Tag: Seattle Auto Body Shop

There’s a lot depending on your car, particularly if you have tiny family members who aren’t yet big enough to effectively use a seat belt.  If you’re driving with infants or toddlers, our Seattle collision center wants you to make sure they’re riding safely.  In order to do so, we invite you to look over some of the bigger mistakes that parents make.

• Always know how to use your car seat!  The proper use of a car seat is crucial to your child’s safety.

• Let your child face backwards until the age of two.  It takes time for the muscles to develop in your child’s neck such that he or she can withstand the force of a sudden stop while facing forward.

• Don’t hold a child in your lap.  In the event of a collision, it’s too easy to drop or lose your grip on your child.

• Put one child to one seat belt.  When kids share a belt, they’re at greater risk of knocking their heads together.

• Put your child in the back seat until the age of thirteen.

Do you remember to wax your car?  It’s not just a way to keep your ride looking good, it’s also just a practical idea.  Waxing serves to protect your paint job, allowing it to repeal harsh chemicals, debris, moisture, wind, and the heat of the sun, all of which have the power to break down your finish and leave your car’s body vulnerable.  In case you don’t know how to wax your car properly, Greenwood’s Seattle body shop offers the following tips:

• Park your car somewhere out of the sun before you begin.  Sunlight can react poorly with the wax, and may lead to damage to your paint job.

• Clean your car first.  A tiny speck of dirt can scratch your finish during the waxing process.

• Don’t apply the liquid wax directly to the paint!  Put it on your rag or your applicator, whatever you’re using, before rubbing it onto the car.

• Divide your car into five or six regions, and wax these one at a time.  Focusing in a smaller area lets you make effective use of your wax before it dries.

• Wax in broad strokes and circular motions.  Don’t linger too long on a single spot, particularly if you’re using an automatic device.

• Follow up your wax job with a good buffing.

If you engine absolutely refuses to respond when you turn the key, then you’re not getting any power in your system. This can be caused by a number of things, but the most likely culprit is a dead battery. Before you spend the money on a new battery, however, our Seattle auto body shop suggests that you take these simple measures to make sure that this is indeed the problem that needs to be solved.

If you have a battery tester, check to see if the voltage is weak. Your battery should be at 12.5 volts at rest, and 13.5 volts with the car idling.

Don’t have a tester? The good thing about a dead battery is that it doesn’t get in the way of jumping your car. Try performing a jump; if the car starts like normal, then your problem is in the battery. If it still refuses to start, then the problem is somewhere else.

While you’re at it, take a look at the battery connections. Is there anything built up in there that might be ruining your power flow? Try cleaning these out and starting your car again.

Do you fancy yourself a real automotive do-it-yourselfer?  That’s great!  Just be sure that you’re taking care of yourself while you take care of your car.  After all, you can always take your car into your Seattle body shop in a worst case scenario, but we won’t be able to do anything to fix you.

• Protect Your Eyes: Sparks, sharp objects, even blasts of hot steam or splatters of toxic chemicals; all of these represent potential hazards to your fragile eyes.  Get a set of dark-lensed goggles, or even a pair of sunglasses that fit snugly on your face and attach to a strap around the back of your head.

• Wear Gloves: It can sometimes be difficult to tell what is safe to touch inside your car.  You’ve got sharp edges, electrical systems, harsh chemicals, and metal surfaces that are prone to a lot of heat.  Get a heavy pair of gloves.

• Work in an Open Area: Chemical vapors from your car can be dangerous to breathe over an extended period of time, and gasoline is still combustible in a vapor form.  Work on your car outdoors if you can, or at least leave your garage door open.

• Secure Your Car: Set the parking brake, turn off the engine, and put the car in neutral.  Some exceptions can be made, if the particular repair you are doing requires the engine to be on, but these should be rare.

Say you’re out on the road and your oil light turns on. Do you know what to do? Take the advice of Greenwood’s Seattle body shop to avoid doing catastrophic damage to your car.

In case you don’t know which light is your oil light, it generally takes the shape of an old-fashioned oil can. This will light up in red when your car experiences a drop in pressure. When this happens, you want to pull over as soon as it is safe to do so and shut off your engine. It is not safe to continue running your car without oil pressure, for without lubrication, your engine is rapidly tearing itself to pieces.

The first thing to do after pulling over is to check under your car. Is any oil leaking out? This probably means you’ve blown a gasket, and will need to get a tow. If you don’t see any leaks, try checking and changing your oil (it helps to have an extra bottle of oil on hand). After you’ve done this, try starting up your car again and seeing if the oil light comes on. If it does, you’ll want to get your car to a proper body shop as soon as possible.