Our vehicles are an essential element of our daily lives, and an essential part of extending the life of those vehicles is a spring car care routine. As New Englanders, we know that our vehicles take a beating in the winter. Snow and ice lead to salty, sandy roadways which eventually coat our vehicles and causes structural wear and tear to the body. Dirt and grime are tracked into our vehicles too, causing carpeting and upholstery damage. Right here in Worcester we had a pretty snowy season, complete with the typical central Massachusetts potholes and degrading roadways. As residents of Massachusetts there are a few things we should do in the Spring to take care of our vehicles.
The ‘Spring Forward’ service at Wagner Certified Collision Center will take care of these common tasks for you.
Have Your Tires and Alignment Checked
First and foremost, if you have snow tires – it’s time to take them off. Snow tires are made with a more pliable rubber that remains tacky in colder conditions to assist you
with winter driving. This causes them to wear down faster on normal roadways. If your vehicle is wearing all-season tires, it’s important to have the tread checked and the wheel inspected for any damage caused by potholes. Bent wheels – even if only slight – can cause additional damage to your vehicle if driven on for too long.
Once you’ve confirmed that your tires and wheels are in good shape, ask your mechanic if the tires should be rotated and if your vehicle requires an alignment. In Spring, it’s important to have the alignment checked. If you were lucky enough to avoid wheel damage from potholes, it’s likely that your car was knocked out of alignment. Realigning your vehicle will extend the life of your tires – which wear unevenly if your vehicle isn’t properly aligned – and will improve the drivability of your car.
Replace Your Wiper Blades
If your wiper blades have been on your vehicle since before the long winter, it’s also good idea to replace them in your Spring car care routine. Blades can bend or wear abnormally when running over icy, snowy windshields. You don’t want to wait until your driving in that first heavy downpour to realize that your wiper blades aren’t properly clearing your line of sight. Changing your wiper blades is easy – something most of us can do on our own – but if you do require assistance, many parts shops will swop out wiper blades for just the cost of the parts.
Have Your Vehicle Cleaned and Detailed as a Part of Your Spring Car Care
In Massachusetts, our roadways are covered in salt in the winter to reduce ice buildup. As the salt grinds down it adheres to our vehicles, leaving them a corrosive mess. You can see it along your vehicle’s sides, in the wheel wells, and just about everywhere else on the exterior of your vehicle. It’s important to know, however, that it’s where you can’t see it that may cause you problems. If you’ve had salty buildup over the course of the winter on the visible parts of your vehicle, it’s highly likely that you’ve also had salty buildup on your undercarriage. This buildup can cause corrosion and lead to a weakening of your vehicle’s structure over the course of time.
A professional detailing service, like the one we offer at Wagner Certified Collision Center, will properly wash away all of the harmful elements that winter has left behind. Thoroughly cleaning the exterior of the vehicle and carefully clearing the undercarriage of salt and debris is a vital step in your spring car care routine. Our team will follow up the thorough washing with a proper wax coat, leaving your vehicle spotless and coated to protect it from what comes next – the warm summer sun.
Cleaning the Interior is Important Too!
In addition to cleaning the exterior of the vehicle, our technicians will thoroughly detail the interior of your car. The same salty, sandy grime that coated the outside of your car has likely made its way inside. Evidence can probably be found in the carpeting of your vehicle or built upon the floormats. Thorough vacuuming of the vehicle and a hot water extraction process – where water is hyper-heated to around 200 degrees, applied to the carpet and upholstery, and extracted back up quickly – will catch all of the grime ground into the fibers, leaving your vehicle looking like new.
Spring Car Care Is Important
These tasks are vital to proper spring car care, and proper spring car care is important to your vehicle’s longevity. You invested in purchasing your vehicle, so it stands to reason that you would like your vehicle to last as long as it can. Keeping it clean and reducing wear and tear on structural elements will help you prolong your investment, and let’s face it – driving in a beautifully washed and thoroughly cleaned car with that fresh ‘new car’ smell is a great way to kick of Spring. Call us today, or contact us to schedule your Spring car care appointment soon!