Fuses & Circuit Breakers
Description: The blade style fuse has become almost the universal standard for fuse applications today. The blade style fuse makes it much easier to visually determine whether a fuse is blown or not.
Purpose: Fuses and circuit breakers are designed to protect circuits in the event of electrical overload.
Maintenance Tips/Suggestions: Refer to your vehicle’s owner’s manual for specifics on fuse panel locations, fuses and their capacities. Today’s electrical systems have more than one fuse panel that can be found in different locations throughout the vehicle. Common fuse panel locations include the engine compartment and under the dash. Some carmakers have even made life easier by labeling fuse access panels with “FUSES”. Circuit breakers are often located in fuse/relay panels, but some components like the headlight switch and power window motors have built-in circuit breakers. Blown fuses or a tripped circuit breaker usually indicate more serious electrical circuit problems such as a short circuit or an electrical consumer that is using more current than the circuit is designed for.
Exterior Lighting
Description: Your car’s exterior lighting includes the headlights, parking lights, marker lights, fog lights (if equipped), turn signals, hazard flashers, brake lights, centre high mounted stoplight (CHMSL), taillights, back-up lights, and miscellaneous lamps.
Purpose: The exterior lights provide night vision and the ability to see in foggy conditions, as well as a means to signal other drivers about driving intentions and emergency situations.
Maintenance Tips/Suggestions: The operation if your car’s exterior lights should be checked at every oil change to ensure your safety. Each year, have the alignment of your car’s headlights checked to make sure they’re aimed properly. If one light doesn’t work in a circuit but the others do, the problem is probably a bad bulb. If all the lights are out in a circuit (except the headlights), the problem is probably a fuse, switch or other factor affecting the entire circuit. A bad bulb or turn signal flasher usually causes turn signal problems. A turn signals that flashes on one side, but not the other, is usually caused by a bad bulb on the side that won’t flash. If both sides don’t flash, and the bulbs appear to be OK, it’s likely that the turn signal flasher is faulty.
High Intensity Discharge Lights
Description: High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights, also known as Xenon lights, produce a bright light resulting from an electric arc inside a capsule full of Xenon gas. Many times, HID lighting appears to give off a bluish tint when the bulbs are lit. This technology produces a significantly brighter and whiter light than that of a standard halogen light. HID lights first began appearing on luxury cars in the late 1990s and are becoming increasingly more common as standard equipment.
Purpose: As a newer headlight technology, HID lights provide better visibility at night, which help to improve nighttime driving safety. HID lights also consume less electricity than their halogen counterparts, reducing load on the car’s electrical system.
Maintenance Tips/Suggestions: Check headlight operation frequently and always replace defective bulbs with another of the same exact type. During replacement, be careful not to touch the bulb itself as the oil from your skin can cause the bulb to fail. Cars with HID lights from the factory meet lighting safety requirements for that specific make, year and model.
Windshield Wipers
Description: Most cars use a windshield wiper system with an electric motor connected to a wiper transmission to move a pair of wiper arms and blades. Some SUVs, station wagons, and multi-purpose vehicles also have a similar system for the rear window, using a single wiper arm and blade. Some luxury vehicles use a pair of miniature wipers for the headlights. The wiper control switch has several modes to change wiper speed, and in many cases to turn the wipers on intermittently.
Purpose: Wipers, whether located on the windshield, rear window, or headlights, are used to clear rain, sleet, snow, and dirt.
Maintenance Tips/Suggestions: Check your owner’s manual to find the locations of the reservoirs. Inspect your wiper blades frequently. For best results, replace the wiper blades twice a year, each spring and fall. When worn or damaged, bad wipers can do more than impair visibility; they can damage the windshield.
During winter, you may want to consider the use of winter blades, which have a protective boot that minimizes the chances of the wiper arm and blade freezing. Never use your wipers to try and clear ice and snow after your car has been sitting. The wiper system was never intended to be an ice scraper and over-stressing the wipers can cause damage to the wipers, the wiper linkages and transmission, and the wiper motor
