Spring Clean Your Car With Our Tips
It’s almost spring! And that means it’s almost time for cabin fever and spring cleaning, which can be stressful for some and cathartic for others. Whichever school of thought you’re in, we’ve got a great guide to getting through spring cleaning your vehicle with ease. Check it out, and then share your clean results on our Facebook!
Replace your wipers with ones that haven’t been through the past winter. The salt, dirt, and other debris that gets thrown at your windshield with snow and road slush can do a number on your wipers, and with those spring showers that are coming, you’ll need your wipers to work well.
- Tackle your carpeting and upholstery by vacuuming the crevices in your seats, wiping your seats down with a damp cloth, and shaking out and vacuuming your carpets. Get the hose of the vacuum into all the crevices on the floor, as well, and really make sure to shake all the dirt out of your mats.
- Wipe down your console and vacuum out the cupholders. Don’t get the electronics wet, but make sure you clean off any grime or stickiness that’s collected.
- Organize everything in your glove box and other compartments. That’s a good place to stash trash in an emergency and then forget about forever, so make sure you take care of those spots.
- Clean the insides and outsides of your windows, including your windshield. Fingerprints, dust, and frost marks can collect over the winter and now’s the time to get rid of all of that.
- Clean out your trunk – winter debris and various other things can collect in your trunk and you don’t need to deal with that in the spring.
- Wash your vehicle! Use a good vehicle shampoo and a warm day and make sure your vehicle is looking great, and not being slowly eaten away by salt. Spray down the undercarriage as well to knock loose salt. If you’re more of the full-service car wash type, then treat your vehicle (and yourself, because who doesn’t love to go through a car wash??) to a nicer car wash that includes a protectant and undercarriage wash.
- Check out your wheels, including checking the tire pressure. Clean your wheels and wells, and making sure that your tires are in good shape and your wheels and rims aren’t bent or broken anywhere.
- Clean out your engine bay by getting rid of any dead leaves, debris, and dust that have collected in the bay and checking for animal nests (especially if you live in a more rural spot).
- Consider applying a protectant like a spray or wax to your vehicle after you wash it. If you do choose to do this at home, then do it in the shade. Direct sunlight is never a good idea when you’re applying protectant.
- Replace your wipers with ones that haven’t been through the past winter. The salt, dirt, and other debris that gets thrown at your windshield with snow and road slush can do a number on your wipers, and with those spring showers that are coming, you’ll need your wipers to work well.
How Often Do You Really Need An Oil Change?
Changing your oil is one of the most important parts of vehicle maintenance – if you don’t do anything else, at least you get your oil changed. Just ask any teenager! However, the rule you might know about “6 months or 3,000 miles” isn’t necessarily true. Especially for our customers with classic cars, that interval between oil changes might be shorter, and if you drive a newer vehicle that interval might be longer. Check out some of the factors that go into the frequency of your oil changes:
- The age of your car
- The type of oil you use
- How many miles are on your car
- What conditions you usually drive in
- How hard you drive your car
So, basically, you should ask your service tech to really take a look at your engine and talk with you about your driving habits so that they can assess how often you really need to get your oil changed. If you don’t need one every 3,000 miles and can actually go 8,000 miles, you should be able to spend that time enjoying your awesome vehicle, not having your car sit in the shop for an oil change it doesn’t need for another 5,000 miles!
Take it from us – we want you to enjoy your vehicle to the fullest. Talk with us about your oil changes and we’ll make sure your engine is in the best health of its life!
Maximize Those MPG’s
If you are one of the millions of American drivers looking to increase their fuel economy in the vehicle you already have, well, you’re in luck! You might not be ready to purchase a new vehicle just yet, or you’ve got a rockin’ classic car that you are never going to part with, and that’s fine! Here are our tips on increasing your MPGs by a few miles by just changing some of your driving habits!
First, avoid speeding. When you speed, you’re both breaking the law and doing a lot of accelerating and decelerating that you probably don’t mean to do. A great way of avoiding exceeding the speed limit is to use your cruise control when you’re on the highway and it’s safe to do so.
Keeping your vehicle in good shape is another way you can maximize every gallon of gas in your tank. With properly inflated and aligned tires as well as good, clean oil, your vehicle will run at its best! Having your tires inflated and aligned is super important. Properly inflated tires reduce the amount of drag that your engine has to work to overcome. When it’s time for new tires, ask for low rolling resistance tires to help with that fuel economy.
Combine trips and carpool when you’re out and about. It not only saves fuel by minimizing the amount of time you’re on the road, but it reduces the cost of gas for everyone and reduces the amount of emissions you’re creating. Win/win! And when you’re running errands or picking people up, don’t idle your vehicle. Idling for one minute uses more gasoline than it takes to start your car, AND it puts out a lot of fumes. Be safe and economical and just turn off your vehicle!
Park in the shade in the summer, or use your garage when you’re home (if you have one). The heat from the sun not only damages your paint job, but it heats up the fuel tank and causes evaporation of your gas, leaving you with less to use for driving.
Finally, minimize the weight and drag of your vehicle by cleaning out any unnecessary things you’ve been toting around, and then carrying things inside of the vehicle that you might have had in a roof storage box. If you need a storage box anyway, switch to something rear-mounted instead of roof-mounted to minimize the drag of your vehicle as a whole.
We are absolutely not guaranteeing a dramatic increase in MPGs – you won’t go from getting 20 to getting 70, but you’ll see an increase of a few miles per gallon if you drive carefully and conscientiously. Try out our tips, and let us know how you did!
Tire Care Basics
An essential part of maintaining your car’s health is to check its tires – but let me tell you, it’s probably the most overlooked thing. Sure, folks will wash off their windows at the gas station, but will they take a minute in the morning once a week to make sure their tires have the right amount of air? Here’s how to take care of those tires properly!
So, as I said before, you should be checking your tires at least once a week. All you’ll need to do this is a tire pressure gauge and a tire. The gauge can be bought at pretty much any auto parts store for cheap, and to use it you just put the gauge on the valve stem of your tire. If you don’t know what the pressure of your tires is supposed to be, there’s a sticker on the inside of the driver’s side door jamb that’ll tell you. It’ll also be in your owner’s manual and maybe even on the tires themselves.
You also need to check your tires’ tread. To do this, get a penny and just put it into the tread with Lincoln’s head facing directly down (or towards the center of the tire). If you can see the top of his head then that means you need to get new tires as soon as possible. The closer you are to seeing the top of his head, the sooner you’ll need new tires.
Tires generally should last for at least five years, but there are some important factors that go into your tires wearing down prematurely – and these things are all avoidable! They are:
- Low tire pressure
- Overinflated tires
- Aggressive driving
- Improper alignment
These things mean that you’ll be buying new tires much more often than you should be, so make sure your tires get tended to at every oil change to keep their lifespan as long as it should be!
Driving In The Dark
One thing about driving that gives a lot of people trouble is driving after dark. Some of us just have bad night vision, and in this time of year when the sun is still going down earlier than in the summer, we’ve got more darkness to contend with. Luckily, we’ve got some tips for you that might help make driving after dark a bit easier!
The first thing is that if you’ve gotten yourself “night driving glasses” that are tinted in any way, well… those were a scam. I am sorry to tell you this. The pigment that forms the tint blocks light from your eyes, and while that’s useful on a sunny day you shouldn’t have anything that blocks light. Simply put, light is what lets you see things, so when that light is blocked you’re not going to see things as well.
That being said, if oncoming headlights do tend to dazzle you a bit, focus your vision on the white line at the side of the road when passing a vehicle going the opposite direction. This lets you stay in your lane while not giving you the spots in your vision that come from looking right at bright lights.
You can also flip your rearview mirror, or find an auto-dimming mirror (or a vehicle with one that comes standard!) to help with lights from behind.
Finally, if you feel that it’s just too unsafe for you to drive at night, then don’t. Schedule yourself so that you won’t have to, and if you know you’re going to be out after dark, arrange for a ride or call a ridesharing service or taxi, or take the bus if it’s available! Or, just stay home and read that book that’s been sitting on your shelves for too long. You know the one. It misses you!
Topping Off Is The Worst Habit To Break
So, I don’t know about you but I have this really bad habit of topping off my gas tank, trying to get the dollar amount to be a flat number (like $20 or something ending with a .50 or a whole dollar number). I say bad habit because it’s actually not the best for your vehicle to top off the tank. Why, you might ask? READ ON. It surprised me too.
First of all, overfilling your gas tank (which is basically what topping off is) can overwhelm the evaporative system in your vehicle, which can either break something or cause a leak in an inconvenient place due to built up pressure. Pressure builds as heat increases, so when your vehicle heats up from being driven right after you’ve topped off that tank… well. Recipe for disaster!!!
The second thing is that it’s honestly just a waste of money. Most modern fuel pumps come with a handy system where if the nozzle detects that there’s too much fuel in the tank, the gas you’re trying to pump into your vehicle is just going straight back up the hose and into the station tank. So, you’re getting charged, but you’re not actually getting the gas you’re paying for.
It’s a hard habit to break, and I am still working on it, but we should work on it together. Share this with your friends and family, and celebrate your savings!
Defrost Your Icy Car Fast!
Winter’s definitely here (when did it become January? It’s 2018??? I still think it’s 2004 sometimes) and as always the ice and snow came with it. We know you’ve got a car you love, and you don’t want to scratch it when you’re removing that ice and snow. But sometimes we go outside in the morning right when we have to leave and are faced with the dilemma of a frozen windshield and no way to clear it off fast. That’s where this blog comes in! We’ve got some solutions for getting rid of ice fast without scratching your vehicle. Check them out!
The one tool you absolutely need is a quality plastic scraper in your vehicle. One of the ones that also has a brush is super indispensable. Why plastic? Metal or other materials can cause some serious damage to your paint and/or glass, and plastic is a safer alternative. Never try to scrape with something made of metal if you don’t have a plastic scraper!
If all you’ve got is a frozen-over frosty windshield, an easy solution is this solution! Mix one part rubbing alcohol and two parts water, keep it in your home in a spray bottle, and then spray it onto your frosty glass. Wait a few minutes and then run the wipers. No more ice!
And a few tips on other parts of your vehicle: if your doors and locks are frozen, don’t use hot water or fire (like from a lighter or blowtorch). This can damage your locks, and hot water will freeze over again quickly. Cold water is what you should be using, because it’s just warmer than frozen and won’t freeze up again as fast. Try some of the alcohol solution as well.
Just have a little bit of patience, and maybe get outside a little earlier than you normally would so that you can defrost safely. Be prepared, but take your time if you’re not. When we’re frantic, we can cause damage. That’s not what we want!
Clean Out Your Garage And Save That Paint Job!
Do you have a garage? If you do, think about it for a minute. Is it clean? Can you park your car in it? If you can, then you’re all set and don’t actually need to finish reading this blog. If you can’t park your car in it, well! This is the blog for you, then. Today we will get you the knowledge and skills to organize your garage and be able to use it for its intended purpose! Read on, friend.
First things first: take everything out of your garage. Set it all out in your driveway or similar staging area. Throw away all the trash or other junk that you have been harboring that you don’t actually need. Then when you have a pile of things you want to keep, go through that pile. There are probably some things you don’t need to keep. Remember to safely dispose of any hazardous materials that you are throwing away, such as paint and other chemicals!
The next step is to assess your organization. If you don’t have shelves, invest in some! Vertical organization can hold a lot of stuff in a very small footprint. If you do have shelves, wipe them down and then put the stuff you’re keeping on them. Sweep and/or vacuum the floor (you can even take this time to put down a nice layer of floor protector or paint to make it look great) and then do a little dusting and other various cleaning tasks that you might have the leftover motivation to do.
Finally, get that car back in there! Congrats, you did it! And now you won’t have to do any more snow and ice scraping, which is awesome in my book.
DIY Interior Detail For The Winter Blues
Though you might not think so at first, winter is the perfect season to clean out the inside of your car and give it a DIY interior detail. Why? Well, winter is the time when a lot of people really get stuck in the doldrums, and as my mother always told me, having a clean and fresh environment can really turn your mood around! Not to mention that keeping busy always keeps that Seasonal Affective Disorder at bay… right?
To do this detail job, you’ll need:
- trash bags
- air freshener spray (like Febreze)
- upholstery cleaner (like Resolve)
- car cleaning wipes
- vacuum
- Q-tips
First, get all of the trash out of your vehicle. Hopefully it’s not much, but if you’re like me some things can pile up a little. Just get it out of there, regardless, and then put it in a trash bag and throw it away.
Next, take everything else out of your car – this means the stuff you want to keep in the car as well! Put it aside – maybe sort it a bit into things that stay in the car and things that go into the house.
Next, vacuum all the upholstery and fabric surfaces. Get deep into those cracks and crevices where crumbs and dust build up. Don’t forget the vents, too! Take some Q-tips dipped in cleaning solution and get into the tiny little grooves where gunk can start living.
If you have leather upholstery, give them a nice conditioning with some leather conditioner. They deserve it – if your hands get dry and cracked in winter, your leather seats aren’t much different!
Wipe everything down with a cleaning cloth (either a wipe or a clean, damp rag) to get any dust you’ve kicked up in your vacuuming. Spritz a little Febreze in the air.
Finally, put everything back into your car, but in an organized fashion, and voilà! You’ve detailed and cleaned your car. Don’t you feel better?
How To Buy Your First Ever Car
So, you’ve passed your driver’s test and officially have your driver’s license. You’ve been saving up all of your babysitting money, or hoarding every paycheck from your after-school job and you’re ready to buy your first car. YOU ARE SO EXCITED. But, you have no idea what you are doing. You’re an adult so you want to do it on your own without your mom or dad’s help…but also you kinda need some help. Good news, your friends here at Harchelroad Motors of Imperial and Wauneta have your back.
There are a few things that you are definitely going to need to bring with you if you hope to drive home with a new car:
- Proof of insurance. Most places will ask for proof of insurance, but if you don’t already have insurance because this is your first car purchase, it’s a good idea to have contacted an insurance company to figure out how much insurance will cost for the vehicle you’re looking at, and have them on standby when you plan to buy the vehicle.
- Talk to your bank or credit union and get pre-approved for the loan you’ll need. You may get something resembling a blank check (up to a certain maximum) that must be signed by you and the dealer. By getting pre-approved, you will know the total loan amount and interest rate you qualify for.
- Your Driver’s License. To be able to test drive the vehicle you’ll need to have your license, but you’ll also need it when you buy the vehicle.
Don’t worry, Harchelroad Motors will provide the DMV with the paperwork they need. If, however, you need to transfer ownership of the vehicle yourself (or if you’d prefer to do it yourself), you should ask our representative for:
- The Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin (MCO), if the vehicle is brand new/has never been titled in NY.
- The current title, if the vehicle is used/pre-owned and has been titled before.
- A dealer’s invoice, to function as proof of sale and fees paid.
That’s it! So stop by Harchelroad Motors today or check out our website to find your brand new car! We have a bunch of options that have the teen driver technology, so even mom and dad can relax about your new found freedom!
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