How to Make an Old Car Safer
- Get a New Set of Tires. Your tires are the only thing in contact with the road. Use the penny test to make sure the tread is not worn out.
- Improve Your Handling. A sway bar can reduce body roll and tune out oversteering and understeering. Shocks and struts should be replaced after 50,000 miles.
- Check Your Brakes. Several parts of your braking system can fail, including your brake lines, brake hoses, brake pads, and brake rotors.
- Add a Backup Camera. Backup cameras will be required in all new cars as of 2018. Installing one in an older car can reduce backover crashes and improve safety.
- Upgrade Your Headlights. Restoring hazy headlights can improve nighttime driving, as can upgrading your bulbs to high-end halogens.
When choosing new tires, make sure they are rated for the type of weather you expect to drive in. If you tend to get a lot of rain or snow, you will want tires with special features to handle those conditions. All-season tires are a more affordable option if you experience a variety of weather conditions; it’s better having them than switching between summer and winter tires.
Improve Your Handling
A sway bar (also called an anti-roll bar or stabilizer bar) is a common part of car suspensions that helps reduce the car’s body roll around sharp corners or on irregular terrain. By increasing the stiffness of the suspension and forcing each side of the vehicle to raise or lower at similar heights, the sway bar allows the vehicle to hug the road around turns and keep the car level on uneven terrain. A sway bar can also improve your handling by tuning out oversteering and understeering. Many cars already come with sway bars, but if your old vehicle does not have one, you may want to consider installing it.
Shock absorbers and struts keep your car from bouncing or shaking, swaying during turns and lane changes, and becoming unstable when braking. If your car has more than 50,000 miles on it, it may be time to replace your shocks and struts. You can also upgrade your current shocks and struts to higher-performance models to further improve handling.
Check Your Brakes
Handling is an important part of a car’s performance, but even more important is a car’s ability to stop when you need it to. Several parts of your braking system can fail, including your brake lines, brake hoses, brake pads, and brake rotors.
A rusty brake line needs to be replaced immediately or it could fail. If you live in a snowy climate where they salt the roads, you need to be extra careful to check your brake lines regularly. Brake hoses are generally made of rubber and won’t rust, but they can get old and crack. These should be replaced before they are worn out.
Worn-out brake pads will generally alert you that there is a problem by making a noise. This means the friction material has worn off. Brake pads should generally be replaced every 50,000 miles, but they could need replacement more frequently if you ride your brakes a lot or drive in mountainous areas. Brake rotors need to be replaced or resurfaced when they become warped or develop grooves.
Add a Backup Camera
In the United States, 50 children are backed over by cars every week because the driver could not see them. Unfortunately, many drivers are unaware that every vehicle, no matter the size, has a dangerous blind spot immediately behind it. Backup cameras eliminate this dangerous blind spot and may significantly reduce the number of backovers and save lives.
As of May 2018, it will be mandatory for any new cars sold to come with a backup camera. If you have an older car, installing an aftermarket backup camera is an important step to make your car safer. Backup cameras are affordable and come with a variety of optional features to fit your needs.
Upgrade Your Headlights
Do the headlight lenses on your old car look yellowed and hazy? A hazy lens isn’t just unattractive; it can also be a safety issue. Luckily there are kits you can use to clean your lenses and get rid of the haze. This will allow your headlights to light up the road better at night.
After you’ve upgraded the lenses, you can look into upgrading the bulbs themselves. High-end halogen bulbs can improve your nighttime driving visibility and are a great upgrade for your primary driving headlights. LEDs are brighter and less of a strain on your electrical system than halogens, but their throw distance is shorter, which makes them less ideal for your main headlights. However, LEDs could be a good fit for your brake and fog lights.
Make Your Old Car a Safe Car
You want to protect your family, so don’t let them get into an old car that hasn’t been checked for safety. Investing in a few safety additions can create safer conditions for the driver and others around them. By making a few simple upgrades, you can make your old beater more reliable and safer.
