The Thing About Car Prep...

I have a love and hate relationship with deadlines. I hate deadlines because as the day approaches I typically leave 2 days for 30 days of work. I also love deadlines because, well, they make you get things done. For example, you are the one hosting the neighborhood Christmas party. Normally you hang that last Christmas ornament and the last string of lights by December 24^th, 10 PM. The #%@& Christmas party throws those ideas out the window and makes you frantically work to get the house ready. 

The same is true about car preparation. Whether it for a Cruise-in, the first or the 10th of many auto-crosses, or a long car trip, an event requires your car to be prepped. Depending on the event determines how much work is required. Cruise-ins focus on looks, racing on performance, and long distance car meets require looks, performance, safety and reliability. Long distance car events are like prepping for the 24 hours of LeMans, especially when you are driving a 40 year old car 1,100 miles round trip with a 100 plus mile very spirited drive squashed in the middle. Hey, just like my recent trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas for the annual Mid-America BMW 2002 festival.

The problem? I like procrastination which for this event is not a good idea.

So how does one prepare for looks, performance, safety and reliability? Pack lots of parts? That is part of it. First question, must you clean your car? You don’t have to but you also know that half the people at the event will have spent month's getting their cars ready and really, do you want to show up to a formal wearing a wife beater shirt and camo shorts? No. So a good scrub is in order.

Performance, safety and reliability? All are extremely important. The minimum work required - oil change, full inspection of brakes, cooling systems, electrical systems, suspension, and anything else that either moves, rolls, or holds something together, basically, everything. However, unlike the 30,000 mile service performed at your local Honda dealer where they 'inspect' 400 items, and then just change the oil and charge you $515.20, anything you find that is even remotely worn out needs to be fixed or replaced. 

Ask me how I know all of this? Go ahead, ask me. Yes, I procrastinated this year which forced me into prioritizing the minimal work and ‘overlooking’ things that needed to be addressed. I will change the oil, I will make sure that the suspension is healthy (a broken front control arm does not fun make). What can I overlook? My car has a rear wheel cylinder that leaks fluid just a tiny bit. The transmission leaks transmission fluid after sitting for an extended period. I have a tire, or tires, out of balance. Last but not least I have had a hard starting issue that seems to stem from a battery that doesn't fully charge.

I was aware of all of these problems, in fact, I have parts to fix them all. So I started very early getting ready – that would be on Monday for a Wednesday afternoon departure time. Yep, no procrastination there.

What did I actually do? 

·       Changed the oil and inspected anything that relates to safety.

·       Rotated the tires hoping that the bad one would end up at the rear of the car

·       Tell myself that all of the other issues would fix themselves.

Did my preparation pay off? You decide.

Halfway through the trip my brake light came on. Time to top off the brake fluid. Besides a soft brake pedal I had to worry about this issue for the duration of the trip. The ‘Transmission, Heal Thyself’ worked, mostly, as I only had to add a little transmission fluid during the entire trip. The out of balance tire(s)? The really bad tire did end up in the 

back but was replaced by a not so bad out of balance tire up front. Instead of a shaking steering wheel at any speed, it only shook in the very ‘unused’ speed range of 55 to 70 MPH - yeah, you hardly ever drive those speeds. The ‘bad’ battery? I could blame the battery but in the back of my mind I surmised a long time ago that an alternator might be going bad but surely it will last the trip and with 10 hours of driving each way, the battery will have to charge. You have probably guessed it by now, on the way home the alternator decided to say 'I am tired and think I will rest'. This meant driving home in pouring rain, lightning 

and wind with no alternator. No big deal except that meant no turning on my lights, running my wipers continuously and no defroster motor. They all use electricity that would come from a battery that is no longer being charged. On my final fill up I left the car running just in case the battery had died. It had because once I got home and tried to restart the car, not much happened.

My lessons learned, plural? For long trips procrastination is not an effective plan. For all cars, especially old ones, 

abracadabra and other things will not heal issues miraculously. As things wear out, fix them quickly, don't wait. Tackling issues when they occur means you don’t have to rush at the last minute. My final, and most important, lesson learned? Had I prepped my car better, what was really, really fun would have been a complete blast if I didn't have to worry about the car.

That’s thing about car preparation, our cars really don’t ask for that much.