Amy’s Garage

Winterizing your car is essential to getting through a Vermont winter with no problems!

Here a the 8 Steps to Getting Your Car Ready for Winter.

1.  Clean your vehicle inside and out: Getting your vehicle washed and waxed helps protect the paint surfaces from snowy bombardments, and it will also make snow and ice easier to brush off.

Since you will be sitting in your car with the windows up for the next six months do yourself a favor and give your car a thorough cleaning ASAP. To prevent that stale air / locker room smell, consider replacing your cabin air filter. It’s also a great idea to take out your carpeted floor mats and replace them with a set of water-resistant rubber mats.

2. Make sure you can see: A winter storm is the worst possible time to run out of windshield washer fluid or to discover your blades aren’t clearing the windshield properly. Wiper blades usually last for about six months. Since visibility is a key ingredient to safety, so be sure to invest in some new ones if needed. Make sure the washer fluid is good to -20 F. Never use plain water. It will freeze all over your windshield.

3.  Ensure that your heating system is functioning properly: While a functioning heater and  defroster are necessary to keep the windshield nice and clear, they also offer you shelter from the cold. Trust me; you do not want to drive a cold car in the months to come. Also check that the rear window defroster is working.

4.  Tires: Need I remind you that the tire is the only part of your automobile that touches the ground? Having good winter tires on your car is the most  important thing you can do to insure the next six months of worry free winter driving. The condition of your car’s tires is critical during the winter. Braking, acceleration and handling are all impacted while driving on slippery roads. Give yourself an edge with great winter tires!

5.  Give your battery a little TLC: A battery gives little notice before it dies, and very cold temperatures can reduce a vehicle’s battery power by up to 50 percent.  PLUS you tend to load the battery in the winter having the defroster / lights / radio / phone or ipod all on at the same time. If your vehicle battery is older than three years, have the battery tested when you take your car in to get your winter tires put on.

6.  Belts and hoses: While they are testing your battery, make sure they inspect the belts and hoses for wear and tear — even if you’re driving a newer car. The belts and hoses in modern cars lead long lives, but that doesn’t mean they don’t die. Cold weather can do a number on belts and hoses, so they deserve attention too.

7.  Get the antifreeze mixture just right: The ideal mixture of antifreeze (coolant) and water inside your vehicle’s radiator is 50/50.  Antifreeze is very important to your engine. It cools the car’s engine, protects it from freezing in the cold weather and is the key agent in providing heat inside the car that keeps your toes warm. ALSO: the coolant should be changed every three years because the alkaline PH will turn acidic over time and can do damage to the system.

8. Prepare an emergency kit: Even the most  meticulously maintained vehicle can get stuck in a snow bank. That’s when it pays to be prepared for an emergency with a well stocked emergency kit. Click Here to get my list of what you need in your emergency kit!

Be prepared for the next six months by winterizing your car. This will help you avoid the aggravation of breaking down on a snowy, frigid day and save you money in the long run. Check out the GREAT Special we are running at my shop Auto Craftsmen this month that will make sure your car is ready for winter & that saves you a ton of money!

I am so proud to be able to announce that my shop Auto Craftsmen won the Times Argus ‘Best of the Best 2010 award’ for:  Best Auto Repair & Best Customer Service in all of Central Vermont. It really reinforces that all the hard work of the staff & all the extras we provide are really appreciated.

Auto repair is not easy work. It’s very hard physical labor & there is a huge learning curve at all time as the automotive technology continues to change on a regular basis.

Also -  I’m proud that Auto Craftsmen is now a ‘ASE Blue Seal Recognized Auto Repair Shop’.  This means that all our employees have ASE Certification! We have 2 Master Technicians on staff, and one of these Master Techs also has his L1 Certification. Even Marc has an ASE Service Consultant Certification. This is a big deal in our  industry, and we are pretty excited about it!

DON’T BE THIS PERSON?

While driving to work – the timing belt broke… and because this vehicle has an interference engine, the engine is probably toast. The vehicle got towed to my shop – Auto Craftsmen.

Her auto technician told her 3xs that she should get the timing belt changed on her 2002 PT Cruiser.

But she kept putting it off – because she did not want to spend the money.

The only way to find out if the engine survived is to put a new timing belt on the engine (approx. a five hour job). It is will either be OK – or not Ok – It’s about a $500 gamble! So Sad!

It’s very important to know if your vehicle has an Interference Engine. If it does have an Interference Engine & the timing belt breaks, – the pistons and valves collide. This not only stops your car (dead on the side of the road), but damages the valves, pistons or head… and in most cases, completely ruins the engine.

If your car is not an Interference Engine and it has a timing belt – and the belt breaks… then your vehicle will stop running, and you will have to get towed to a repair shop to get a new timing belt installed in your vehicle.

Lots of vehicles now have Timing Chains. Much better design – in that you don’t have to worry about it breaking, nor having to replace it around somewhere between 60,000 to 105,000 miles, depending on the year, make & model.

The timing belt is located under the timing cover – which is not easily taken off & put back on, so you can’t see the timing belt to inspect the condition it is in.

This is too bad when you are looking to purchase a used car that has about 80,000 – 100,000 miles. So it is very important to do your homework ahead of time and know what type of engine & timing belt a used car has before you purchase it.

Getting a timing belt job is an investment in the vehicle. It can run anywhere from $500  to $1,500 depending on whether you have other components replaced while the technician has the cover off.

If you are looking to get 200,000 miles out of the vehicle, I recommend having the water pump, idler & tensioner pulleys replaced at the same time the timing belt is replaced. If the pump fails or and idler or pulley seizes -it will break the timing belt and you will be back at square one.

I hope you never have this experience. The owner of this vehicle still owes a couple of thousand on a loan… and it’s very likely that the engine is ruined. No matter what they decide to do now, they are going to loose money on this car. Very Sad Story!

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo film

By Susan Allen Times Argus Editor – Published: June 18, 2007

MONTPELIER – Amy Mattinat knows her way around a car engine.

“I’ve always really loved cars. I went out with gear heads in high school,” said Mattinat — one of the few women across the United States who own or co-own automotive shops — seated in her office at the Auto Craftsmen on Route 2 last week.

“Backhoes, bulldozers, you name it, I think it’s so much fun to drive giant machines around,” she added.

Mattinat doesn’t just help her business partner Chip Tremper run the shop and used-car business.

She’s a leader in a national movement to get more women into this male-dominated industry, and to make sure women have the information they need to buy the right car at the right price, and keep their vehicles in top shape.

Mattinat is on the advisory board of automotive experts for “Ask Patty,” a national blog where women write in with questions about their automobiles. One recent entry, for example: “Tire Tips; Do You Think You’re Under Pressure?”

The site recognizes that women purchase the majority of the vehicles sold in the United States each year, spending billions of dollars on new car purchases.

“Yet, shopping for and buying a car can be a challenge for women who are first-time car buyers or for women who had a bad experience in the past with a car salesman or dealership,” the site states. “The Ask Patty.com, Inc. web site is a safe place for women to get advice on car purchases, maintenance and other automotive related topics.”

The site also certifies dealerships as “female friendly” based on an in-depth survey, and helps women locate a nearby dealership that is focused on working with and communicating well with female consumers.

But the automotive industry is still a strange land – as both job seekers and consumers — for many women.

Mattinat said she recently received a letter from a female mechanic who is trying to build an all-woman staff at her shop – a challenge given the small number of women moving into dealership or automotive tech jobs. Mattinat doesn’t have specific numbers, but she said there are too few.

And, she said, women consumers often don’t understand what’s going on under their car’s hood.

“My theory is that the problem with this industry is a lack of communication,” Mattinat said. She said men start in the industry as mechanics, narrowly focused on the machinations under the hood or the chassis.

“Their skill is not communication,” she said. “They need us women to teach them to communicate.”

Mattinat sees examples of the problem frequently in her shop. She’ll look up at the front desk and see the mechanic using “techie talk” to explain a brake problem to a female car owner.

“I can see her eyes are glazed over and she doesn’t understand,” Mattinat said.

Mattinat goes out to the desk and uses an Oreo cookie to explain the brake problem: The white filling between the two chocolate cookies is gone and needs replacing, she says. Plain English; problem solved.

It’s not just women who struggle with the techie-talk – men often get lost in the explanations, as well. But this has never been an inviting arena for girls and women, and females are often very different consumers when buying and maintaining cars, Mattinat said.

Women often don’t like to dicker over car prices when buying a car, for example. “It doesn’t have to be a game,” she added.

Women are a powerful consumer group, Mattinat said, and dealerships and mechanic shops are increasingly responding to that reality. She said an Ask Patty team attended a recent international car show wearing Ask Patty badges, and they were frequently approached by attendees with questions.

“It is happening,” she said. “The automotive industry is looking at Ask Patty and saying, ‘Who are these women?’”

Mattinat is also a member of two organizations that promote women in automotive fields, including the Women’s Car Care Council (which educates women about how to care for their vehicles so they’ll be safe) and the Women’s Automotive Association International (which helps women in the industry network).

She’s written a book for women – good for men, too – called “How to Buy a Great Used Car”, with easy-to-use information on financing, negotiation, warranties, buyers’ needs assessment, and more. You can download a FREE Copy by “Clicking Here”.

Mattinat also travels the country talking to high school girls and young women about opportunities in the industry. “You can make a lot of money working in the automotive aftermarket and make a huge difference,” she said.

The industry is changing so rapidly, she said, and there is a place for women in this increasingly high tech profession.

“Techs have the perception of being ‘grease monkeys.’ The grease monkey is the stupid guy who can’t read or write, so he becomes a mechanic,” she said.

But that’s a misperception, Mattinat quickly adds. Automotive technicians must know math and computers to function in the industry today. She recently sent her technical staff to a four-day training course on hybrid vehicles – cars that require several computers for their operation – because hybrids are the wave of the future in Mattinat’s view.

In previous years, cars signaled when they needed a tune up by skipping or otherwise giving drivers a hint that things under the hood needed work. Today, she said, computers carefully balance problems for as long as possible so that drivers don’t get obvious performance clues when it’s time for a tune up. That often leads to drivers waiting too long to perform routine maintenance and ending up stranded on the side of the road with a catastrophic problem that could have been avoided.

And, she said, the cars themselves are changing. Just one example she loves: vehicles that will automatically parallel park for the driver. She sees a day when drivers just climb into their cars, tell them where to go, and sit back and read while the vehicles drive to the destination.

“This industry is changing so fast,” she said and women need to be a part of that.

Female consumers need to be able to firmly and clearly communicate their car needs when they visit dealerships to buy; they need to listen and ask questions when their cars are being serviced; and they need to recognize the opportunities for higher-paying jobs in the industry.

There are good-paying jobs for women as auto technicians, service writers (the front-desk person who explains the issues to customers) and sales people, Mattinat said. The technicians will still need wrenches, but they will also increasingly need to know computers and electrical systems.

“Who knows where the technology is going,” she adds.