Skip to main content

Keep after your car’s maintenance whichever groundhog you choose to believe

It all depends on which groundhog you choose to believe; will we have six more weeks of winter or an early spring. If you follow the prognostications of the groundhog in the actual Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, you received some good news Sunday – Groundhog Day: their groundhog did not see his shadow and we, or they, can expect an early spring.

If, however, you rely on the local Woodstock Willie groundhog, the news was not so good: six-more weeks of winter. He saw his shadow or that’s what the translator of groundhogese tells us. Of course, we can hope that the local groundhog translator didn’t hear the groundhog right. We might even conclude that the groundhog doesn’t know what he or she is talking about, whatever language they use.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that Woodstock Willie knows what he’s talking about. In other words, let’s assume, as painful as it is to contemplate, that we will have six-more weeks of winter. Hopefully, your car has handled the snow and cold so far. In this regard, we’re fortunate; as of Feb. 4, we haven’t had a bad winter.

This isn’t to say that the rest of the winter will be a cakewalk. Even if we have an early spring, what’s left of winter could test our patience and our car’s ability to deal with the cold and snow. Whichever groundhog we choose to believe, no one should express surprise if we have to deal with sub-zero temperatures and/or heavy snowfalls.

If you’ve winterized your car, you’re probably ready for whatever winter will throw at you the rest of the season. But, if you took shortcuts preparing your car for winter, the true test may still lie ahead of you.

The answer is: ‘Don’t take your car for granted.’ 


Change the oil on schedule. This is the biggie. It will ensure that your car will last as long as possible and with the greatest possible resale.

Check your battery and charging system. A car that starts on a 30-degree day may not start when it’s ten-below.

Stay ahead of your coolant/antifreeze. If your coolant isn’t up to par, your car could overheat even on a frigid day. On the other hand, if, as an antifreeze, it isn’t up to the standard required, it could freeze on a really cold day, the kind of cold days we’re liable to experience in the Woodstock area.

Keep track of your tires. Do they have proper air pressure? Do they have enough tread to dig their way out of deeper snow and to give you traction starting and stopping on slippery roads.

Make sure your lights all work, that you have good wipers and plenty of windshield washer solvent. You want other drivers to see you, know what you’re doing and the ability to see where you’re going.

Bill Murray was back in Woodstock, again, for a Groundhog Day Jeep commercial


If you missed the news, the weekend before Groundhog Day and the Super Bowl, Bill Murray returned to Woodstock for a Jeep commercial that played on the Groundhog Day movie theme. You can heck it out by clicking on the image above: definitely the best Super Bowl commercial.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...