Performance Unlimited Blog

There are mechanisms of your car that worthy of your attention. You want to know the car will start, even in the dead of winter. You want the engine to run and operate efficiently and reliably. You want the brakes to stop the car, especially in a panic situation. But, your shocks, struts and suspension – what’s the big deal? As long as you can drive, who cares if the shocks, struts and suspension are a little spongy? As long as you get where you’re going – that’s what matters. Even if your car’s shocks, struts and suspension are a bit stiff, what’s the worst that can happen – you’ll spill a hot cup of coffee from a fast-food restaurant and hire a lawyer. The shocks, struts and suspension are what you’ve identified as ‘convenience’ parts, right? Wrong. The shocks, struts and suspension actually play several crucial roles in your car. They’re far from superfluous. What’s so important about the shocks, struts and suspension? First of all, they soften the ride. Yes, this will h...

Remember that new car smell? Or, maybe your car wasn’t new when you first bought it. Either way, hopefully, it’s treating you well. Of course, if you’re treating your car well, there’s a good chance it will do the same for you. Are you having the oil changed regularly? Proper and timely maintenance is essential to getting the most out of your car. Of course, there is that ‘intangible’ – unexpected problems that were born on the drafting board or in the manufacturing process. You might say that some problems are built right into the car. They may remain hidden for a while but, usually, at some point, they come to light. When they do, the result is what we call a recall. It’s essential that you take care of your car if you want it to take care of you. If you maintain it properly, you can get a couple hundred thousand miles out of a car without any serious problems. Yes, you’ll have to do some repairs during that time. After all, tires and brakes will wear down until you need to repl...

One of the great things about a car is that you can go places. You can go to the store. You can go a professional baseball game, which is not a bad idea this year, if you’re a Cubs fan. You can go out to dinner and a show. You can even go to Indiana, if you can think of a good reason to go to Indiana … Hmmm? This time of year, a great place to go is to the apple orchard. At an apple orchard, you can pick your own apples. A lot of apple orchards in and around McHenry County have other things you can pick, too. For instance, you can pick red raspberries through Nov. 15 at Grace Farm Studios (2719 Franklinville Road, Woodstock). But, if your heart is set on apples, not only is this a great time of year to pick apples, but there are a lot of varieties of apples to pick. Here are some of the varieties of apples you may want to pick: Honeycrisp Ruby Jonathon Cortland Sweet Sixteen Crimson Crisp Golden Delicious Red Delicious More  When you pick your own apples, you g...

You’re driving down the road thinking about how nice it will be to drop your son off at your folks so you and your husband can finally have that overdue romantic weekend getaway you’ve planned for … how long has it been? Suddenly, you notice a piece of lumber in the road that probably fell off a truck. Unfortunately, you don’t have time to avoid it so you go right over it, gritting your teeth and hoping it doesn’t damage the car somehow. You feel the jolt as the right-front tire passes over the wood. You feel it again when the rear tire takes its turn. You think, “That wasn’t so bad,” and you’re about to go back to those happy thoughts when you hear this loud rumble. For a moment, you think that, whatever it is, it will go away but it doesn’t. It slowly dawns on you, “That’s my car making that noise.” There is a good chance that, what happened is that, as you went over the piece of lumber, one of the tires kicked it up into the air – only it couldn’t go too high because the bottom ...

Try to imagine driving your car without shocks or struts. One thing you would probably never do is drink a cup of hot coffee while driving again. Without those shocks and struts, every time you hit a bump or a dip in the road the car would start bucking like a ship tossing in rough seas. You’d wear as much coffee as you’d drink. Of course, that scenario assumes you’d still have coil or leaf springs built into the suspension. The point is that the shocks and struts complement the work of the springs. The springs are designed to absorb the rough spots on the road. The shocks and struts help but they also keep the springs under control. This is why, when the shocks and struts start to wear out you’ll notice that, when a bump starts the suspension swaying, the sway – the rocking of the car – continues longer and longer. When the shocks or struts are completely worn out, you’ll also find that those coil and leaf springs will not keep the suspension from ‘bottoming out.’ What does it m...