Performance Unlimited Blog

You know what they say about the weather in the Chicago area; if you don’t like it, wait a while, it will change. After a ruggedly cold winter, with more than frequent snowfalls, we’ve had a few nice spring days lately. This week, however, the Chicago area seems to have reverted to that cold and wet trend. Next week, who knows? One thing is for certain though; it will get hot at some point this summer. The heat may come sooner than you expect or later, but it will come. When the heat comes, your job is to be prepared. And that includes making sure your car is prepared. Preparing your car for a Chicago area summer means ensuring that the oil is changed and the cooling system is in working order. That’s essential in terms of avoiding unplanned and extended stops on the side of the road with your hood up and smoke rising from the radiator. But, what about your personal comfort? For personal comfort, the issue is air conditioning. When your car’s air conditioning works properly, ...

A car weighs close to two tons. When a two-ton object travels at speeds as high as 65 mph, bringing that object quickly to a stop is a significant undertaking. Most of the time, when stopping your car, you anticipate the stop well in advance. You apply the brakes with gradually increasing pressure until your car comes to a stop at an intended spot in the road. But, let’s imagine your west bound on Route 12 on a rainy Spring Grove afternoon approaching the light at Winn Road by Walgreens. The light is green and you’re doing 40 mph when someone heading north on Winn Road, passing through Spring Grove, runs the red light in front of you. It wouldn't matter if a Spring Grove squad car was watching from the side of the road, if you don’t stop in time, well, it could be bad. Without hesitation, your foot comes off the gas pedal and slams down hard onto the brake pedal. As your pulse races, an unseen chain reaction now occurs. Brake fluid puts pressure on the pistons in your brake ...

You turn south on Route 47 and soon you’re headed out of Woodstock. Once through Huntley, you’ll pick up the expressway and soon you’ll be miles from Woodstock in downtown Chicago. If you make the trip there or back to Woodstock during rush hour, you may find yourself in moving slowly in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Heavy traffic is aggravating and takes up your time. But, as long as your car is up to it, there’s no real problem. Your car is up to it, right? Few things are as bothersome as having your car breakdown on the highway, miles from your home in Woodstock. The solution, a solution that is almost infallible, is to stay abreast of maintenance. For instance, have you checked your brakes, suspension, steering parts, tires, lights, charging system and more lately? Another aspect of maintaining your car is to change the oil on schedule. Unless you go an incredibly long time without an oil change, or let your oil level fall dangerously low, that’s probably not something that will...

In an automotive research lab somewhere far from Johnsburg, they have a machine that bounces the suspension of a test car. Each corner of the machine acts independently to simulate the bumps and potholes you might experience driving down the road in Johnsburg. In fact, considering the winter just past, these are bumps and potholes you’re sure to feel. Using this test, the engineers can determine how the roads in Johnsburg will affect the suspension of your car. Then can determine how much driving before your suspension parts require replacement, considering the quantity and severity of bumps and potholes. They can even adjust the test equipment to simulate the roads in Johnsburg after a particularly harsh winter. When they adjust the equipment to increase the severity of the roads they find that the life of suspension parts is reduced.  From shocks to struts to tie-rod ends, bushings, springs and other suspension parts, adverse road conditions take a lot out of a car’s suspen...