Halfway point of this McHenry winter – how’s your car making out?

It’s hard to believe but we’re actually approaching the halfway point of the McHenry winter of 2021-22. How’s you car making out so far?

Hopefully, you winterized your vehicle long before this. After all, we all know that McHenry winters can be brutal on a vehicle.

If you did winterize your car, you’ve probably come this far without too many problems. Things can happen. Parts can break. But if you applied due diligence and prepared for the winter ahead, now that it’s here, you’ve almost certainly avoided some of the issues you might otherwise have faced.

Winterizing your car is like auto reliability and safety insurance for the winter months. Your vehicle needs to withstand the effects of bitterly cold temperatures. This includes ensuring the coolant/antifreeze doesn’t freeze. It includes ensuring that your car will start on that cold McHenry night.

Your vehicle also needs to handle the slippery roads we tend to experience in the winter. This means that you need tires with traction. We need brakes that work properly, including the Antilock Brake System (ABS).

ABS is the system that pumps your brakes in an emergency stop, and pumps faster than any human could hope to do. Pumping the brakes is proper response on slippery roads when you’re trying to stop in a hurry and may lose traction in the process. With ABS, you don’t pump the brakes; the car does.

You also want steering and suspension systems that are in good condition as you deal with icy driving conditions. You don’t want to fight your car’s steering while you’re already fighting what winter is throwing at you.

You also want to maintain clear visibility while you drive. A McHenry winter, with all the snow, ice and road salt it splatters on your windshield, often challenges the ability of drivers to see where they’re going.

You want to ensure that you have good wipers, plenty of windshield washer solvent and a defroster that heats up the windshield.

As usual, you want to keep up on oil changes. Winter or summer, changing the oil is the most important thing you can do to preserve and protect your vehicle and your investment.

This McHenry winter is almost halfway gone but, no doubt, there’s plenty ahead. Make sure you car has what it takes to bring you safely and reliably into Spring.

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...

October 20 Hootenanny will benefit veterans with PTSD

Been to a Hootenanny lately? When you read that question did you ask, “What?” Well, if you have gone to a Hootenanny in a while, or if you don’t know what a hootenanny is, we have an event for Oct. 20 that will clear up either question. From 6 p.m. to Midnight, Saturday, Oct. 20, MC3, the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce business networking group, is helping to host an inaugural Veterans R&R Wild Horse Hootenanny at Beyond Stable Farm (11129 Rte. 176, Woodstock). The event will benefit Veterans R&R Operation Wild Horse. Operation Wild Horse serves veterans with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Working with the horses has proven to have an incredibly calming effect on the veterans. And, it’s good for the horses, too, rescued wild mustangs. This means that the hootenanny is for a very good cause. But, it’s also a lot of fun. So, what is a hootenanny? According to a Google search, a hootenanny is “an informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing.” The V...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog