Is Your Car in Top Travelling Condition?

by | Oct 28, 2019 | Auto Questions, Car Safety

Summer is just a memory and Fall is fading fast.  Soon it will be Thanksgiving – the most heavily travelled holiday of the year.  With all the other vehicles vying to get to Grandma’s house faster than everyone else, it is important to make sure that your car is holiday road trip worthy.  Be proactive and contact BA Auto today to set up a pre-holiday inspection.

Here are a few tips on what to do before you call:

  1. Start by checking the service reminder sticker or your records to see what service you might be due for.
  2. Also check to see if you have any service or repairs that you have been putting off. Most independent repair facilities can help you by going through their records to double check what is due.
  3. If there is work to be done and your budget is limited, prioritize the work in this order: safety, reliability and then preventive. Remember that preparing your vehicle for a long trip is more than getting an oil change at a local quick lube place! Pick a full service auto repair shop that can evaluate your whole vehicle.

It’s going to get colder. Don’t recycle your air.

Thanksgiving is the time of the year when the weather starts to become cold and we start to use our vehicle’s heating system. It’s important to make sure your car’s recycle button (See picture) in the off position.  This ensures that the air in your car is not recirculating. The recycling button usually has an arrow that looks like it’s going in a circle? You don’t want to use Recirculated Air in the winter because it traps humidity inside your car, resulting in super foggy windows! So when it’s cold outside, make sure that Recirculation is NOT selected unless you want to join everyone that is driving around with foggy windows.

Keeping It “Fresh”

Quite often, our customers will tell us that they don’t want “all that cold air coming in from the outside” during the cold weather. This “Fresh Air” mode setting (a button with an arrow going from outside to inside the car on most vehicles), doesn’t really bring cold air into the car. Instead, Fresh Air mode forces the outside air through your heater core so it’s nice and toasty before it reaches you, and your windows will de-fog a lot quicker and stay that way while you drive. Fresh Air mode is a good thing to have in the Winter!

Many newer vehicles have sensors to monitor and control the moisture, so you won’t have to worry.

Finally, if you use the air recirculating mode all the time it can lead to the heater core becoming blocked with mold which ends up making the inside of the car smell badly. (We wrote a blog recently about this) At BA Auto Care, we’re ready to prepare your vehicle for the road – any make and model – to keep you traveling safe during this season of good cheer.  Don’t forget to make an appointment online or by phone (410-381-2700).  We’ll get your car in and out of the shop in a jiffy and get you road ready for the holidays.

Here are some of the services we offer:

 

BA Auto Care

9577 Berger Road, Columbia MD 21046

Open Monday – Friday, 7:30 am to 6 pm

410-381-2700  | baautocare.com

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About the Author

About Brian England

Brian England, the current president of BA Auto Care (formerly British American Auto Care), got his start with an auto apprenticeship in a small town in northwest of London. He came to the U.S. in 1972 to work for a Land Rover dealer in Rockville, MD. A few years later, he started British American Auto Care with his wife, Jennifer. Brian is a big believe in preventative maintenance, and his philosophy is to encourage and educate drivers on the benefits of a regular maintenance plan.