water as a replacement for actual coolant is that in the winter it can freeze up the pipes. Looking to find new cars or used cars at great prices? Then check out carsvansandbikes.com a great website that has a powerful search engine to find you the perfect car your looking for.

When to apply coolant in your engine is easy to identify. In most modern advance cars, a warning message will appear on the car’s dashboard. Also, if you notice that the engine temperature is increased recently, it may also be a sign your coolant is running low or a problem with your cooling system. Sometimes the sensor can fail which tells your cars ecu when the coolant is running low, so you should always top your car up with coolant every 3 months if your car is regularly driven, just to be on the safe side.

WARNING - Always ensure the engine is switched off and if you have been driving to allow the engine to cool for 20 minutes before topping up. The coolant will be hot inside the tank and the pressure built up when removing the cap can overflow and cause an mess in the engine pay. You will need to allow the engine to cool down before adding engine coolant to your car’s engine.

The location of were to apply the coolant of course will be underneath the hood your car.  Pop the hood of your car by pushing the release leaver found inside the car. Usually, it will be a large colour white tank that is labelled as 'Coolant'. If you are unsure then please refer to the owner’s manual provided with your car or check online. 

Turn the protective cap anticlockwise to remove it from the coolant tank. Start by applying coolant with a smooth flow and stop until you have reached the highest level. Secure the protective cap back on by turning it clockwise and make sure it’s nice and tight. Now that the engine coolant has applied your engine will now be much happier.

Do I need an car audio equalizer for my car stereo system?

Do you need to add a separate car audio equalizer into your car audio system? This is a question that our car audio website gets asked a lot so I thought I will make a dedicated car audio article about it. A car equalizer allows you to obtain full control of the different frequencies that are played through the car speakers, car tweeters, and car subwoofer in your vehicle's system. This allows you to get the best sound quality based on your listening preference from your favorite music. This allows you to add more bass, mid and treble.

Most aftermarket car audio headunits from Pioneer and Kenwood made from 2010 and onwards have an integrated digital car audio equalizer built into the stereo settings itself. This is sufficient for most and contains a wide range of bands, usually a minimum of 8 bands or more. Back in the 90s car stereos didn't have any equalization software built into them because of the limited amount of technology that was available. This is the main reason why old school equalizers were popular at the time. Not any more though.

The only reason to get an aftermarket car audio equalizer installed into your car audio system in this day and age is if the car stereo that you are using doesn’t have an equalizer or it doesn't have enough bands for you to fine-tune to your liking. An additional car equalizer to add to a car stereo will always look aesthetically better and you will get the satisfaction of tuning the crossover settings with pressing buttons and moving sliders. 

However, in terms of sound quality, there is no difference between the equalizer on your aftermarket car stereo if it contains the same amount of bands. However, if you want to install an old school car equalizer it certainly is worth it if you have the space to install it and if you see it for sale for a good price.

You also will need to use an external car amplifier if you want to add a car equalizer to your audio system. This is because it will need separate signals from each car amplifier, one for front and rear mids and highs and from the bass car subwoofer amplifier being fed into it using RCA cables. You will need to run three sets of high quality RCA cables down your car's interior. If you don't like the hassle of additional wiring, you might want to consider getting an upgraded headunit with a built-in parametric graphic equalizer.

An electric car is only as good as its charger. My personal favourite is the Besen Ev charger because its small and compact. It is made from high quality components and high quality copper wire has been used to provide the greatest level of conductivity. Ev charger manufacturer are important because you want to ensure you charge your vehicle safely.

How To Clean Car Spark Plugs

Its essential that you obtain quality car servicing to ensure minimal disruptions when going on long journeys with the family. Spark plugs are important because without them petrol engines will not be able to start. Pellon Tyres & Auto Centre is a family business that provide great deals on exhausts, batteries, servicing and repairs. So if you have any problems, its most likely the best garage in the Halifax area to provide to you with a great quality service. Now lets get to cleaning the spark plugs, this may save you a few quid buying new ones.

1) Open the bonnet by pressing the release hatch.

2) You will see usually four spark plugs in your engine bay in the middle area. You will require a socket wrench to remove them.

3) The best way to clean dirty old spark plugs is by using fuel injector cleaner or brake / carburettor cleaner spray. Attach the straw on the can and give the top part of the spark plug a good clean. 

4) Allow it to soak for 30 seconds and wipe dry some kitchen paper. All you go to do now is place them back into the engine and see if your start up of your engine has improved.

Its essential to clean your spark plugs before taking it to a car servicing MOT garage. But in most cases if you have never changed them in years, they would need replacing.