Performance Unlimited Blog

Just as extra caution is due when driving in winter This car door was opened in traffic near McHenry. The costs of repairs were substantial. You’re in a hurry. You pull up in front of a McHenry store planning to run after you parallel park. In your rush, however, you don’t watch oncoming traffic closely enough. You open the door and ‘BAM!’ – a driver passing by smacks your car door. Hopefully, they didn’t catch your hand in the process. If so, serious injury is quite possible – even probable. But even if you’re fortunate enough to avoid bodily injury, the level of damage that is possible to your car may surprise you. Behind the area where the car door is mounted, assuming we’re talking about the driver’s door, is the hinge pillar. When an open car door is smacked by a passing vehicle, the door may be twisted past the hinge stops. But the damage is liable to go deeper than that. The hinge pillar is an integral part of the vehicle’s body. You might say it’s equivalent to an important bon...

New Year’s Eve 2022-23 in McHenry will only come around once. At the stroke of midnight, 2022 will pass into the rearview mirror and 2023 will stretch out ahead like a road fade into the dark.  This is cause for celebration. It’s a celebration of the year behind and hope for the year ahead. Certainly, we all hope that 2023 will prove to be a great year. Most of us will agree that the potential for improvement over the year behind is evident. But we don’t want to get the year off on the wrong foot. What could be worse than starting 2023 with a DUI? Answer, starting 2023 with an injury or fatal accident. These are real considerations when celebrating the New Year. And most of us imbibe on New Year’s Eve. It’s a traditional way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Another tradition of New Year’s Eve is a heavy police presence on the roads that night. The police know people are drinking on New Year’s Eve. They know that drinking and driving are a bad combination. They know that if people know ...

In 1982, Performance Unlimited celebrated its first Christmas since opening the doors for business. This year, the exemplary auto repair shop North of McHenry will celebrate its 40th Christmas in business. Christmas is a special time of year. At Performance Unlimited, they take a short break from helping their customers winterize their vehicles, along with repairs and other maintenance. This year, as Performance Unlimited has celebrated its 40th year, they are also giving away 40 free oil changes from among their customers. In other words, if you’ve had work done at Performance Unlimited over the course of the last 40 years, you stand a chance of receiving a message letting you know that you’ve won. Over the course of those 40 years, Performance Unlimited has helped countless numbers of area drivers to keep their cars, trucks and/or SUVs safely and reliably on the road. At the same time, the loyalty shown by those customers has helped Performance Unlimited to keep the doors open so the...

You’re trying to think of a great gift to get mom or dad as another McHenry Christmas approaches, but what to buy them? It’s never easy. They seem to have everything they need. A tie for dad or a box of candy for mom just won’t do. The place to start is considering their passions. If, like many in McHenry, they are car lovers, this may open an entire vista of possibilities. The same is true if, for instance, they are equestrians. If the latter, there are an abundance of possible gifts for horse lovers. But this is an automotive blog so we’ll focus on gifts for car lovers. What is their favorite car – the car they once owned or the one they dreamed of owning? Let’s suppose that mom always wanted a 1990 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Convertible. It would be great if you could buy a pristine used 1990 Benz of her dreams. But that may not be in your price range. You could easily spend $12,000 on a car in reasonable condition. But there is another option. You can get a colored print of the car and ha...

Recently, on this blog site, we discussed adjusting yourself mentally for driving in winter conditions. Since winter is definitely coming to McHenry, that makes a lot of sense. Considering National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics, there are 440 fatal reasons from 2019, and 33,000 injury examples of why to adjust your driving for the cold and slippery conditions of winter (440 fatal crashes and 33,000 injury crashes due to wintry conditions). But there are other things to consider when driving in winter. First of all, if you are in an accident, what should you do? If you’re hurt, stay in your car (as long as it is safe to do so) and try not to exert yourself. Try to make sure you car is visible – leave the lights on and turn the flashers on. If possible, you should put out road flares. Be aware of the possibility that exhaust fumes may be bringing harmful levels of carbon monoxide into the car. If so, open the windows and/or get out of the vehicle. Call for assistance i...

It’s August in Johnsburg. You go out to car, hop in, start the engine and, watching behind you, back out of the driveway. Then you drive to the store, to some event or just to visit a friend. No problem, except that it’s not August. It is now late November. Winter isn’t officially here but the weather doesn’t wait on the demands of the calendar; Johnsburg winter weather will arrive when it chooses. And when winter comes, the scenario described in the previous paragraph changes entirely. Preparing your vehicle for the arrival of winter includes the winterizing aspects you’ve read about several of the last weeks on this blog. You want to change the oil on schedule. You want to make sure the coolant/antifreeze is up to snuff. You want to be confident that the car will start when you want it to, no matter how cold it is outside. You want good tires, good defrosters, good wipers and plenty of windshield washer solvent, for a start. But there’s more. The physical aspects of preparing your ve...

Driving somewhere away from your McHenry home to celebrate Thanksgiving this year? Maybe you’re staying home and laying out your own Thanksgiving spread. Whatever the case, you’re going to depend on the assistance of the automobile. If you’re taking an airplane to a faraway destination, you’ll still need a car. You’ll need a car if you hire a cab, Uber or limousine to drive you to the airport. If you take the train to the airport, you’ll probably need a car to get to the train station. But what if you’re staying home? How are the ingredients for your Thanksgiving dinner going to make their way to your pantry and refrigerator if not for a car. Even if you call DoorDash and have the food delivered, they’re going to use a car. Only a remotely small number of people will walk to and from the grocery store to pickup the turkey and fixings for this special meal. However, even for someone who does walk to and from the grocery store, if not for trucks that are closely related to the automobile...

It’s the most important thing you can do to protect the engine in your car, truck or SUV. But, when a Wonder Lake winter sets in, regular oil changes are more crucial than ever. Wonder Lake winters are hard, hard, hard on cars. The ice, sleet, snow and road salt scratch the paint and give rust access to the body of your vehicle. Those elements on the road make traction difficult to maintain, which can land you in a ditch, upside a tree or into another car. That rust also attacks your car, truck or SUV’s suspension and steering components. But the cold really does a number on your engine. Cold thickens fluids. Remember that while considering the role engine oil plays in the heart of your vehicle. The engine is the heart of your car, truck or SUV and engine oil is the lifeblood of the engine. When you start the car, and the engine is cold, the engine oil is at its thickest consistency. It’s imperative that the oil move quickly up from the oil pan and throughout passages on the inside of ...

The automobile gave them something to dream about while off to war Friday, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day, a day designated by federal act to thank all those who have served honorably to preserve liberty in America’s wars, including those from McHenry. It was originally known as Armistice Day and commemorated the end of WWI, which ended at 11 minutes after, 11 in the morning of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.  It was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 thereby taking into account the veterans of WWI, WWII, the Korean War and other minor conflicts during that time. These wars were different in that the level of technology changed, as well as the scale of the conflicts. WWI saw the advent of military aircraft as submarines and battleships also came to the fore. In WWII, some nations began the war with biplanes that flew under 200 mph while, by the end of the war, jet aircraft were reaching speeds over 500 mph. In terms of scale, WWI was a global conflict where a majority of the fighting t...

If you confront a real ghost on the road in McHenry this Halloween, even if it’s frightening, it’s probably nothing to worry about. But we don’t often see real ghosts roaming on the streets of town. Therefore, if you see a ghost this Halloween, just to be safe, assume it is a child dressed in a costume for the holiday. Halloween is a favorite holiday for children in McHenry. They get to dress up in scary outfits and go door to door collecting candy. There are pumpkins to carve and houses to decorate.  Some may go to the Haunted Hayride 7 to 10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Oct. 12-13 and 19-20 at Petersen Park that benefits the Wonder Lake Water Ski team. But that’s generally for older kids who are up to that level of spooky. The little ghouls and goblins, however, will wait with bated breath for the actual day of Halloween.   When Monday, Oct. 31, comes around, and the real Halloween, it’s an evening made for little kids. And, not surprisingly, they’re pretty excited abo...

It took hours to get home from work that night. Usually, the ride was about 45 minutes but with the snow and ice that hit the McHenry area, the roads were slick and dangerous. North of Libertyville, vehicles heading west on Rt 137 had to climb a hill while the light at Milwaukee Avenue was green. The road was so slick that the cars had to wait back from the bottom of the hill to get up some speed to climb the slippery hill. And once they got going, they had to keep going. Letting off the gas could leave a car stranded on the hill. Such was the case in the right lane. A car made it halfway up the hill and couldn’t go any further. Either the driver failed to keep the car’s upward momentum going or their tires lacked sufficient tread to make the climb. With that one driver stuck on the hill, those trying to get through the light were reduced to one lane. The vehicles waiting for their chance to climb the hill were merging down below the hill. Only four cars were making it through when the...

Having the confidence that your car, truck or SUV will start every time you go out to your McHenry garage or driveway and get behind the wheel this winter depends. It depends on how well you’ve maintained your vehicle and whether the starting and charging systems are up to the job. If you’ve ever gotten in the car, truck or SUV and turned the key only to find that your vehicle won’t start and you’re stuck in your McHenry driveway or garage, or stuck somewhere away from home, you know how inconvenient that can be.  We tend to take our vehicles for granted and that includes the battery. But, when the battery in your car, truck or SUV fails, it tends to rush to the forefront of your priorities. That is inconvenient anytime of year but far more so in the winter. It’s also more likely in the winter. Most people think that winter is the hardest on a battery. Actually, the summer heat is really brutal for car, truck or SUV batteries. The problem is that winter is harder on your vehicle in...

Imagine if your car didn’t have any heat as you drove through this Johnsburg winter. You could bundle up and get used to it but it wouldn’t be the same; it wouldn’t be like those days when the car warmed up and warm air poured from the vents filling the cabin with comforting heat. When you’re warm inside the car, the cold passes by outside with little effect on your comfort inside. Winter is like a movie you watch from your seat in the car. From Johnsburg to any destination in the Northern hemisphere, you’re cocooned in an environment that separates you from cold outside. That heat you’re counting on to keep you warm while driving does more than provide comfort; it also keeps your windshield from frosting as you drive. You count on the defrosters for the ability to see where you’re going. They help to keep you and your loved ones safe, not to mention people in other cars you might run into if you couldn’t see. Can you count on the heat to fill your car’s cabin with warm air and to defr...

This time of year, it’s easy to think of another Wonder Lake winter fondly. Well, if not exactly fondly, without too much dread yet. It’s only as winter truly begins to set in that we start to contemplate what it really means – the cold, the snow and ice, slippery conditions, cars, trucks and SUVs that don’t want to start. We could also add rust to that list. A Wonder Lake winter is an opportune environment for rust. It will cause rust on fences, mailboxes, and just about anything made of metal that is exposed to the elements. This includes your car, truck or SUV. Rust is just chomping at the bit to get at your vehicle and winter starts a feeding frenzy. Rust is actually the name for the iron oxide that forms on the surface of metal components when exposed to moisture and oxygen. In the summer, moisture will roll off your car, truck or SUV’s smooth and shiny surface. The paint inhibits its access to the metal underneath. The sun dries puddles and water evaporates in the heat. But winte...

Check your windshield washer solvent and defrosters, too Screech! Screech! Screech! The sound of your wipers is driving you nuts. But, if the snow, freezing rain and sleet keep falling, madness will really set in if your wipers don’t do a reasonable job of clearing all that yuk off the windshield. Another McHenry winter is coming and the ability to clean your windshield is a blessing of the season. Windshield wipers are petroleum products. They have a rubber blade that is intended to sweep snow, rain and sleet off of the windshield. But, when McHenry turns cold and blustery, will they continue to do the job, and do it well? Every time the wipers sweep the windshield, the friction reduces the face of the rubber blade. Over time, that sharp edge of rubber is dulled. While this isn’t necessarily a big deal in the warmer months where water is about the only challenge wipers may face, in the winter, that changes. In the winter, wipers have to deal with ice, slush, sleet and freezing rain. O...

It’s September in Richmond. The leaves haven’t even turned yet. The official start of Autumn is still a week away. You really don’t have to worry about the fluid running through your car, truck or SUV’s radiator freezing. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a thought or two. You don’t want to wait until it’s freezing outside to have your coolant checked to ensure that a cold Richmond morning won’t prove too much for it. Check it now. Check it before the bitter cold of winter sets in. You don’t necessarily want to make a special trip to have your coolant checked. But if you’re bringing the car, truck or SUV in for an oil change, they can check the antifreeze, too. Not to get confused – coolant and antifreeze refers to the same liquid. It’s a dual-purpose fluid that plays an essential role in the operation of your vehicle’s engine. On the one hand, it’s a coolant. As the fluid flows through the engine, it collects heat generated by the friction of moving parts inside. The fluid t...

It’s September. McHenry schools are open but it’s still summer. We have plenty of time before winter sets in and you need to have your car, truck or SUV ready for the season of cold, ice and snow, right? Yes, we still have the apple-picking season, Halloween and Thanksgiving as road markers to countdown to another McHenry winter. Officially, it’s more than three months away – a quarter of the year. But, of course, winter may make an early appearance as far as weather conditions. In fact, the winter of 2022-23 could make a distinctly unpleasant early arrival, well before the official start of winter Dec. 21. We can get snow in October. And if there’s snow, there’s cold, at least enough cold to turn raindrops to snowflakes. This isn’t to say that you need to rush right out and have your vehicle winterized. But you might want to start thinking about it. When will you have the work done to prepare your car, truck or SUV for the blustery season ahead? Winter is unforgiving. The cold doesn’t...

McHenry residents like to BBQ on Labor Day but it’s also a great time to get in the car and go somewhere. Unfortunately, with the price of gasoline these days, many families may not want to go as far. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t get out and go somewhere. There are plenty of places near McHenry where you can take a daytrip for the holiday. Here are some ideas: Chicago Botanic Garden. If you go to the Garden Sunday, Sept. 4, you’ll be just in time for the Illinois Mycological Association Display & Sale. Apparently, mycological refers to mushrooms. Mississippi Palisades State Park. You can sure stretch out here with 2,500 acres of natures splendor. Bring the tent and make it a campout weekend. Illinois Beach State Park. This park offers 4,160 acres where you can choose to swim, hike, fish, boat, picnic or even camp. Starved Rock State Park. At this park in Oglesby, you’ll find canyons, waterfalls and rock formations to enhance a truly spectacular natural panorama. Galena. A trip ...

It’s that time of year when McHenry Community High Schools, East and West, are sending student drivers out onto the roads again. Some of them may be your progeny. For some of these young drivers, it represents an exciting crossroad as they take another step toward adulthood. For some, it’s merely an anxious experience they’re not so sure they’re ready for. Well, there’s probably some anxiety for all student drivers. A student driver, in McHenry, who is too sure of him or herself isn’t always a good thing. If they feel a little trepidation about the process, they’ll probably approach learning to drive with a little more due caution. Either way, you want your offspring to learn how to operate a motor vehicle safely. They’ve likely paid some degree of attention watching you drive. They have a rudimentary understanding of the controls involved in driving – the ignition, shifter, gas and brake pedals, the steering wheel. But there’s a difference between watching someone drive and actually d...

There's enough of this Richmond summer left that you want to make sure your engine oil is up to the challenge. Engine oil is critical any time of year but no more so than when Richmond temperatures are at a summer-time peak. Too much heat is a problem for engines – a big problem. And oil is the defensive system that preserves engines. Even in the middle of a Richmond winter, your vehicle’s engine gets hot – real hot. On the coldest days, cars can overheat. And long before it overheats, the temperature inside the engine is enough that you can bake with it. You know it gets hot inside the engine in winter because you can feel the evidence. The evidence comes to you in the form of heat from the vents when you want to stay warm. Of course, this time of year, you’re not looking for heat to keep you warm. This is another reason summer is harder on your engine. In the winter, when you turn on the heat inside the car, that heat is carried by the coolant/antifreeze through the heater coil. ...

Spring in McHenry is the season of the flashing construction sign. August is the month of those little animals that are the most precious – Children! We’ve had to watch out for them all summer as McHenry students have been out of school for Summer Break. But this is different. This is where children are out and about going to and returning from school, as well as when they’re on playgrounds and such at schools. This period of watching for children while driving comes with greater regularity, which can moderate the risks somewhat. But it also comes with frequent urgency. School generally starts in the morning and ends in the evening. The busses are busy these times of day, as well as children walking near the roads in some instances. But think about what happens when a child is trying to catch the bus at the last minute. A child running for the bus isn’t always as careful about traffic. With their focus on getting to the bus before it leaves, they may not think about you in your car at ...

Back in the late 60s and 70s, muscle cars were all the rage. The V8s that dominated the roads those days were monsters. They packed some serious horsepower under the hood and would set the rear tires spinning and smoking as the engines roared. But, for all their power, they have nothing on the muscle cars of today. Loads of power was proportionate to size; the more cubic inches, the more horses. Check out the specs on some of the top muscle cars of the era: Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth 426 Hemi This beast came from the factory with 425 listed horsepower Torque was measured at 490 lb-ft The 1970 Cuda was rated at 13.10 seconds in the quarter mile at 107 mph You could find the 426 in the Barracuda, Challenger, Super Bee, Charger and Road Runner. Even the smaller Dodge Dart was available with the big-block hemi. Chevrolet 454 LS6 This big-block monster pumped out 450 horses and 500 lb-ft torque. It had an ET of 13.12 in the quarter mile at 107 mph When mounted in the Chevelle Super Sport, it w...

They’re all around us. The road construction season is in full bloom here in McHenry County and beyond. And road construction requires adjustments to our driving styles. In McHenry County, many of the road construction projects are in towns and cities. Some of the construction projects are on country roads, too. Some of the projects are municipal road resurfacing projects. More are Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) projects. But, whoever is running the project, or wherever the work is done, one thing is true. You need to slow down in those construction zones Illinois is one of the states with the highest number of road construction workers killed by drivers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The overwhelming majority are killed by drivers in automobiles. Inevitably, fatal injuries to workers at road construction sites, when workers are hit by passing vehicles, are the result of driver error. The driver has done something wrong to cause the accident. But those...

When this McHenry summer started, it worked great. The fan blew cold air out of the vents quickly responding to the hot days that we were already experiencing back then. But now, only half-a-dozen weeks later, your car, truck or SUV’s air conditioning just doesn’t seem to keep up. Is it hotter out now than it was then or is your vehicle’s AC system fading, fading, fading until it reaches a point where all it will blow is hot air out of the vents? It is possible. An air conditioning system in a car, truck or SUV may be up to any temperature a McHenry summer will throw at it. But, a system that was strong when summer started may have lost its mojo as summer continued. If a component of your vehicle’s air conditioning system breaks, the change may be immediate and dramatic. But that’s not the way it always happens. Often, when a car, truck or SUV’s AC system fails, it does so slowly and over time. From day to day, you don’t notice the change. The air conditioning fails so gradually that i...

We’ve already had days where the temperature was in the upper 90s this Richmond spring and summer, all the reason you need to avoid leaving children or pets in parked cars. No doubt, we have more hot days ahead. The temperature, however, does not need to hit 90 in Richmond to make it dangerous leaving children and pets in cars.  Have you ever gotten into a car that was sitting in the sun and virtually burned your back on the seat? That’s hot. Really hot. Dangerously hot. According to the INSIDER Website, approximately 39 children die of heatstroke each year in the U.S. because the children were left in hot car.  In Illinois, it’s illegal to leave a child in a car unattended. According to statute 510ILCS70/7.1, it’s also illegal in Illinois to “Confine any animal in a motor vehicle in such a manner that places it in a life or health threatening situation by exposure to a prolonged period of extreme heat or cold, without proper ventilation or other protection from such heat or c...

It replaced the minivan that replaced the station wagon Minivans killed the station wagon; the SUV has killed the minivan which is why you see far more SUVs on McHenry roads than you do minivans or station wagons. The death of the station wagon is almost complete. Few auto manufacturers even offer station wagons anymore. But, at one time, the roads of McHenry (and beyond) abounded with station wagons. What happened? The station wagon dates back to around 1910, meaning that this was an option among the earlier automobiles. The earliest station wagons had wood sides and came to be known as Woodies. Initially, they had metal framing covered with wood. But the look appealed to enough drivers that, when all-steel bodies became standard, wood was sometimes applied to station wagons for purely aesthetic reasons. The appeal of wooden sides on station wagons went as far as to include wooden stickers applied to the sides of the vehicle. Wood-like trim was built around the wood stickers so that t...

When America was founded, the people of this country had the freedom to go wherever they liked. They could cross borders between states without papers or permission. The biggest restraint they faced was the time it took to travel. This is not something we can easily relate to in the age of the automobile. They could travel by boat but then they were restrained to the Eastern coastline or by the course of the river they sailed. Otherwise, they had two choices – horse or by foot. On average, a healthy person can walk about 3 mph. If they did that for 24 hours, they would travel 72 miles. But, even if they stayed awake and walked that entire time, inevitably, they would probably want to take a rest at some point. Really pushing themselves, they might walk 20 or 25 miles in a day. Look at it this way; if someone from McHenry walked 25 miles one day, they could go to one of several other cities in the county and back. But it would take all day. A trip from McHenry to Chicago would take abou...

In the height of the pandemic, NASCAR took their races off track to the virtual world. With the eNASCAR/iRacing Pro Invitational Series, drivers who would have competed driving in the real world raced in the virtual world. According to The Sporting News (April 13, 2020), it worked pretty much the same as in a real race. While the NASCAR Cup Series races were postponed through May 9 of that year, “virtual races featuring many of the same drivers who compete in NASCAR’s top series …” were virtually racing. Even Indy Cars went virtual with a “six-race IndyCar iRacing Challenge” that year. According to the publication, you shouldn’t “think of iRacing as a video game. Consider it a simulator.” NASCAR Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer was quoted as saying the virtual races were “extremely realistic.”  Of course, the racers have long since returned to the actual race tracks. For instance, Marcus Ericsson just won the Indy 500 – the real race on the real track in Indianapolis. In 2021, Kyle L...

That Jeep of yours looks super cool driving down Elm Street in McHenry. But those high-stepping looks aren’t merely for aesthetic purposes; you drive that buggy because it’s made to go off road and that’s what really gets your adrenaline pumping. People from McHenry who haven’t been there just can’t relate to the thrill of scooting around rocks on a backwoods trail. They’ve never experienced jumping hills with all-four wheels going airborne. They can’t imagine traversing creek beds while making a wake with your 4X4. This is the sport of the young and young at heart. It takes a stout man or woman to challenge the worst that the offroad can throw at you. It also takes a sturdy mount to go offroad and come out the other side in one piece and on your own power. For those planning to go offroad, it’s a good idea to take care of themselves. Eat healthy. Exercise. Get enough sleep. Bouncing around offroad will take physical stamina. As for your ride, that Jeep, Ford F-150, Dodge RAM, Chevy ZR...