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Answering All Your Car Questions

Safety rules to consider when doing car maintenance yourself

By Jakob Jelling

Autorized.com

Working on a car involves several risks which you should be aware of and prevent before actually starting the job. First of all, you should never try to work on the car and try to fix any part of it if you do not know what you are doing and how it works. One of the main things you should be very careful with when working on a car is the batteries, but there are many other things you should be careful about as well.

The car batteries contain an acid and emit hydrogen gas, which can be not only dangerous for human health but can also produce explosions. This way, it is mandatory that you do not take any ignition source, such as cigarettes, close to the car while working on it. Besides this, you should wear gloves while handling the batteries and try to avoid having any direct contact with them. Besides this, batteries can also give you shocks due to the amps they have, and you should disconnect the battery negative cable in order to avoid having problems due to this.

It is also highly recommendable that you maintain a fire extinguisher near the car and easily to reach while you are working on it. Some of the most combustible parts of the car are the engine and the batteries, so you should always be extremely careful while working on them and should not allow anyone who is smoking to come close to you or the car until you have finished.

Another important thing you should have in mind while working on the car is the existence of poison gases. Some parts of the car, such as the exhaust, contain poison gases which could be very harmful and even intoxicate you. Therefore, it is important that you avoid allowing these gases to enter your respiratory system by wearing a protection.

Also, while handling car cables it is very important that you are extremely careful on how you connect them. Car cables could cause voltage sparks and, in combination with the gases and other combustible elements it implies the danger of fire. This way, it is very important that in cases such as when you need to receive help from another car, you learn how to properly connect the cables before trying to do so as well as you maintain the car keys away from the ignition while working on them.