Ensure safe travels with a pre-trip inspection
May 19, 2009 @ 7:59 pm

With beautiful weather and a long holiday weekend ahead, many of us are heading out of town to celebrate the start of the summer season. But there’s nothing like car trouble to bring the fun to a grinding halt.

While you can’t always avoid problems, you can take steps to reduce the probability of getting sidelined during your travels. The most important step is a pre-trip inspection to prepare your vehicle for your big adventure. A lot of our clients prefer to go through this exercise with their Star Auto Authority service advisor to make sure they haven’t left anything out. But if you prefer to go it on your own, here’s a pre-trip checklist for you:

  • Tires: A great place to start is with the tires. Inspect them for tread wear and proper inflation. Is it time to rotate your tires? Replace them? Are they up to the job?
  • Shocks and Struts: also play a major role in both driving comfort and safety. If they need to be replaced, you’ll really be glad you did once you hit the road. Is it time for a wheel alignment? Fighting a car that’s pulling to one side all day can be tiring and dangerous. (As we all know, winter wreaks havoc on Chicago roads, and one run-in with deep pothole can knock out your alignment or even damage a shock or strut. Here are 11 ways to know if your car has sustained pothole damage.)
  • Brakes: Any strange noises, grabbing, soft or hard pedal feel? If there is any doubt, we highly recommend a brake inspection before you leave.
  • Belts and Hoses: Moving under the hood, have your belts and hoses inspected. If something is excessively worn or near failure, the stress of a long road trip might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
  • Air Filter: Your engine air filter will also be important. For every gallon of gas you burn, your car will filter and use 12,000 gallons of air. If the filter needs to be changed, you’ll notice the fuel savings (or loss) on your trip.
  • Preventive Maintenance: How close are you to your next oil change? Will you be able to complete your trip before it’s due? If not, have it taken care of before you go. A full service oil change is a great idea because we will top off all your fluids and check to see if any other maintenance items are due, such as transmission or cooling system service. (At Star Auto Authority, we’ll also inspect most of the items on this checklist during an oil change.) Also, be sure to test your wiper blades. Are they worn or working well? They’re an easy item to forget until you’re driving down a dark road on a rainy night. Headlamps are also easy to overlook. Make sure your high and low beams work, as well as your turn signals and brake lamps.
  • Warning Signs: Do you notice any unusual odors in your vehicle? If so, it could as harmless as a dirty cabin air filter. But if it’s an exhaust leak it could be fatal on a long trip. Of course you’ll want to be comfortable, so consider A/C diagnostics or service if your system was not outputting cold air at the end of last summer.

All the items mentioned in this checklist are part of any good maintenance plan, and we will always advise you of your upcoming maintenance and repair needs. But if you haven’t been to see us for more than three months or 3,000 miles, consider scheduling a pre-trip inspection this week for added peace of mind as you embark on your trip. Happy trails!

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Aging tires can compromise safety
September 9, 2008 @ 12:30 am
It appears that time is not necessarily on your side when it comes to older tires and safety. Some industry activists and experts are asserting that treads on tires older than six years could separate without warning, potentially putting you in harm’s way. But before you succumb to any hype, let me assure you that a little bit of attention to your wheels can help you prevent tread separation and other tire dangers from ever playing a role when you’re on the road.

Tire tread separations were front-page news in 2000 when Firestone tires and Ford SUVs were under scrutiny for causing accidents. Investigation into this tragedy led to findings that all of the recalled tires met federal safety standards, but the standards were written decades ago when radial tires were a rarity. That prompted Congress to pass the TREAD Act, which required the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to create new regulations to prevent future tire-related accidents.

The issue now is aging tires. Like any other rubber product, tires have a limited service life regardless of tread depth and use, and experts have given tires have a safe, useful life of six years from the date they’re manufactured. The danger of “aged” tires is a little-known problem outside of the industry and one that could cause of a significant number of tread separation problems.

Aged tires are often unsuspectingly put into service after having served as a spare, having been stored in garages or warehouses, or simply used on a vehicle that is infrequently driven. In many instances, these tires show no visible sign of deterioration, and absent any visible indicators, tires with adequate tread depth are likely to be put onto vehicles, regardless of age.

What can you do? Keep track of when your vehicle’s tires were manufactured (remember the spare!), and when you buy new tires, be sure to speak with the service provider about the date of manufacture.

Each tire has a Department of Transportation (DOT) number molded into its. However, the date coding is not consumer-friendly and can be confusing. The Rubber Manufacturers Association Web site offers this information for reading these codes:

  • The letters “DOT” certify compliance with all applicable safety standards established by the DOT.
  • Adjacent to this is a tire identification or serial number. This serial number is a code with up to 12 digits that are a combination of numbers and letters. The last characters are numbers identifying the week and year of manufacture. (For example: “1501″ means it was manufactured in the fifteenth week of the year 2001.

If you need help determining the age of your tires, we can help. You’re always welcome to contact us by email or phone.

For more information on this topic, you may want to watch the video segment that ran recently on the ABC television program “20/20″ about tire safety and tread separation. Although it’s somewhat sensational, it answers some basic questions about aging tires and the potential danger they pose. Take a look and let us know your thoughts.

Also, take a look at this tire safety brochure from NHTSA, which includes important tire care tips.

Sources: ABC News, NHTSA, Rubber Manufacturers Association,
Safety Research and Strategies

Star Auto Authority
Vernon Hills, IL
www.starautoauthority.com
http://blog.myautoauthority.com/
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