As another Johnsburg winter fades away, keep up on scheduled oil changes

As another Johnsburg winter fades into the

the rearview mirror, it's time to think about
whether your vehicle is up to date on its
oil changes with summer heat approaching.

This is the last week of April; it’s fairly safe to say that this Johnsburg winter is behind us. The days of worrying that you’ll have to dig your car out of the driveway after a big snow are over. The slush and ice are not likely to appear on the roads again until next winter. But it’s not quite time to stop thinking about the maintenance your vehicle requires because of winter.

As winter rolled into Johnsburg, any smart car owner started thinking about preparing their vehicle for the season ahead. It was vital to check your anti-freeze so you know it won’t freeze when the thermometer seriously dips in the months ahead. You wanted to make sure that you had good wipers and plenty of washer solvent so you could clean the windshield while driving on winter roads.

You wanted to check the charging and starting system so you could trust your car to start on bitterly cold winter nights. You wanted to make sure the heater worked so you wouldn’t have to freeze in winter. And, of course, you also wanted to change the oil on schedule so it was prepared to lubricate and protect your engine through the cold.

Now that winter is over, you’ll want to make sure the coolant (also known as anti-freeze) will keep your car from overheating as the temperature rises. You still want good wipers and plenty of washer solvent – windshields still get dirty, and rain can be a challenge to your vision while driving.

It’s still possible that your car won’t start on a warm summer night and, rather than worrying that you’ll be cold in your car, you now have to worry you’ll get too hot. You’ll want to have your brakes, steering, suspension and alignment checked. And then there’s that oil change.

In the winter, we worry that the oil will take too long working its way through oil passages so that it can lubricate moving parts that create friction. In the summer, we worry about the ability of your oil to withstand higher temperatures.

In your owner’s manual, you’ll find a recommended schedule for properly maintaining your vehicle. It includes recommendations for how often you should change the oil.

If you follow that schedule completely, you’ll do a great job of maintaining the condition of your car. But nothing on that schedule is more vital than the schedule for changing your car’s engine oil.

Just as Johnsburg can get darn cold in the winter, it can get darn hot in the summer. Changing the oil on schedule is a fantastic way to protect your car’s engine, the mechanical reliability of your car and it’s resale value.

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