Regular upkeep on your vehicle is a must. Even though you do remain diligent, there will still be things that will need to be replaced from time to time, the motor oil, the wiper blades, the 26″ rims, or the brake shoes, and the tires. I have experience with each of these items “breaking down” in my many years of driving. These are items on your vehicle that simply wear out or become damaged over time.
Aside from the rims, all the other items mentioned play a large role in the safety of yourself and all those riding in your vehicle. If the motor oil is not fresh, or if there is too little, the motor of your car may freeze–or more accurately, burn into itself, causing the engine of the car to seize on the freeway. This happened to me in college and it was a frightening experience. Going at high speed, my car slowed down drastically and the power brakes and steering not longer functioned.
The wiper blades? Again, nothing worse than being in a Phoenix monsoon storm without properly functioning windshield wipers. Again, I was caught in a storm and had to pull over and hail a cab. Brake shoes, not only is it extremely dangerous to not have truck wheels and braking systems routinely checked, it can get expensive when the shoes or pads wear out and damage the rotors. A simple brake job, inexpensive, I neglected and after just moving to Los Angeles found it necessary to spend almost a thousand dollars to fix my brakes on my truck.
Next stop, a trip to Idyllwild, California. for a wedding. This time it was not my overlook that got us into trouble, but my boyfriend’s. We were going down Interstate 10 at about 80 miles an hour, and not one, but both of the two back tires actually shredded as we were driving. We all of a sudden heard a sound like burlap flapping against the side of tin roof. We pulled over to see what was going on. His tires were in need of replacement, last year.
So we got back into the Jeep, and slowly made our way to Palm Springs. We found a discount tire distributor, and had all four replaced at once. We were lucky. We experienced an inconvenience, but no one was hurt. We had a great weekend and vowed to always, from that moment on, keep up on the small and easy fixes that make such a difference when driving–in town, and cross country.
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