2022 Gearhead Workspace Meeting
We kicked off the new year in the city, at Gearhead at their new location on 35th street in Chicago, with a what to do in winter member meeting.
Food and drinks were plentiful and once we all got warmed up in the shop Tim and Molly gave us the rundown on the things, we need to do on keeping our cars running well in the winter –
With the obvious of keeping your car’s fluids in check, and a nice set of winter tires, a couple of notable ones popped up that we should all keep an eye on as we continue to drive during this season, and to keep an eye on for next:
Tires – always make sure your tires are at the correct pressure. Due to the cold winters and the fluctuation between freezing and thawing temp for water, your tires may be under inflated, which will put lots of stress on your sidewalls, and can make them fail in winter. If you are using a winter set, make sure to check those tread depths, they will need to be changed much sooner than your summers (your winter set needs more deep channels to help cut through the snow).
Batteries – check that voltage! If it is under 12v, you may need to replace that battery. Normally the heat of our summers is when our batteries get too stressed, but because of the warmer temps, the battery is just good enough to crank during the warm months… However, in winter this is where that battery may not have enough juice to crank which is when you notice that the battery is officially done. Also, a nice reminder for winter garage baby’s… keep them on a tender throughout the season so you do not stress the battery with a complete drain and recharge.
Remember keeping those fluids in check? Yes, we all know about keeping that washer fluid topped off, and also to have fluid that can handle our lower temps, but sometimes we forget about our other fluids – most notably our gas tank. Friendly Tim reminder is that you should not dip below half a tank on your car. Here are the two best reasons for that – 1. That fuel line can freeze if there is no gas in it, and will aid in burning that pump out quickly. 2. If you get stranded and you need to keep the car on to stay warm (like what happened in Virginia in December) you will have enough to stay warm, and get to where you are going safely.
With all of this and other great information given by Molly and Tim, we got to enjoy their new permanent home and see what new projects they have ahead of themselves (spoiler, it’s an LS swap into their Cayman…)
If you are a Windy City BMW member and a city dweller (or don’t mind the suburban drive in) we encourage you to stop by their place for a visit, and to check their website as they have classes to make you a better wrencher on your car:
https://gearheadworkspace.com/news/
Special thanks to Justin for volunteering his car, you can see more pictures of it on his Instagram page @f32_stormtrooper
We want to thank Molly and Tim again for allowing us to come in and see the new shop and always being an amazing host for us. We hope to see them again in another member event!