Are your car’s weather strips ready for another McHenry winter?

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 window to allow all that bitterly cold air in.

But, what about moisture coming through your weather stripping?

The cold air will make you uncomfortable. The moisture will do the same to your car.

Cars are designed to be fairly watertight. This is because of the corrosive power of moisture, particularly moisture laden with road salt and other elements. Moisture that has access through leaky weather stripping can rapidly increase the process where rust invades your automobile.

Take a look at the weather strip at the bottom of your car’s side windows. Imagine if the water has free and easy access beyond the weatherstrip where the windows are lowered. The moisture will drip down into the door and into the window mechanism.

If weather stripping isn’t doing its job, moisture can attack your car’s unibody chassis. Those who have experienced this problem can describe how they noticed, one day, that the doors were binding when opening and closing. Why? Because the chassis below the doors was rusted and drooping.

While a quality auto repair shop can fix many problems, fixing a rotted chassis isn’t often financially practical. The solution is an ounce of prevention and that starts with maintaining the integrity of your car’s weather stripping. This coming McHenry winter isn’t going to let up. You can’t either.

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...

Get out to McHenry Music Festival for a good time and music near to home

Some folks here in McHenry will load up the car and head out to Red Rock Amphitheater near Denver to see a show. Some will go to the MSG Sphere near Las Vegas. Some will go to the Bonaroo Festival Concert to see a show. That’s quite a bit of driving and you’d better make sure your vehicle is up to the trip. What happens, however, if something goes wrong – if your vehicle breaks down while driving there or back? What happens if the show is canceled, as happened this year with the Bonaroo Festival? We’re talking about some serious inconvenience, aren’t we? Wherever you go, whether your driving to Colorado, Nevada, Tennessee or anywhere else in this continent, you want to perform your due diligence and make sure the vehicle is up for the trip before you go. And it doesn’t really matter if you’re driving somewhere to see some live music or for any other purpose. A breakdown can be costly and may put you at the mercy of weather conditions or nefarious characters that come across you while y...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog