What are the effects of hard accelerating and braking harshly on my car?
When we think of hard acceleration we tend to think of anti-social driving of modified cars, racing each other up and down the streets, but even accelerating and braking too fast out of a junction can affect our cars.
Hard acceleration
Cars are designed for a little hard acceleration and braking from time to time but if you're in the habit of pulling away from a junction quickly, revving your car as soon as you get in it or braking too hard then all of these things can have a number of long term effects on your car.
Aggressive driving makes your engine much warmer which in turn isn't great for it and can put extra strain on your engine's valves and cylinder heads, which is a costly repair.
Another thing to consider is that if you've just started your car and your engine oil isn't up to temperature it won't be in a position to protect things like your pistons from getting damaged and again this is a costly repair that can easily be avoided.
Braking too hard
Braking too hard also comes with its own problems. Harsh braking causes increased friction and stress on your brakes by heating them up too much and causing early wear on your pads and discs which drastically increases your stopping distance, which in itself can cause obvious safety concerns for you, your passengers and other road users.
This will also have an impact on your tyres and traction. As your car moves and comes into contact with the road, it causes friction and warms the tyres up which removes some of the treads, hence you have to make sure that you have a suitable amount of tread left to be road legal. If it becomes too low this can then lead to your tyre being bald and will need to be replaced sooner.
Both hard acceleration and braking can also give you a bulge on your tyre, which is the materials inside of the tyre wall becoming weak and overstressing the material. This is what causes your tyres to blow out and can be dangerous for everyone.
So we would always recommend not to pull away or brake too hard in order to keep your car at its safest and best performance instead of having to splash out on unnecessary repairs.