Make sure your car, truck or SUV steering and suspension pass the test this Richmond winter throws at you

Winter in Richmond is an abuser. It beats the heck out of the roads and they pass along the beating to your car, truck or SUV. These are good reasons to have your steering and suspension checked when winter is over – to see what kind of damage winter roads have done to your vehicle. However, you may not want to wait for spring to ensure your steering and suspension are in good working order.

Winter driving on the roads in and around Richmond comes with hazards, hazards created by all that ‘stuff’ winter throws at the roads. For instance, there’s ice and snow that make the roads slippery. A slippery road could cause an accident. But, while you may not get in an accident when you find the car slipping, you may slide into a curb or slide off the road where other issues can test the durability of your steering and suspension.

You’ll also come across blocks of ice on a Richmond winter road. Hit that block of ice hard and a weakness in your steering or suspension could break. You could lose control of the vehicle because of a broken tie rod. Even if you don’t completely lose the ability to steer the car, you could find that your ability to steer is impaired.

What should you or your auto repair technician check to ensure that you and your car, truck or SUV are safe on Richmond roads this winter:

Tires and brakes – though these aren’t necessarily part of the steering and suspension, they play significant collaborating roles
Shocks and struts
Coil springs and leaf springs and U-bolts
Tie rods, ball joints, control arms, sway bars, C.V. shafts and drive shafts, stabilizers, idler arms, Pitman arm, steering arm
All connections

Ensuring that your car, truck or SUV’s steering and suspension are in optimal working condition gives the parts a better chance of surviving the winter in good working order. It also ensures that you have the best chance of controlling your vehicle if winter conditions test your driving ability.

Comments

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

October 20 Hootenanny will benefit veterans with PTSD

Been to a Hootenanny lately? When you read that question did you ask, “What?” Well, if you have gone to a Hootenanny in a while, or if you don’t know what a hootenanny is, we have an event for Oct. 20 that will clear up either question. From 6 p.m. to Midnight, Saturday, Oct. 20, MC3, the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce business networking group, is helping to host an inaugural Veterans R&R Wild Horse Hootenanny at Beyond Stable Farm (11129 Rte. 176, Woodstock). The event will benefit Veterans R&R Operation Wild Horse. Operation Wild Horse serves veterans with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Working with the horses has proven to have an incredibly calming effect on the veterans. And, it’s good for the horses, too, rescued wild mustangs. This means that the hootenanny is for a very good cause. But, it’s also a lot of fun. So, what is a hootenanny? According to a Google search, a hootenanny is “an informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing.” The V...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog