Under the Hood – You and Your Car

Well we seem to have a lot of challenges right now. We are officially in the pothole season as well as new high pricing for fuel. Since last time I covered some fuel saving tips, I’ll cover how to deal with the poor roads now.

We have seen more bent wheels and damaged tires this year than any previous year I can remember. In fact, this seems to be a trend going on around the state as well. Pot holes present a great challenge for us. They can’t always be avoided safely. Here are some tips that I can give you to consider and hopefully they will help you reduce the added expense of driving today.

• Keep your tires properly inflated. This will help protect the wheels as well as the belts in the tires.

• When possible, safely move over to avoid the pothole. Make sure to do this smoothly and don’t swerve. Swerving to avoid a pothole or anything for that matter, can cause you to lose control of the car and potentially cause even more damage than by not swerving.

• When possible, slow down to go over a pothole or rough pavement. Even the best new shock absorbers or struts will not be able to keep up with the speed of the action over bumps and the tires will lose contact with the road. Anytime the tires don’t have contact with the road, you don’t have control of your car.

• If you have some serious contact with a pot hole, get your tires, wheels and suspension checked. If there is some damage, you may be able to reduce some repair expenses by catching it early.

• If you see some roads that are in really bad condition, report them to the Door County Highway Department or Sturgeon Bay Public Works if they are in the city. They may not know about them.

Some of the items we inspect to make sure you have the best ride and tire life are the same ones that are taking the most abuse this time of the year.

• Shocks and struts – Their main job is to keep the tires in contact with the road. They also aid in reducing stopping distances. As they wear, the car will not have the stability it once had. This is typically a gradual wear and it may not be felt for quite a long time. Anytime after 40k miles they can start to lose their full effectiveness. If your car is riding harsh, floating, or losing traction when braking then it may be time to get new shocks or struts.

• Tires and wheels – We are looking at tires for bulges on sidewalls, runout, and cord separation. We are looking at wheels for runout and bends where the tire meets the wheel.

• Springs – We are checking the ride height of the car and checking for broken springs. If the ride height is lower than the manufacturer specification, you are sacrificing ground clearance and the wheel alignment will be incorrect. If you have a broken spring, the alignment will be off and there is a potential for the spring to cut into a tire.

• Steering and suspension components – With the rough roads we have right now, the steering and suspension components take a lot of abuse. Items such as ball joints, tie rods, idler arms and pitman arms that may already be worn are more likely to fail when subjected to the sudden jolt from pot holes.

So if you feel your vehicle is taking a lot of abuse with the roads lately, please be sure to get it checked out for safe spring driving. Even if you feel that all is well, it may be wise to get the tires, suspension and steering checked after the roads have been restored to good condition to reduce long term expenses.