Ensure safe travels with a pre-trip inspection

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:59:47 +0000

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!

One of the coolest auto services ever

Angi — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:33:00 +0000

Like millions of Americans, I drive an older car—a 10-year-old Toyota with 180,000 miles, to be precise. I live in the city, park on the street and only drive a couple times a week, so buying a new car just hasn’t made much sense.

But over the course of the past year or two, I had become painfully aware that it was harder and harder to see at night anytime it rained or I was on dark side roads. My headlights had yellowed with age and were cloudy instead of clear and transparent. If a car was riding next to mine, I could plainly see how much brighter its lights were and how much more of the road was illuminated. It was borderline embarrassing, but I thought my only option was to replace both headlight assemblies at a cost of more than $200 each. As you can imagine, I wasn’t real excited about that proposition.

When I came to work recently and heard that we had a new service to refurbish headlights like mine, I almost flipped a few cartwheels. What a fantastic idea! The restoration service entails using a sanding disc and a special compound to remove the yellowing and surface defects from the lamp lens. This is followed with another step to polish the lens surface. (We use 3M’s system, but a Google search will turn up other similar products.) We charge $89 for the service, and to me, this is a bargain compared to the alternative.

The average car on the road is 9 years old, so I know I’m not alone in this quest for better, brighter lighting. I asked our resident photographer to snap a few photos of my Toyota’s transformation so you could see for yourselves what a difference it can make.

The first night I drove home with my “new” headlights was akin to an awakening. I saw potholes and road features I haven’t seen in ages, and I’ve driven this same road for nearly 8 years. I was thrilled—and shocked at how little I’d been able to see before. My only regret? The fact that a snowstorm kept me from having this done before I drove 600 miles to Pennsylvania over the holidays.

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Ensure safe travels with a pre-trip inspection

One of the coolest auto services ever