Performance Unlimited Blog

When you get in the car, truck or SUV and back out of your McHenry driveway, the condition of your tires is probably not top of mind. They’re round. They’re made of rubber. They roll on the road to make your vehicle move. But, otherwise, what’s there to know or consider? Let’s picture you driving down Eastbound on Route 120 near the intersection where Route 31 turns South. It’s January and it’s snowing. The snow plows have yet to come by and clean away this fresh layer of snow that has settled onto a thin sheet of ice. You have a green light as you take the curve between Walgreens and CVS. You’re thinking about work … the kids … any number of things. But you’re not thinking the car approaching from the other direction will continue through the left-turn lane and into your path. When it happens – when you’re confronted with a situation requiring an emergency stop – you don’t have time to think about the condition of your tires. All you’re thinking is about the potential impact of your v...

Way back in the 17th Century, Pilgrims in Massachusetts started a tradition we still recognize today – they celebrated the first Thanksgiving. It was a celebration of the harvest. It was a celebration of life since the harvest offered the sustenance necessary for survival at a time when survival was hardly guaranteed. The story goes that 102 pilgrims made the journey on the Mayflower. Of those who survived the trip, and the first winter in the new continent, only 53 pilgrims were left to celebrate the first Thanksgiving. That means that the harsh conditions of a long sea voyage in the age of sail, and of hacking out an existence in the wilderness of a New World, had cost almost 50 percent of pilgrims their lives. For those who sat down to Thanksgiving dinner, the celebration was very real, even if they had heavy hearts for those they had lost.  Today, 399 years later, we are approaching another Thanksgiving. This holiday, we are facing a threats to our health – the coronavirus. Cus...

I pulled the car into the garage of the large tire and repair center for a now-defunct department store chain. As I got out and walked to the front of the Cadillac to open the hood. As the hood came up I looked to the battery but didn’t quite see what I expected to see. The entire top of the battery was gone. The shattered tops of lead plates were lined up like injured soldiers trying to stand in ranks for inspection. As I noticed the condition of the battery, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tall man of about 60 with white hair and a weathered face stepping up beside me. It was obvious that he was the owner of the car. I looked to him and noticed rivulets of blood dripping down his face. It turned out that he was a Good Samaritan who was helping someone out in the Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie, where the tire and repair center was located. Someone had asked him if he could help jumpstart their car. He agreed and got his jumper cables out of his trunk. He attached the posit...

If the battery in your car was brand new yesterday and almost worn out today, you’d recognize the difference easily. But it doesn’t work that way. Your battery ages slowly day by day. The change is gradual, imperceptible until that day when something pushes your old battery over the edge. Often, that ‘something’ doing the pushing is winter. It’s not that the cold is bad for the battery; the problem is the cold has an effect on the engine of your Wonder Lake automobile. Primarily, that problem is that, with the cold, the oil is thicker. The engine has to turn over with the crankshaft going through a bath of thicker lubricant. It also takes longer to work that oil up through the passages so that is spreads between the cylinder walls and the rings on the pistons. This means that the starter has to work harder to turn the engine. And if the starter has to work harder, it passes along that demand to the battery. If the battery is strong, it simply supplies the additional amperage required t...

The first frost of the year in McHenry was October 9. The low temperature in the area has been at or below freezing since October 24. And yet, if the weatherman is right, we can expect some unseasonably comfortable temperatures this week and through the weekend. But that doesn’t change one immutable fact: winter is coming. If the Old Farmers Almanac is to be believed, we’ll have a winter with temperatures above normal. But the Almanac isn’t always right. And even ‘above normal temperatures’ can get darn cold in the McHenry area. It’s best to be prepared. Preparation for a McHenry winter includes preparing the house – taking in the lawn furniture, rolling up the hoses and draining the faucets, putting away the screens and pulling down the storm windows. Preparing for winter also includes preparing your car, truck or SUV.  Over the course of the next several weeks, this blog will be dedicated to helping you prepare your vehicle for winter. Appropriately, the first step in preparing y...