Performance Unlimited Blog

A limousine or a tow truck can get you off the road Another McHenry New Year’s Eve is almost upon us. For many, the New Year’s Eve party is the highlight of the year. Even those who are generally more socially inhibited are liable to let their hair down on New Year’s Eve. It’s important to ensure that your free-wheeling approach to the holiday doesn’t end in an undesirable fashion. How could all that fun end unpleasantly? Most people are forgiving of a little social faux pas. That’s not really the problem. The way that New Year’s Eve could end badly is if it involves rotating red and/or blue lights. And the connection between flashing lights and the New Year’s Eve party is alcohol. This isn’t to say that folks shouldn’t drink but there needs to be some consideration given to how transportation will play a part in this equation. For those people who don’t imbibe in the consumption of alcohol often, this may require a little more planning. For others, hopefully, they’ve already wor...

With Christmas rolling around again, you’re going through that annual dilemma of finding a gift the car lover in your life will appreciate. That’s not an easy question to answer. You’ve bought them the all the car cleaning tools, appliances, soaps, waxes and more you can imagine. You’ve bought them shirts with the make and model of their favorite car broadly silkscreened across the chest. Last year, you bought them a clock with the make and model that is now on the wall in the garage. What’s next: bedding with the little logos of the make and model of their favorite car? How about something different? How about a selection of DVD or Blue Ray movies that no car lover could resist? Not just on Christmas Day, but any day of the year, they can pop in a movie and enjoy the cinematic experience that fits their passion. Here is a selection of some cinematic gift ideas for car lovers: “Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans” (2015 – story about the actor’s experience in the world’s ol...

We’ve already had one major winter storm in McHenry this winter. Weather, such as this, seriously tests the integrity of your car’s weather strips. The weather strips are around your windows and doors. If they’re failing, cold air and moisture will get in. The cold air is a nuisance in a McHenry winter when you’re trying to stay warm in your car. Who wants a cold draft on the back of their neck while driving down Rt. 120? Your car’s heating system may already struggle to keep the car’s cabin warm. Leaking weather stripping makes the heating system work that much harder. Leaks may even make it impossible for the heating system to keep up. That’s especially true when winter really throws its worst at us this winter. If the weather stripping is a problem when the temperature is just below freezing, how will the weather stripping do when the temperature drops below zero. Imagine a night when its 12-degrees below and the wind is howling. Leaking weather stripping is like an open windo...

Many of the parts on a hybrid car are the same as on any other car. The following mechanical systems work the same way and do the same jobs: Brakes Steering Suspension Lights Transmission Internal Combustion Engine Exhaust Cooling and Heating Fuel These parts are pretty much the same on a hybrid car as they are on a car with only a conventional internal combustion engine. The auto repair technician you can trust with keeping your non-hybrid car reliably running can do the same for your hybrid car. However, the hybrid car has an additional engine - an electric engine. You want an auto repair technician who is qualified to work with a hybrid car, too. They need to know how to work with the electric motor, the power electronics controller, the onboard charger, the electric generator, and the battery bank. When you bring your hybrid to an auto repair shop, make sure they have a technician who isn't giving the good-old-college try with a hybrid car; you want someone ...

A reliable car, truck or SUV is worth giving thanks as Thanksgiving rolls into Johnsburg November 22. On this day, if you’re traveling to the home of family members, you want to know your vehicle will get you there without any problems. Or, if family is driving to your place for Thanksgiving Dinner, you want to know that they’ll arrive without their car, truck or SUV breaking down on the road out in the middle of nowhere. Of course, reliable transportation is a good thing anytime you leave your Johnsburg home. Whether you’re driving near or far, you want to know your car, truck or SUV will get you there, and then bring you back home. Breaking down miles from home is a frightening prospect. Breaking down close to home is, at the very least, a major headache. Your car, truck or SUV may take you where you want to go so reliably that you’ll begin to take it for granted. The problem is that your vehicle is reliable right up until the day that it isn’t. Usually, your car, truck or SUV ...

With winter blowing into town, and it has come to McHenry with a sudden flurry, it’s time to get your car, truck or SUV ready for the season if you haven’t done so already. But, what if you have a fleet of vehicles to maintain? Getting your fleet of cars, trucks or SUVs ready so they can bear the winter without a problem is critical to the success of your company and the safety of your employees. You want to make sure the battery and charging system is working properly. The last thing you want is to have drivers or sales staff sitting at their last stop waiting for roadside service to come and jumpstart their vehicle before they can go to the next stop. You want to check the brakes. With slippery McHenry roads in winter, good brakes are essential. Poor brakes could result in accidents. Whether involving collisions with other vehicles or with trees or objects along the road, people can get hurt in accidents. Property also gets damaged in accidents and that can include more than you...

How will you get the car to and from the auto repair shop? How do you fit it all into your schedule: work, participation with groups you belong to, getting the kids to and from their activities? And, in the midst of all that, the car needs work. Maybe the car, truck or SUV needs regular maintenance. Maybe your vehicle needs repairs. Whatever the reason, when you need to get the car into the shop, it’s a pain fitting it into your schedule. Picture an average day: you have to get the kids to school first thing in the morning. Then, you need to get to work. After work, you have to stop by the store and pick up a few things for dinner before picking the kids up from school. Then, your daughter has karate and your son has scouts. You’ll drop off one, and then the other, before heading back to the house to prepare dinner. Hopefully, your spouse can pick the kids up and bring them home for dinner. But, then the phone rings; they’ll be late and you have to pick the kids up. Think about...

This isn’t the first time we’ve addressed the question of winter traction when driving on McHenry roadways. But, if you’ll forgive the redundancy, we think it’s worth bringing up again. When the snow flies, when rain and sleet freeze on the street, maintaining traction between your car’s tires and the road is challenged, to say the least. Unless you’re planning to move to a warmer climate, somewhere considerably warmer than a McHenry winter, there isn’t much you can do about the condition of the roads. What you can do is ensure that your tires have the best chance of getting a grip when the roads are slick. Traction starts with tread. Tread refers to the gaps in the face of your car’s tires. The tread is at its maximum the day the tires are first installed on your car. As you drive, day after day, the face of each tire wears away little by little. Over time, though you won’t see the difference daily, the tread will disappear. Literally, if you drive on the tires long enough, your...

For children, Halloween is a wonderful time of year: the costumes, the candy, more candy, the parties, more candy. All that fun, mixed with all that candy, may make children a tad hyper. Parents don’t mind, too much, since the hyper is generally followed by the crash where Wonder Lake children then sleep the sleep of zombies and vampires, not to mention X-Men and Princesses. But, for drivers, Halloween is a serious challenge. While Trick-or-Treating, children get excited. They’re anxious to get to the next house and some more candy for their bag of treats. They’re not always as careful as they should be when approaching the road. In fact, with children on both sides of the street, the event begins to take on the atmosphere of a party where, somehow, the rules of the road don’t seem to apply. For drivers, those rules certainly do apply. It’s always important for drivers to watch out for children darting into the road. But, on Halloween, the potential that a child will do so in front...

With the approach of winter, it’s time to winterize your car. You should have the charging system checked, the cooling system, change the oil, check your tires and make sure they have enough tread to propel you through the snow of another McHenry winter. But, one of the most overlooked things to do when winterizing your car is to check your wiper blades. Winter is hard on a car. But, it’s also hard on driving. Driving is more difficult in the winter because those McHenry roads are often slippery with water, ice and/or snow. Therefore, the aforementioned treadwear in your tires is a critical factor. You want tires that get a good grip on the road even in adverse conditions. You need good tires to help your car get going on snowy and/or slippery roads. Even more important, you need tires that can grab the same roads when you need to stop. The problem is knowing when you can go, and when you need to stop when reaction times are extended by road conditions. And, knowing when to stop ...

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...

Living in the Wonder Lake area, we’re all familiar with the idea that driving on snow and ice is slippery. But, have you considered that autumn leaves can also create a slippery surface for drivers. With ice and snow, we know that, if the temperature drops, we can expect moisture on the pavement to create potential hazards. It comes with the territory. Wonder Lake drivers have experienced winter driving at its worst for decades. The truth is that they have also experienced the slippery effects of autumn driving for just as long, too. Fallen leaves create a blanket on surfaces where they fall, including the street. While they’re not so bad when it’s dry out, once the leaves get wet, drivers are driving on foreign matter that has dual slipper surfaces: on the tops of the leaves and on the bottoms of the leaves. To drive safely on autumn leaves, slow down when you see a carpet of leaves on the road where you will pass. That’s particularly true if the leaves are wet. And, by wet, it ...

When you drive the rural roads of Bull Valley or beyond, you may play the radio, get into the groove of your favorite tunes, but have you lowered the radio long enough to listen to your car? Your car may have something to say that you want to hear. No, this isn’t to suggest that, like the 1960s sitcom, ‘My Mother the Car,’ your car can actually talk to you. It’s not even a reference to a SIRI-like voice from the GPS mode of your smartphone synced to your car. This is another language. It’s the language of the noises your car can make – some normal and some indicating a potential problem. The other day, Rich was driving down Bull Valley Road. As he approached N. Cold Spring Road. Suddenly, he felt a repeated thump in the back of the car. He turned the radio down and heard a screeching noise. He could feel a pull in the steering wheel to the right and had the impression that the passenger-rear wheel was about to fall off the car. After turning past the intersection headed eastbound...

Don’t worry about winterizing the car now; there’s plenty of time. The official start of winter isn’t until Dec. 21. That’s almost three months away. Rather than worry about winterizing the car, think about autumn activities you enjoy every year in and around McHenry, such as an excursion to the apple orchard or to the pumpkin farm. Of course, those are indications of how things could get busy later. If you consider the possibility that, with the approach of the holidays, you may want to take care of things, such as winterizing the car, at your convenience now. Halloween isn’t so bad but then there’s Thanksgiving. Are you having family over to your McHenry home for Thanksgiving dinner? Maybe you’re going to their place. In either case, you’ll need to prepare – prepare a meal if they come to you or prepare a dish if you’re visiting them. Then there’s Christmas. Christmas means decorating the house, putting up the tree, shopping for presents, baking, preparing a Christmas dinner wort...

To some degree, you shouldn’t be surprised if your car is smoking. It’s part of being a car. So, the answer to the question, “Is it okay for your car to smoke?” is ‘yes,’ but with conditions. In other words, a certain amount of smoke, and a certain type of smoke is normal. But not all smoke produced from your car is okay. What kinds of smoke can you expect from your car without alarm and what kinds of smoke are bothersome? Here are some considerations: Exhaust smoke from the tailpipe: A certain amount of smoke from the tailpipe is normal. When you start the car, you may see a cloud of smoke coming out of the tailpipe, but it should quickly dissipate down to a nominal level. On the other hand, if big clouds of white smoke pour out of your tailpipe for an extended period, this is cause for alarm. You should stop the car, and shut off the engine, as soon as possible. You may have a bad head gasket or something else allowing coolant into the cylinders. The car can overheat and be dam...

April is National Car Care Month. Awesome. You don’t have to worry about the car the rest of the year, right? No, that’s not true. If you care about your car, every month is Car Care Month. Of course, you can put car care on the back burner until next April. You could also find yourself paying for repairs that were avoidable with a little automotive maintenance. You might even find yourself on the side of the road wishing you hadn’t waited until April. Car care refers to a simple equation: do you want to maintain your car and drive with confidence that nothing will break or cause you problems, or do you want to take your chances? In truth, it’s not just a question of playing the odds. If you’re not properly maintaining your vehicle, your vehicle is wearing at a faster rate. For instance, if you don’t change your engine oil on schedule, the life of your engine is shortened as a result of your negligence. The same holds true for other parts of the car. For instance, if you don’t ...

Rex Towing is ready to come out and help if you have a breakdown in the McHenry area. But, you should still know what to do if your car, truck or SUV breaks down. If you maintain your car, truck or SUV, it’s far less likely to happen to you. Instead, you’ll see other people with their hoods up sitting on the side of the road. But, even if you take good care of your vehicle, it’s possible that something could break. You could find yourself on the side of the road with a car, truck or SUV that has broken down. A vehicle that breaks down doesn’t always do so where it’s convenient. If your car does break down, if you’re lucky, you’ll find yourself on a side street where the speed limit is 25 and the traffic is light. But, it’s at least as likely, and probably more so, that you’ll break down where the speed is considerably higher and the traffic much heavier. It’s important to know what to do if your car, truck or SUV breakdown The first thing to do, if your vehicle breaks d...

OK, the title has kind of let the topic out of the bag, hasn’t it? You have auto insurance – the kind of insurance you need if you have an accident or someone steals your car, truck or SUV. You have homeowners insurance or renters insurance. You may have insurance for your business. But, do you have insurance for your engine. Yes, there are companies out there offering auto repair insurance but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about oil changes as insurance for your engine. Engine insurance starts with timely oil changes Engine oil is the lifeblood of your car, truck or SUV’s engine. It reduces friction, which reduces heat, and it carries away heat. It also gathers up little bits of dirt and metal fibers and carries them away so that your oil filter will remove them from the engine’s lifeblood – engine oil. Considering how important engine oil is to the vitality and durability of your engine, the only question is the cost of this form of engine insurance. Tha...

So, you own a 4X4. There are some great advantages to having two extra wheels to drive you through mud and snow. They give you additional traction climbing hills and can improve control on ice and snow. Additionally, a 4X4 is F-U-N, fun. As much as a 4X4 offers the potential for driving fun, on McHenry roads or off, it also offers the potential for additional problems. Mechanical systems can break, and additional mechanical systems offer additional things to break. As with anything and everything mechanical, service and maintenance offer the best way to stave off problems. If you take care of your car, you have less chance of breaking down. If you have a 4X4, timely maintenance can help you to avoid breakdowns. Still, breakdowns can and will happen. If you have a 4X4, here are some of the most common problems you may face: You could have issues with the suspension: This is particularly true if you take your 4X4 offroad but can also occur with normal driving. Bolts, shocks, tie...

Every time Marty Wolf, played by Paul Giamatti in the 2002 movie Big Fat Liar, hit the brakes, the horn honked and continued to honk until he took his foot off the brake pedal. This leads to a fender-bender and to an irate monster truck driver crunching Wolf’s Jaguar XK Leaper convertible. If every time you hit the brakes while driving down Rt 120 in McHenry, the horn honked, you’d find that annoying. It’s safe to say that you’d even find it embarrassing. Most folks on the road around you wouldn’t like it at all. But, your horn doesn’t have to honk for you to experience the same feelings. Sometimes, the brakes will squeal so loudly, and all on their own, that you feel as though everyone is looking at you whenever you stop. When your brakes squeal, it is embarrassing. But, more than that, it could indicate a problem with your brakes. You need to bring the car into a professional and have the brakes checked, not just for your vanity but also for your safety. Brakes shouldn’t excessiv...

If you’ve driven a car long enough, you’ve probably heard some of these maintenance tips from the grapevine. Some are true, some have a touch of truth and some may be downright wrong. Here, as a means of separating fact from fiction, are some of the more common auto repair maintenance myths debunked. Myth: You need to change your engine oil every 3,000 miles. Truth: You’re better off checking your Owner’s manual and following the prescribed frequency for oil changes. This can also change if you use synthetic oil, which generally doesn’t require changing as frequently. Myth: You shouldn’t worry about changing your oil filter every time you change the oil. Truth: The oil filter is an inexpensive part. Considering the benefits of a clean oil filter, it doesn’t make sense to skimp when changing the oil. The oil filter’s job is to clean particles out of the oil. Those particles can cause damage and wear to your engine. A new filter will do a better job of keeping the dirt out of yo...

You weren’t always one of those conscientious auto owners. It was the luck of the draw that you would remember to bring the car in for an oil change within the recommended number of miles or time. And you never bothered to check the oil. But, the last time you had the car in for some work they told you that it was down more than two quarts of oil. The auto repair technician gently, but emphatically, warned you that driving without enough engine oil could do serious damage to the engine, especially on these hot days of summer. You got the hint and heartily agreed when the technician suggested it’s time for an oil change. Since that time, you’ve dutifully checked the oil every time you fill the gas tank. In the process, you’ve noticed something that’s disconcerting; your oil is changed from a translucent golden syrup to an opaque, dirty black. Certainly, that’s not good. Actually, it is. It’s good, that is. It means that the oil is doing its job. The oil is carrying away particles t...

You turn onto Crystal Lake Road on the way to First Midwest Bank in McHenry when you notice that the car doesn’t seem to have the same pep when you step on the gas pedal. You’re headed South on Green Street on your way to jh Events and Flowers on Municipal Drive when the engine coolant sensor comes on in your dashboard. You’re driving east on Route 120 bringing your pet to Riverside Animal Clinic when the engine starts running rough. All of these problems and more could have something to do with a sensor gone bad. Computers play an increasingly large role today in the operation of the vehicles we drive. The computers make adjustments based on feedback they receive from numerous sensors built into the vehicle. You may have as many as 30 sensors in your vehicle but probably as many as 12, unless you drive an older car – a significantly older car. When sensors go bad the information they provide is often wrong. Operating on bad info the computers fail to call for the proper adjust...

As with many technical advancements, they’re a blessing and a curse. Key fobs are a wonder when your arms are full and you need to open the car doors, trunk or rear hatch. It’s also nice, on a stormy day when you forgot to lock the car doors that you can lock them while looking out at the car from the warmth and comfort of your home or office. But, they’re a frustration when you find yourself pressing the button repeatedly and nothing happens. It’s just no fun when a good key fob goes bad. You may not think about it but there is a small battery inside your key fob that energizes the device and connects it to the door-lock mechanism in your car. Typically, that connection is good to about 50 feet. As with any battery, the energy within is not infinite. Yes, car batteries can work for years. But, they are constantly recharged by the car’s alternator, or so we hope. The little battery in your key fob will last until all of the energy inside is used up. How do you know when your car ...

What if a little reminder in the car could save your child’s life? So far this year, there have been 18 cases in the U.S. where a child died of heatstroke after a parent left their child in the car. It’s June and that’s right on pace for the figures provided by the National Safety Council. The NSC’s figures show that, on average, 37 children die of heatstroke when left in a car each year. It’s easy to look at these tragic instances as cases of parental neglect or, in some cases, even abuse. But, the reality of these cases happen because, in the hustle and bustle of their life, a busy parent forgets that their child is in the car seat behind them. You may ask yourself, “How could someone forget their child like that?” No doubt, heartbroken parents have asked the same thing about themselves. For a parent, coming to terms with the loss of a child is bad enough. When that loss is straddled with a sense of guilt it can be emotionally destructive. A simple reminder could save a ch...

Better shops offer pick-up and drop-off service “I know I have to bring the car into the shop but how am I going to get home when I drop it off?” “If I drop the car off in the morning, how will I get to work?” “I can drop the kids off at school before I take the car in for an oil change, but I don’t have time to wait while they do the work. How will I get back to the office?” These are reasonable questions. Some folks have two cars, and two drivers with the time to drop off their car. Some have friends who are happy to pick them up when they drop off the car for repairs or maintenance and bring them to pick up the car when the work is done. But, even if someone has a friend who is happy to help, they may not want to impose on their friends … again. Some car, truck and SUV owners are fortunate enough to bring their vehicles to an auto repair shop that offers drop-off and pick-up service. This is a blessing for those who find it inconvenient getting their car, truck or SUV to t...

An article in The Princeton Review makes a profound statement about what you should expect when bringing your car, truck or SUV into an auto repair technician: “The days of uneducated grease monkeys are over.” As the article explains, extensive vocational training is required if an auto repair technician has any hope of keeping up with constantly advancing technology. You don’t really have to spend a lot of time under the hood of cars, trucks or SUVs to understand this. Just think about the advances in automobiles over the last couple of decades. Cars, trucks, and SUVs today come with a myriad of accessories, including: Heads-up displays Bluetooth and Smartphone connectivity and functions Heated seats Power adjustable seats with lumbar support Dash cams Foot-operated tailgates Forward-collision warning Backup camera Blind-spot monitoring 360-degree surround-view systems Dual-zone climate control Keyless entry Lane-keeping assist All these new features add more t...

You smile to yourself when you hear someone talking about how hard the miles are on their car, as though the roads around Richmond are really that bad. In fact, with a flurry of road construction the last few years, the roads around here aren’t bad. But, you have a different perspective. When you talk about a rough ride you’re talking about taking your 4X4 off-road where no one expects smooth coats of asphalt or concrete. In fact, if you found a blanket of asphalt waiting off-road, that would defeat the purpose. You go off-road because you’re looking for the challenge where the road ends. You want to challenge your 4X4, and your driving ability, to overcome the non-roads that nature has laid out for your driving pleasure. All the same, there is some truth to that asphalt driver’s concern about how hard the miles are on their car. The point is that, if that’s hard on their car, what are your off-road experiences to your 4X4? The thrill of taking your high-stepping 4X4 off-road get...

The answer to the question, ‘Will your engine keep its cool in the hot days of another McHenry summer?’ the answer is up to you. Oh, sure, something unexpected could happen. But, with a little attention to detail, a little Tender Loving Maintenance, your car, truck or SUV’s engine will take the heat in stride. If you do prepare for summer, we could have a record-setting heatwave and your car, truck or SUV will shrug it off as though it were a warm day in Spring. But, if you don’t take a proactive approach, your engine may throw an unpleasant surprise your way. It could happen something like this: You and the kids are driving down Route 120 heading out of McHenry for a day watching the Cubs at Wrigley Field (or the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, if you’re a Sox fan) and, as you approach the red light where Route 31 continues North, you notice that the engine seems to hesitate. When the light turns green, you may make it through the intersection, or maybe not. With the car, tr...

Summer! Barbeques! Picnics! Sporting Events! Vacations! Outdoor events! It’s all laying out before you with the passing of winter and the advent of wonderfully warm weather. But, while you’re enjoying the hot days ahead, don’t forget what the sun can do to your car’s interior. On hot days, the temperature inside your car can reach 195°. When the internal temperature of a smoked brisket reaches 195° it’s time to take it off the grill; it’s cooked. This means that everything inside your car is literally baking. Have you ever come out to your car on a sunny day and burned yourself on the car’s black-leather seats? Why wouldn’t you? It’s as though you took a seat in your oven. Clearly, you may find the interior of your car ‘mildly’ uncomfortable, at times, this summer. Never leave your children or dogs unattended in the car If you think about the interior of a car reaching temperatures, such as this, it’s no wonder that you shouldn’t leave your dogs or, OMG, your children in the ca...

The temperature is slipping above 80 degrees. How refreshing after the winter that would never end. And, how wonderful that you can slip into your car, flip on the AC and, almost instantly, feel the cool air washing the heat away. On a sunny day, a car parked in the sun can reach 195 degrees inside. At that temperature, foods cook. But, as long as your car has air conditioning, who cares. You’ll drive down the road enjoying the refreshing cold air that pours from the vents. But, is it cold enough; is it as cold as it should be? When you turn on the AC, you’ll also adjust the fan to the desired speed. If the fan works, you’ll feel air rushing out of your vents. It will probably feel cool. But, this doesn’t guarantee that your car’s air conditioning is working to its full potential. The AC in your car can lose its oomph after a while. Usually, this is because the charge of refrigerant in the lines loses its pressure. It still does its bit in sending cooled air out of the vents but ...

Have your tires inspected with your car’s next oil change They seldom complain. You can just about drive your tires off the rims and they’ll seldom make a peep. You come to count on them and with good reason. For thousands and thousands of miles, tires keep on rolling unhindered by the strain. But, they are not infallible. We know tires can fail because we see cars on the side of the road with drivers struggling to remove flats and replace them with spares. A tire often fails because something has punctured the rubber. But, there are other ways that a tire can lose its mojo, otherwise known as air. Sometimes, a tire will leak around the rim. This is frequently experienced in the late Fall/early Winter when the cold causes aluminum rims to lose their seal with tires. In these instances, an auto repair technician needs to remove the tire, clean the bead that should bond with the rim and the area of the rim where the bead bonds. Sometimes, they’ll apply a layer of tire glue to ensur...

In Illinois, it’s not just a good idea to use a hands-free holder for your phone, it’s the law. Since Wonder Lake is in Illinois, this means you could get a ticket if you’ve only just pulled out of your driveway while talking on the phone without a hands-free phone holder. Since you don’t want a ticket, or to have an accident, finding the best way to hold your phone for hands-free operation is time well spent. You want a hands-free mount that will securely hold your phone, is easy to use and is durable. Durability for a hands-free phone mount doesn’t just mean that the mount won’t break; it also means that the part of the car where it’s affixed won’t break. Here are some of the options when you consider a hands-free phone mount for your car: A vent-clipped mount: Vent-clipped hands-free phone mounts are very common. The back of the mount clips to the directional vents where the AC and heat enter the cabin of your car. The drawbacks are that the mount may block some of the coo...

The front-end broke while this car was taking a low-speed turn in Woodstock recently. The driver may feel that luck was against them. But, compared to what would have happened if they were driving at a higher rate of speed, they were actually very fortunate. This is a case where auto maintenance is critical. When do you know that auto maintenance is worth the effort? When you see someone dealing with a mechanical failure, such as in the photo here. This car came to an untimely stop for someone near The Woodstock Square recently. While making a left-hand turn, the driver had to notice that something didn’t feel right. Then, they must have felt the left-front of the car fall and would have heard a grinding noise as the car scraped to a stop. What happened and what could they have done about it? There are a number of things that can fail dramatically with the frontend and steering of a car: a ball joint can come apart, a tie-rod end can separate, bushings, control arms or bearin...