SHE SAYS...

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 16

SHE SAYS...

Last week I remarked how tiring it can be to travel long distances in a noisy vehicle, but there is another fault that can cause equal tiredness and irritation during a trip, and that is vibration. Vibration often causes noise and rattles, too, and the results are unpleasant for both driver and passengers. Usually finding and fixing vibration is beyond the home mechanic, but often you do not have to look very far for the cause. The most usual cause is bad wheel balance. Some makes of car are very sensitive to out of balance front wheels, and if the wheels are not balanced there will be a twitching feeling at the steering wheel and the whole car will vibrate. Having the wheels balanced can even save you money, because when they are out of balance, wear on tyres and suspension parts often increases. Badly over-inflated tyres can also cause vibration by giving a very rough ride and if you have your own car you should make a point of dropping in to a garage at least once a week

to have the tyre pressures checked. In older cars wornout shock absorbers can also cause vibrations, or, even more likely, the floating motion which often causes children to be car sick. Too soft a ride and the slow bouncing or floating caused by faulty shock absorbers is probably responsible for more children being car sick than anything else. Researchers have found children prone to car sickness were always sick in a car which gave a very soft ride, but had no trouble in a sports-car which gave a firm, or even a hard ride.