Author: John Palmer

Let’s be honest with ourselves – our cars are like our home away from home. We’re in the things an awful lot, commuting to and from work, running errands, taking our family out on their business. We spend most of our lives anywhere but our actual homes, but it’s only our actual homes that we seem able to keep in pristine condition. Perhaps these go hand in hand and make sense really.

But we all hate it when our cars begin to smell unpleasant, seem worn down and dirty, and downright not in new condition. This is why when we have to travel, we actually don’t mind luxuriating in a rental car – they always smell and feel like new, just like good hotel rooms do.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could make our own cars feel like new? Well, of course, a good body shop and detailer can actually do this, albeit for a hefty price. Well, most of us can’t afford that sort of thing, not with the ongoing costs of living, regardless the economic climate of any given time.

Thankfully, there are various things that can be done to achieve a more like-new look, feel and experience for your vehicle. A lot of them are very affordable, though we’ll be looking at a range of cheap to costly solutions, all of which are still cheaper than having restoration services done, by a landslide.

Cheap Fixes

• Cleaning and Organizing – This is the most obvious solution, but you’d be amazed at the improvement simple cleaning and organizing can do. You’ll feel like your car is so much roomier, and in such better condition by simply getting all the trash, clutter and dirt out. Vacuum, dust, and of course, any leather-like surfaces should get a fresh coat of Armorall or something similar. Complete this with a nice air freshener – new car smell is an obvious but great choice to achieve the desired effect.
• New Floor Mats – Floor mats get worn out and cultivate stains over time, and a lot of smells tend to breed in them. New floor mats can go a long way towards a newer-feeling environment.
• New Windshield Wipers and Clean Windows – Your windshield is contributing to your car’s aged, worn down vibe, even if you don’t realize it. You can think you have pristine visibility until you actually experience the pristine visibility fresh blades and wipers can provide. Further this with properly-cleaned windows – inside and out – with good glass cleaner and a non-abrasive chamois.
• Dent and Scratch Repair – You can DIY some of this, but it’s best to have dents and scratches dealt with by a proper body shop. Dents, where the paint isn’t damaged, can be fixed with paintless dent removal, too.
• Maintenance – Maintain a newer feel and handling by regularly changing your oil, topping off your fluids, and having a skilled mechanic do regular tune-ups and conditioning!

Slightly Costlier

• Seat and Carpet Shampooing – Having your seats and carpets regularly shampooed can keep them feeling and looking new. It’s not that expensive, but it’s not cheap either.
• Upgrade Your Systems – Modernizing your car’s systems, such as adding dash displays and mobile interfaces, new sound systems and so on, while frills, do make for a modern, newer-feeling vehicle.

Expensive

• Replacing Beat Up Components – Replacing beat up panels, fenders, bumpers, hub caps and other components obviously makes for a newer feel.
• New Paint Job – A new paint job will make your car look new – there’s a reason classic cars, restored, look so cherry.
• New Wheels – A smoother ride, which is like visibility in you noticing it only when you get it back – can be achieved with new wheels.

To learn more ways to get more life and a better experience from your vehicle, call us or fill out our contact form today!

One of the most common “accidents” we encounter with our vehicles, aside from perhaps the errant shopping cart in parking lots, is the flat tire. Tires are, for better or worse, designed to have some give to them. There’s a reason for this – flexibility allows tires to actually last longer, and handle rougher surfaces and terrain, as well as provide smoother rides. Wheels aren’t solid masses for very good reason, in other words.

Well, this can result in unfortunate incidents like tires rupturing suddenly (which at high velocities can result in a scary moment or two), or simply develop leaks or be punctured by something hard to see, like nails or, well, you name it. On top of this, they do just wear out over time, and bald tires are actually more dangerous than flats due to the lack of control and traction that results.

This means that sooner or later, you’re going to find yourself in a situation where you need to change a tire, because you’re stuck on the road, and can’t get to a mechanic. It’s understandable that a lot of people don’t know how to handle automotive things, especially people who live in suburban or metropolitan areas where affordable mechanic service is easily accessed under nominal circumstances. But, take heart, changing a tire is easy, and a skill you’ll be glad to have.

What You Need

To physically change the tire, all you actually need is a jack and a tire iron or heavy-gauge socket wrench of appropriate size. However, for safety purposes, you should also have a flash light, safety flares and probably a rain coat or poncho.

Getting to Safety

First, if you have a flat on the road, which is often the case (it happens where it’s the least convenient nine out of ten times), first, pull safely off to the shoulder, or into a parking lot or driveway if no shoulder or level ground is accessible.

Put your hazard lights on immediately, and if it’s night, light your flares for ten to twenty feet in a row behind the vehicle. This ensures that other traffic has plenty of time to avoid being dangerously close.

If it’s raining, you’ll be glad you packed the poncho or raincoat.

Using the Jack

First thing’s first – you need to get the weight off the tire, and get clearance to remove it. There are a couple kinds of jacks, but most of them simply use a pump action to lift the top part. There will probably be a lip underneath your car on each side, but if not, simply find a good, wide flat surface under there to brace it against. Obviously, lift it on the side where your flat is, and try to get it at least six inches if not more like ten, off the ground.

Removing the Flat

Next, you’ll want to remove the flat tire. First, the hub cap needs to come off. With some wheel designs, this just pops off. If it’s bolted by the lug nuts, which occasionally is the case, it’ll come off with the tire. Simple elbow grease (remember, lefty loosey, righty tightey), the tire iron will remove the lug nuts. If the hub cap came off first, place them in the concave bowl of the cap. If not, put them on the car seat. Do not lie them on the ground.

The tire will slide off at this point with relative ease, but be aware it’ll be heavy.

Adding the Spare/New Tire

The new tire will slide back in the way the previous one went on. Replace the lug nuts, tightening them as much as they can possibly go. If the hub cap snaps on, simply place it back.

The jack will lower either by turning the pump handle, or by removing it. It should lower fairly gently, but make sure you’re clear of the car before doing so.

Make sure you extinguish any flares before leaving.

Congratulations, you’ve changed a tire, and aside from a little physical strength being involved, it’s really quite easy, isn’t it? Consider having your new tire rotated once you get to civilization.

To learn more tips and tricks to save a world of grief, fill out our contact form today!

Ah, the road trip. Is there anything more iconic in western culture? While this was once a uniquely American tradition born of the post-war infrastructure and economic boom, today, all over the developed world, this has become a popular way to spend holidays, and among many young adults, a rite of passage and discovery.

Road trips can be a lot of fun, and you can still carry a piece of home in the form of your car. Unlike flying or trains, you can stop where and when you want, and choose your own path anywhere. With friends or family, it can be even more fun (or a nightmare if you have small children).

But, before you get out your road atlas (or should I say your GPS these days), and start packing coolers and luggage for your trip across the country, you need to stop and ask yourself a very important question: is your car road trip ready?

You may feel a bit dismissive of this question – your car runs just fine as you drive daily to work, on errands, and everything else. You put hundreds of miles on your car in a month’s time if you commute, and you take good care of it. It can handle a road trip surely.

It probably can. But do you really want to take that chance? After all, the mileage you put on your car normally is in short spurts of back and forth from home to other places. A road trip involves hours of constantly running the engine, stressing the systems, and wear on the tires. You can probably run pretty fast for ten feet, and easily run a mile in a week’s time in these short bursts. Could you run a mile in one go? Most of us would hang our heads and say no.

On top of this, if your car breaks down in your home region, while you may need a tow, civilization and your bed aren’t far away. When you’re states away, possibly in the middle of nowhere, well.

#1 – Fluids

First thing’s first, let’s make sure our fluids are all in proper order. Oil should be fresh and topped off, wiper fluid, transmission, and power steering fluids, coolant and antifreeze should all be fresh and full. Spare fluids should also be packed in the trunk or somewhere if your voyage is a particularly long one.

#2 – Wiper Blades

Unless you just replaced your wiper blades recently, or they really check out in a smear test, you will want to put fresh ones on. Who knows what kind of varied weather you will cross on your trip? You want visibility in all weather.

#3 – Tires

This one can be tricky because it depends on the season and your destination. If you’re going to a snowy place, such as up in the mountains, but it’s warm and sunny for most of the trip, you may need snow-ready all-season tires, which do exist. Carrying four extra tires is kind of impractical. Make sure your tires are new and ready for a long trip as well.

#4 – Brakes and Shocks

Test your breaks and shocks, to be sure everything rides smooth, and that your brakes are responsive but also not oversensitive. You will cross varied terrain and varied traffic conditions if your trip is long and varied. You will want your brakes and shocks/suspension to be optimized and ready for smooth and safe driving no matter what.

#5 – Battery

How old is your battery? If it’s a couple of years old, you should flat-out replace it. You should make sure it’s reliably holding a charge, and proper voltage from the alternator is sustaining a charge. Nothing is more horrifying than getting back in your car at a rest stop in the wilderness at night, and your car won’t turn over.

#6 – Tune-Up

A tune-up is always a good idea if you’re traveling far. This will address belts, timing, gaskets and other things that, while working fine for now, maybe ready to fail when the car is run hard for extensive distances.

#7 – Indicator Lights

Sometimes called “dummy lights” or “idiot lights”, these are various dash lights that say things like “service engine soon”, tire pressure indicators, and various fluid readouts. If you know nothing is wrong, but these lights are still going off, sensors may be out of whack, or bigger issues in need of a mechanic’s diagnosis may be present.

Safety and reliability are key to a safe and memorable road trip. These simple preventative measures take little time, little money, and can save you a world of grief. To learn more tips like this, fill out our contact form today!

Whenever winter is around the corner, you hear a lot about getting things ready for it. This maybe your home, yourself, or your car. And, it makes sense. Winter may be majestic, but it’s really hard on most manmade things, and on mankind as well. Ensuring safety on the road, and proper running in harsh conditions is a serious concern and well worth the time to see to.

But, with summer arriving, shouldn’t there be more than just removing your winter prep? Summer has its demands too, with the heat, the rain in many areas, and the dustiness of things when it’s dry. Are there optimizations to be made for summer driving?

The short answer to this is “absolutely”. However, this depends on your area, and what your summers are like. In temperate places, it’s partially rainy, hot, somewhat humid, but also very dusty at times. In desert climates, it’s scorching and very, very dusty. In tropical places, it’s muggy and rains daily. Thus, on top of the general things we’ll be looking at today, you may need to take some specific measures depending on where you live.

So, let’s go over a list of things you should do no matter what, to get your car ready for summer. Your car and your wallet will thank you in the long run!

Step 1: Tire Change

You put snow tires on your car for winter, if you have strong winters, right? Well, these tires aren’t hazardous to drive in summer, but it’s kind of pointless and wasteful. Summer tires exist, which handle the expansion of the air, and the hot road better, but more likely than not, you’ll probably be putting all-season tires on because few places have homogenous, predictable climates that span a whole season.

Summer tires are costly, and if you do this, it will mean you’re changing tires probably four times a year to account for places with more robust autumn or spring seasons. All-season tires are a good, sane solution for average car owners.

Step 2: Wiper Blades and Fluid

Be it rain, dust, bugs or all of the above, summer is a time when you’re going to get a lot of obtrusive crud on your windshield. A fresh set of wiper blades and topped-off fluid will have you adequately prepared for safe summer driving even if you live in the south, where love bugs are the nemesis of clean cars everywhere.

Step 3: Check Your Brakes

Whenever the temperature trends change, brake checks are a smart idea. Thermal expansion can affect brake fluid flow, brake shoes and internal mechanics. In the summer, this can make brakes jam or be unresponsive, or result in a loss of traction. The thing is, over-sensitive brakes can be as bad as insufficient ones. Meaning to just slow down, and resulting in a slam on your brakes, could get you rear-ended or even worse.

Step 4: Tune-Up

A long and grueling winter means a tune up is in order most of the time. This will ensure that everything is calibrated properly, nothing is coming undone, and nothing is worn down. Even if your vehicle felt like it was running fine before summer arrived, you’ll be working systems in summer that you didn’t.

Step 5: Coolant and Oil

When seasons change, a change out of oil is always a good idea, as you can ensure the levels are appropriate, temperatures haven’t degraded the oil, and you just have fresh oil altogether, which is always a good thing.
Your coolant is also important, especially in summer. You will have used less coolant actively during winter, even if you run the heat, and some of it may be lost to evaporation or leaks that the cold caused, which can lead to some serious issues once summer rolls around.

Step 6: Air Conditioning

Oh yes, check your air conditioning before it gets too hot. The systems could have jammed up during winter, or freon lost. You may be due for a recharge, or to have adjustments made (which will be remedied during the tune-up, if you know to point the need out).

You don’t want to discover on a sweltering day, that your AC was on its last legs, and has died on you.

Step 7: Wash Me

Finally, wash your car, to rinse off the grime of winter, and clean out your interior and swap out the winter mats for summer ones.
To learn more smart auto tips like these, fill out our contact form today!