Trusted Saskatoon Blog | All posts tagged 'Tires Saskatoon'

Trusted Saskatoon Tire and Auto Repair & Service Winter Car Maintenance Tips

5. Dec 2019 Trusted Saskatoon Saskatoon Auto Repair & Service, Saskatoon Tires, Trusted Tips

Be Safe On The Roads This Winter

Safe driving is always important, but being on the road during winter warrants extra precautions. That's why we have written up our most important tips to stay safe in hazardous, wintery weather conditions.

1) Avoid slipping and sliding

Ensure your vehicle is ready for Canada’s changing winter weather, by switching your all-season tires to winter ones before the temperature drops below 7°C. Winter tires optimize the performance and safety of winter driving. The braking distance of a winter tire could be up to two vehicle lengths shorter than the braking distance of an all-season tire.

2) Replace Worn Tires

It’s extremely important to check your tires each winter season because worn or bald tires can be very dangerous. Tires have tread wear indicator bars moulded into them. A solid bar of rubber across the width of the tread means it’s time to replace the tire.

3) Make Sure Your Tires Are Correctly Inflated

For every 5°C drop in temperature, tires lose one pound of air pressure. To ensure optimum fuel efficiency and prevent irregular or premature wear, tire inflation should be checked monthly. Several tire manufacturers recommend that tire pressure should be higher in the winter, so check to see whether your tire pressure should be adjusted accordingly.

4) Fill Your Trunk With A Winter Survival Kit

Winter weather can be very unpredictable, so make sure you have a winter survival kit in your trunk in case you get stuck in bad conditions. Every car should have a scraper for the windshield, a small shovel, candles, and warm clothing such as a winter jacket, gloves and a hat. Also, make sure you bring a cell phone with you on every trip in case you need to call for help.

5) Defrost Your Vehicle Properly

Although it takes you a few extra minutes, make sure to properly clean your windows and remove any excess snow from the top of your vehicle. Ice and snow that is left on your vehicle can obstruct your view, causing potentially dangerous situations.

6) Top Up Your Fluids

Wintery road conditions can cause your windshield to get dirty quickly, so make sure your windshield washer fluid is filled up. Also, ensure your gas tank is at least half full, as on very cold days the condensation in the tank can freeze and cause problems.

7) Buckle Up & Adjust To Driving Conditions

Make sure you are always buckled up and adjust your driving to what the conditions are like. You will put yourself and others at risk if you do not change your driving style to suit the wintery conditions.

Epic Auto & Driveline Trusted Saskatoon Tire and Auto Repair expert tip on Re-Torquing Tires

9. Jan 2015 Trusted Saskatoon Saskatoon Auto Repair & Service, Saskatoon Tires, Trusted Tips

Epic Auto and Driveline is a one-stop Saskatoon automotive and tire shop for domestic and import cars, light trucks, and SUVs

You can be confident knowing that they always take pride in their work and take good care of their customers. Epic Automotive and Driveline is a Trusted Saskatoon Tire Shop. In this tire tip they share why you should re-torque your tires!

Re-Torque Your Tires

Occasionally a customer will come into our auto repair shop with a concern of a noise; once in a while we find loose lug nuts that hold the tires and rims tight to the car. This usually happens shortly after they have had the vehicle in for servicing somewhere and the wheels were off or they have taken the wheel off themselves.

Re-torquing wheels after vehicle servicing

When you bring your vehicle to a Trusted Saskatoon repair shop, if we have had your wheels off of the vehicle, we will ask you to return so we can re-torque the wheels. Your invoice will also have a statement on it advising that the wheels need to be re-torqued. You can do this yourself if you like, but if we were the ones to work on the car we do this at no charge to you. We always use a torque wrench to tighten your wheels when we re-install them. This is more of a safety concern now than it was 20 years ago. Vehicles are much more reliable today, but they are made with lighter materials and some of these are very fussy about how they are put together. Even a slight decrease or increase in the tightness of bolts and nuts can have adverse effects, in that they can loosen or they can break.

Most automotive shops will use a torque wrench to tighten the wheel and this is the best way to make sure the nuts are tight but not so tight that the wheel studs break from too much pressure on them. Some vehicles are more prone to having the lug nuts loosen and will need multiple re-torquing to make sure they stay tight.

Loose wheels don’t happen often, but to be safe, have your wheels re-torqued within the first 100 KM after they have been put on. It is the responsibility of the vehicle owner/driver that this is done. Loose wheels can cause a lot of damage to your car and potential injury to you and others. It doesn't take long to re-torque wheels and could save you a repair bill and a big headache.

Epic also offers financing. If you need vehicle parts or car service but don't have the immediate funds to pay for it, take advantage of a monthly payment plan using the value of your vehicle through their financing partner.

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Epic Automotive and Driveline is a Trusted Saskatoon Tire Shop

Your Trusted Saskatoon auto repair experts tip on How to Properly Adjust Your Head Restraint

9. Mar 2014 trusted Saskatoon Auto Repair & Service, Trusted Tips

Trusted Saskatoon Auto Repair Expert

Tip on How to Properly Adjust Your Head Restraint:

Most people don't give head restraints a second thought when climbing into a car, and even fewer would count them as a safety feature. But think again. Head restraints don't just hinder rear visibility and give you a comfortable place to rest your head; they play an important role in protecting the head and neck in a crash and help prevent injuries like whiplash.

More Safety News

Whiplash head and neck injuries most often occur in rear-end collisions and a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study estimates that between 1988 and 1996 there were 805,581 whiplash injuries each year. When a car is hit from behind, it is pushed forward, causing the seatback to push against the occupant's torso and move the torso forward as well. As a result, an unsupported head lags behind the torso until its neck can catch up and then whip the head forward.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, neck sprains and strains are the most frequently reported insurance claim injuries, and the agency puts the cost of these claims at around $8.8 billion each year, or 25 percent of the total dollars paid for all crash injuries combined.

"People can experience severe crashes with no neck injury if there is little or no movement of the head relative to the torso," IIHS said in a statement.

NHTSA began mandating head restraints in the front outboard seats of all new cars in 1969; it extended the mandate to pickups, vans and SUVs in 1991. Automakers are not required by law to include them in the backseat, however.

So, head restraints are in just about every car on the road today, but how do you make sure you're getting the most out of them? The following are tips on how to properly set and adjust your head restraint from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

Head restraints should be positioned high enough to support the head so as to minimize neck distortion.

Adjust the head restraint so that it's even with the top of your head. If it won't reach the top of your head, make it as high as it will go. For people on the short side, no adjustment from the lowest setting is needed. If it's higher than the top of your head in the unadjusted position, that's OK, too.

To minimize neck travel in an accident, the distance from the back of the head to the restraint should be as small as possible — preferably less than 4 inches.