Getting your car ready for a road trip can take as little as 10 minutes. Here is a quick road trip checklist to help ensure your vehicle’s safety and reliability for your travel:
• Check all fluids such as engine oil, power steering, brake, transmission and antifreeze or coolant.
• Check all the hoses and belts. A belt that fails can affect the electrical system, air conditioning, power steering as well as the cooling system.
• Check tire inflation and inspect the tread for uneven wear. Get an alignment if needed.
• Check all exterior and interior lights.
• Check the wiper blades and make sure the windshield wipers are working properly. Keep the reservoir filled with solvent.
This quick pre-trip inspection will help reduce your chances of costly and potentially dangerous road trouble. Drive safe and enjoy your summer road trip!
Here are some of the reasons why your battery might have died, and some tips for jumping starting your battery that will help you get back on the road in no time.
Why did my battery die?
Leaving your lights on is the most common cause for a dead battery, however that's not necessarily the only way to drain your battery. Other way's your battery might die include an interior light that doesn’t shut off due to a faulty door latch, a faulty alternator, a poorly installed stereo system, subwoofer, or car alarm that may be leeching power through a short circuit. If you find your battery is constantly dying on you, it’s worth heading to a professional to diagnose the problem.
Choose the right tools for the job
There are two basic tools used to jump start a car battery.
The first is standard jumper cables, which are intended to connect your car’s electrical system directly to another vehicle nearby, allowing you to use its battery power to get your engine going. You’ll need to choose the right length of cable; standard units force you to park face-to-face. Finally, solid copper clamps always beat copper-plated clamps as the latter design (Sugg.: because the plating) can wear off over time and significantly reduce your ability to jump start a car battery.
Another option is a portable power pack, which is a self-contained battery you can keep charged in your trunk or garage. The pack can be attached to your car’s battery and save you from having to wait for a rescue.
Making the connection
Regardless of whether you use cables or a power pack, learning how to jump start a car battery requires you to understand how to make the right connection with your vehicle’s electrical system.
Always connect the positive terminals first. Then connect the negative terminals, starting by the working battery.
Although you are likely familiar with the concept of connecting the positive terminals and negative terminals together using jumper cables, it’s a good idea to clamp to the chassis of the car being jumped started instead of the dead battery’s negative pole. This provides you with a stronger ground—the battery itself has to ground out through the chassis, so you are cutting out the middleman—and ensures that any sparks that might fly are located far away from the battery, which could be venting flammable gases.
If you are using a battery pack, you’ll follow the same steps: positive cable to positive terminal, negative cable to negative terminal or ground pole/chassis. Lastly, make sure that the pack is on and ready when you crank the ignition on your vehicle.
Take a look this article for DIY methods on car care.
When it comes to actually moving your car, there are few things as important as your car’s transmission. Without it, the power of a car’s engine cannot ever reach the wheels, preventing the car from moving. There are several types of transmissions, but automatic transmissions are the most common ones. When your transmission runs into problems, you’ll likely feel the effects of it throughout your car, so visiting an auto repair store swiftly is key to ensuring your car stay on the road, where it belongs.
Here are some common transmission problems and their signs.
Low Fluid Levels or Fluid Leaks
Your car’s transmission is a series of moving parts that work to transfer power from the engine to the wheels. To ensure that each part is moving smoothly, fluids are required to lubricate the gears. Sometimes, leaks can occur when the seals in the transmission or driveshaft become faulty, causing you to lose your transmission fluids. Transmission fluid can also become contaminated from the coolant in the radiator. The result of low fluid is gear slippage and slow shifting, and requires fluid replacement and repairs on what’s causing low fluid levels.
Torque Converter Issues
One of the most common problems related to torque converters is worn or damaged needle strings. When they become worn, you’ll start to hear strange noises coming from the transmission when you change gears, creating grind or brushing noises.
Clutch Problems
Occasionally, the clutch can become jammed, which can cause the solenoid - which controls the flow of fluid in the transmission - to become locked and the amount of transmission fluid to be calculated incorrectly. When this occurs, it may cause violent shaking underneath the car and produce high levels of heat in the transmission, as well as a sharp drop in the power output of your car.
Keep your vehicle in tip-top shape at the proper auto repair shop. Located conveniently in Abbotsford, we bring comprehensive auto services to the surrounding areas.
But when we're on the road, we also need to make sure that our cars are doing fine.
Check out this article for tips on how to maintain your car to keep it running longer.
The engine is the heart of your car. It’s what runs your vehicle, and consists of many moving parts. In order to keep these parts moving properly, the oil in your engine needs to be clean otherwise the oil stops working properly, picking up dirt left behind in the gears of your and becoming murker. As you might expect, when your gears move against each other without the proper lubrication, it can cause troubles down the road and even threaten the overall lifespan of your car.
So how often should you change your oil? It’s hard to say, since it varies. Your instruction may tell you to do so every 5,000 km, or every 6 months. However, it can depend on conditions such as how long you drive and what the weather is like. If you frequently drive on the highway, your engine can reach temperatures high enough to evaporate the water that forms on the crankcase. Additionally, driving in dusty, dirty areas, or if you’ve towing heavy loads all the time, it can put a greater strain on the engine, causing it to dirty up your oil more quickly. When this happens, it’s better to get your oil changed more frequently.
At Paramount Auto Body, we strive to ensure that your car is running smoothly all the time. In addition to regular maintenance, we’ll top up your car oil as well to ensure that your engine is running like the well-oiled machine it should. Your car is your companion on the road, and you should have the assurance that it’ll run how you need it, when you need it.
Paramount Auto Body is located in Abbotsford.
Keeping your vehicle fully functional is very important while you’re on the road. When you start up your engine in the morning, you want to be sure that your car will run all the way to your destination. While we may not think that our car will break down anytime soon, the reality is that many of us neglect the well-being of our vehicles. We don’t take them in for regular tuneups as often as we should, and so our vehicle’s performance suffers in the long run. Your car may even last for fewer years than is intended. That’s why it’s important to make sure that get it serviced regularly at your local auto body shop. Both your future self and your vehicle may thank you for it in the future.
At Paramount Auto Body, we provide the full breadth of auto body services, including:
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Complete paint jobs
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Windshield repair or replace
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Dent repairs
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Oil changes
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Tire rotation and alignment
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Tire dressing
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Vehicle exterior waxing
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Undercoating
At our auto body shop, our 20 years of service allows us to be the leading voice for vehicles in Abbotsford. Our team of expert mechanics ensures that we’ll get the job done right the very first time, ensuring the longevity and functionality of your vehicle. Your vehicle is your companion on the road, so you want to make sure that it’s well taken care of so that it takes care of you on the road.
Paramount Auto Body is located in Abbotsford.
So you’ve been in an accident. You’re trying to deal with the aftermath of the event and trying to juggle your everyday life with insurance claims, injury, and vehicle damages. When this occurs, it’s always best to find a helping hand to make your road to recovery smooth and painless. That’s why at Paramount Autobody, we are dedicated to giving you fast, efficient, and effective service. When your vehicle crosses into our shop, we’ll treat it like our own and handle it with the care it deserves, giving it anything from a small paint job to significant auto repairs so that it rolls back onto the street with all the functionality of a new car.
In addition to car collision repair services, we also offer a series to your car. Our list includes:
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Complete paint jobs
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Dent repair
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Windshield replacement or repair
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Alignments
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Air conditional recharge
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Oil changes
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Tire Rotation
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A complete detailing of the car’s interior and exterior
After a difficult event like a car accident, it’s only natural to want support. While we are unable to give you support to troubles you may face like your insurance claims or injury, we are ready and willing to help in our area of expertise. No matter the state of your car, when you bring it into our auto shop, we’ll do our utmost to fix it so that it is one thing that you don’t need to worry about. While you’re focusing on working on your recovery, we’ll handle the task of fixing your vehicle so that when your life returns to normal, so will your car.
Paramount Autobody is located in Abbotsford and serves the vehicles from all its surrounding areas, such as Langley and Mission.
The time straight after a car crash can be difficult. You could be dealing with insurance claims, injuries to your person, and be unable to use your car for your regular daily activities. When this occurs, it can be very stressful to juggle dealing with so many things at once. Since crashes are sudden events, you are likely unprepared to properly deal with the troubles it causes both physically and mentally. That’s why when you deal with the aftermath of this difficult event, you’ll want a trusted auto shop to restore your car to full functionality and restore your life to normal as quickly as possible.
At Paramount Autobody , though we can’t help you with your insurance claims, we can lend our aid to your vehicle. Our car collision repair services range from a simple new coat of paint to significant auto repairs. We strive to repair any damage done to your car and, even better, we’ll restore its functionality so that when you drive it from our shop, it will be like you are driving it from the shop for the very first time. We know the stress that can occur due to auto accidents and we are here to help ease the burden. We’ll handle the handle lifting of car repair so that you can focus on your own recovery, both physically and mentally.
So if you are in the aftermath of an accident, bring your car into Paramount Autobody for our car collision repair service. Whether you’re in Langley, Mission or the area surrounding Abbotsford, our auto shop will handle all your car repair needs so that you can deal with what’s important to you.
