Category Archives: Maintenance

Maintenance, Vehicles

Car tips for … Summer?

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Being in Buffalo, we are used to seeing all the tips and tricks to keep your car and yourself safe and running in the winter. But the summer? That’s a perfect time to ignore the car and hit the festivals, events, and beaches, right?

There is nothing that can ruin a summer outing than a break down. So a few tips to help prevent that from happening.

Have your vehicle’s alignment checked. A spring of pothole season can work wonders on knocking your car out of alignment, and it ought to be pretty easy to fix *before* you have a breakdown.

Check your car’s belts and hoses for winter wear and replace anything that is worn, cracking or has blisters.

Check fluids and top off or replace anything that needs to be. Your car shouldn’t be dehydrated in summer either. Check your battery for corrosion, and under the hood and under the car for leaks. Summer needs for a car are different than winter needs.

Check your tires air pressure and for wear and tread depth. Don’t forget to check your spare! And pay attention to your tires during any hotter than usual weather. Blow outs are more likely to occur in summer because of the heat. Have any bulges checked out right away.

Check that your wipers are working well, and change from snow wipers to rain wipers, if you switch out.

You can safey remove all the winter stuck in the snow/at the office gear, but keep your jumper cables, car maintence stuff, first aide kit. You will also want to keep water in the car, both for you and the radiator. Sunscreen, a baseball cap, and a diaper changing sheet (in case you need to get home in a wet bathing suit!) are all good additions for a summer car kit.

And while you can take a break from worrying about driving in ice and snow for a few months, there are hazards in the warm weather than can just as easily cause accidents. There are more people on the road, especially during what are normally ‘school hours’ when teenagers are more likely to be driving. There are bicyclists and motorcyclists sharing the road who aren’t there nearly as much in winter.  And in residental areas, there is a far better chance of a child rushing into the street after a ball than in winter.

But with a few checks and precautions, summer driving can be fun and simple. Have a great one!

 

Maintenance, Safety, Vehicles, Winter

Quick checkup for your car’s health

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Regular maintenance to keep something running smoothly often slips our minds, whether it is for us or for our things. But sometimes just checking things out to make sure they are ok can save you money and keep you safe. Especially when you are checking your vehicle.

 

This is a quick checklist that if preformed often will let you know if there is a problem and stop them from showing up, keep you safer, keep your fuel consumption lower, and keep your car on the road longer. And it’s easy enough to teach your teenager to do.

 

Windshield Washer Fluid

Check: monthly or if you use it a lot.

How: Check the reservoir located in your engine and marked with the universal wiper fluid icon. Keep some in your trunk or (if there is room) hooked in your engine compartment.

Why: grime, insects and rain can impede your vision and add glare at night. Your wipers can’t do all the work themselves, but like a dishrag with no soap won’t really clean your dishes.

wiper-fluid

 

Windshield Wiper Blades

Check: with each oil change and if you notice them not clearing rain in a single swipe, or leaving streaks or vibrating against the window.

How: Look for worn cracked or stiff areas. They ought to be smooth and flexible. Remember, they only last 6-12 months, depending on use and conditions, so purchasing a pair to keep in the garage or in the trunk is not a bad investment.

Why: Just like with fluid, if you can’t see, you can easily be extremely unsafe while driving.

 

Tire Pressure

Check: Once a month before driving.

How: Use a simple mechanical gauge to compare the pressure with what your car (not the tire) recommnds (this is located normally on a sticker in the glove box, door jam, or trunk.

Why: Over inflated tires wear the center of the tires faster and will give you a less than smooth ride. Under inflated tires wear the edges of the tires faster and give you less control of the car and worse fuel mileage.

 

Brake Fluid

Check: Every 3-6 months, or if your brakes feel odd. Replace completely once every two years.

How: Check the reservoir located in your engine and marked with the universal brake fluid icon. Keep some in your trunk or garage to top it off.

Why: Brake fluid allows your foot to communicate with your brakes to come to a smooth stop when you need to. If your fluid is low, or old, it can allow air bubbles to enter the fluid, causing you to brake unevenly or lose your ability to brake completely.

brake-fluid

Power Steering Fluid

Check: Every month, or if your steering feels stiff. Unlike brake fluid, you probably will never have to replace it, only add to it. Check your car’s manual for this.

How: Check the reservoir located in your engine and marked with the universal steering fluid icon. Keep some in your trunk or garage to top it off.

Why: Checking if your fluid is low will alert you to a leak that could potentially cause serious steering issues when you don’t expect them. Just like brake fluid, steering fluid helps you communicate with your car. If your fluid is low, you can suddenly lose your ability to steer.

power-steering

 

Belts

Check: Every 4-6 months.

How: Look for worn or cracked edges. These need to be replaced every 3-4 years. Look for specifics in your car’s manual.

Why: Belts help your engine control your car’s varies parts. If the belts are too lose, they will slip and waste efficiency. If they are too tight, they can cause permanent damage. If they are too old, they can snap and leave you stranded.

 

Battery

Check: every 4-6 months

How: The battery’s cables, clamps and connections ought to be checked for corrosion at least twice a year.  If the battery is showing other signs of weakness or age, like dim lights or slow engine cranking, you can have your battery checked. That’s actually a service AAA will provide for free.

Why: No one wants to be stuck with a dead battery.

 

Lights

Check: every 4-6 months

How: Simple enough if you have a partner to walk around the vehicle and check if lights are out. If you don’t, check while stopped in front of a glass window and you can see your own reflection.

Why: It’s way safer to have working lights, and you can avoid a ticket.

House, Maintenance, Roof, Winter

Preventing Ice Dams (Part I)

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So, after last year’s ice dams, I’m working to try and avoid them with pre-emptive actions to take care of the problems. Some of these will be inside the house, and others outside.

Inside, one of the things I need to do is empty the four rafter cavities that are over our son’s bedroom closet (below the attic floor) of the blown-in insulation, and try to use some rigid poly insulation that will allow air to come up from the eaves under the roof. This will go along with replacing the plaster and lathe with drywall, to take care of the water damage we had there.

The other thing I need to do is patch the places where the previous owner had the ‘master’ bathroom replaced. In order to run some electrical wires, the contractors they used put a big hole in the back corner of the plaster of the room, which they covered with a soffit over the shower. The thing about this hole, and the hole I assume is at the bottom of the wall, is that warm air from the house goes right up behind the shower and up under the base of the valley on the back of the house where we had the worst ice build-up. I’m still debating the best way to fix this problem, either from the attic above, or from getting into the soffit from the bathroom.

Outside, I’ve worked up a plan to run heating tape/wire along the eaves, gutters, and valleys where we had problems (and in the front where we also get ice build-up). This involves running wire to outlets to the exterior in the areas the tape will be located, and installing GFI plugs in these. Luckily, the finished room in the attic contained a 20amp, 240 outlet which we never used. I say luckily, as it was wired incorrectly for a 240 outlet (no return line other than the ground!), but after disconnecting it in the breaker box, it was a nice dedicated 12 gauge 110 line available in the attic, with enough extra line up there to install a junction box.

From the junction box, I need to run two lines, one to behind the valley over the shower, and the other to the front of the house. Each of these will be placed under the eaves of the roof, which will allow for the plugs to be protected from the weather, and to give a ‘drip loop’ to the wires which will insure that if water IS running down the wire, the lowest point of the wire will be below the plug/outlet.

The back area has two problem spots, and covers 137 feet of eaves, three valleys, a skylight, a small 4’x4′ first-story roof, and three downspouts. The eaves come out about 16-18” and have a split-slope, where the two feet of roof closes to the eaves is a more gentle slope than the rest of the roof. In dealing with that, I planned for 24-28” of coverage of the eaves, full gutter coverage, and six feet (or so) of coverage up the valleys with the heat tape/wire.

Frost King has a formula for figuring out how long of a wire you need for your task, and a couple of minutes of work made it an easy spreadsheet. Not surprisingly, I needed more than one length of wire for this set-up. Frost King offers wire lengths from 250′ to 50′, so I ended up with a combination of one 200′ length and two 60′ lengths, with one 60′ length dedicated to most of the gutters and two downspouts, the other 60′ length dedicated to the short section of roof (over our son’s closet), one of the valleys, the rest of the gutter and the last downspout, and the 200′ length to cover the rest of the eaves, the skylight and the other two valleys.

In the front, there is only one little section of eaves, and a long, winding gutter with a feed from the first story roof over the entryway, so a 60′ length will take care of the area, with a loop making sure the entryway roof outflow is clear.  And all of these will need the self-regulating, temperature sensitive plugs so that they’re only on when they need to be.

 

 

(Actual installation information in Part II)