The Importance Of A Spring Service

You’re probably wondering if it is important to give your vehicle a service after the long winter and spring.

My name is Mark Jennings-Bates and I am a championship winning rally driver and also an ambassador for Big O Tires.
While participating in a rally event we race for relatively short periods at a time followed by even shorter service intervals sometimes only 20 minutes in between a series of racing stages. 
Those short services frankly are critical to our ability to keep our car safe, fast and on track to finish.
If you take a look at the amount of driving that we do between the service intervals we may only have driven 50-100kms before we get in to repair the car. During that time, damage may well have occurred that could impede us from finishing.
During that 20 minute service the mechanics sometimes have to change the transmission, pull off all of the wheels check the suspension, change a control arm, replace brake lines etc. The list can be exhaustive and often takes us close to being eliminated from the race for taking more than the allowed time for service.
So lets look at Canadian winter conditions and the fact that between the months of potentially October through to April, we can drive tens of thousands of kilometers. All of this driving will take place in severe conditions in many parts of Canada. I hope like me you understand the importance of giving your car not just a tune up but a complete service.
The winter can be challenging for cars for a multitude of reasons. For example the cold temperatures alone change the way the materials in new cars. For example many plastics that will break at a lower temperature. Oils are thicker, other liquids can freeze and salt on the roads increases the speed of decay for many components.Additionally, ice and snow challenges us with limited braking ability and sometimes that means we hit an obstacle that is concealed by the snow. Perhaps the obstacle is a curbstone or maybe simply a rock or a large piece of wood in doing so we run the risk of moving our wheels out of alignment.
Once our alignment is out of standard factory trim it gives challenges not only to vehicle handling but also to tire wear and fuel consumption. Additionally it starts to put new stress on other components related to suspension and steering. Without a proper service it can lead to more serious implications for your driving through the summer months.

So just like me when I’m rallying and competing to win a race, what’s most important is that my car is safe and drivable and so I don’t hesitate to maximize on those service intervals during a rallies. Those critical services mean that I can place my trust in my car, drive as quickly as possible knowing exactly how it will handle. The same is true for you when you place your trust in a Big O Tires service facility. You will be able to drive your family safely knowing how the car will react and that it is safe.
For me that is what makes a winter “service” more important than a winter “tune-up”. Post winter we need to get up close and inspect the components on the vehicles that could potentially be most impacted by winter.
One of the reasons I’ve been working with Big O Tires for so many years is that I can trust him to give me the honest opinion. That opinion may not include replacing an item but it may give me notice that there is some premature wear in an item and I need to bring the vehicle back soon. It may also be that the vehicle is perfect and doesn’t need any additional servicing so I can trust to get the honest opinion that I need from my garage to make sure that my car is safe and my budget is optimized.
To take it from me at the end of the gruelling winter, just like the end of two hours of racing you need to thoroughly check your car over. Call a Big O Tires service centre today to book an appointment for your spring service..
Safe driving