Performance Unlimited Blog

And unsafe tires are against the law, too If you were driving in McHenry County Wednesday, you may have noticed that the roads were a tad icy. In fact, it was hard to miss. There were accidents and cars in the ditch. For those drivers who avoided those unsavory outcomes, traction accelerating, and decelerating were impaired. This was not the day for bald tires. On this blog, we have previously pointed out the importance of checking the tread depth on your tires. On a day like yesterday, that was crucial. Even with good tires, with plenty of tread depth, cars, trucks, and SUVs were spinning and sliding. With bald tires, a driver in McHenry County had almost no hope at all. But good tires are more than a good idea. According to Illinois Vehicle Code 625 ILCS 5/, it is illegal to drive on bad tires. Bad tires are described as tires are deemed unsafe if their ply or cords are exposed, they have sidewall cracks, cuts or other damage; where there are bulges or separations and if “Trea...

... or your locks from freezing This Wonder Lake winter hasn’t been so terribly cold yet. Of course, ‘yet’ is the operative word. Who would like to lay a wager that we won’t see sub-zero weather this winter? Few would even consider such a bet as it’s all but inevitable that the temperatures will fall below that mark – not below freezing (we’ve already done that plenty) but below zero. When the temperature falls that far, some Wonder Lake drivers will find that their car doors are frozen shut and/or the locks are frozen. It’s a pain in the neck. You’re already bitterly cold and now you’re standing outside buffeted by the frigid wind. You grab hold of the car handle and pull but it doesn’t budge. You grab it with both hands and still it doesn’t budge. That’s not good. Even worse is when you pull real hard and the door does open but only because the rubber weather stripping has come loose or torn. You can’t control the weather but you can reduce the risk that your doors will freez...

Rub your hands together. Faster. Press them together as you rub. Feel the heat? Now put some olive oil (it’s healthier than vegetable oil) and rub your hands together the same way. Feel the difference? That’s the principle of oil in your engine. The difference is that instead of the soft, supple skin of your hands, your engine has metal-on-metal rubbing together. Additionally, unless you’re the $6-Million Man or Woman, there’s no way you could rub their hands together as fast as engine parts rub together. But imagine if you could. If you could rub your hands together as fast your pistons slide up and down in their cylinders, you’re liable to start your hands-on fire or, at the very least, suffer serious burns. This is why engine oil is so important. If you used the same olive oil and rubbed your hands together for hours and hours, can you imagine what would happen to the olive oil? No doubt, it would become dirty and the properties that make it slippery would break down until i...