With the economy stagnant and fragile, Krown Haliburton’s Kaitlyn Howe said the Industrial Park Road business has seen its customer base nearly double since opening in 2022 because people want to extend the life of their vehicles as long as they can. They don’t want to have to buy new ones.
“There has been a very large increase of people doing it, especially if it’s vehicles they have had for a few years, when they technically should have started doing it right away. People are trying to keep their cars longer because they’re very expensive. So, as soon as they realize they want to keep their car, they come here. We’ve had a lot more people looking to get their older cars done now. The downside of leaving it for a few years is there is going to be surface rust, so it sucks up the oil as much as possible, and will slow it down, but can’t stop it.”
She suggests the oil spray process begin when someone gets a new vehicle, and every year after.
Howe thinks the best season is spring because when they prewash the bottom, it gets rid of salt. They reapply oil and that benefits from the warm season. “It will move around a lot more.”
There are pluses to the fall, too, “because then it’s all coated before the salt starts flying around, and it will displace as much moisture as possible before the ice and the snow set in.”
Whatever season, “if you get it done yearly at any point, that’s the best thing you could do. It’s a preventative. It doesn’t fix rust, but it slows it down,” Howe said.
Asked about our particular road challenges, Scott Howe said the MTO spreads salt brine mixture on provincial highways which happens to be much worse than salt. “It’s a liquid that sticks like glue. It just corrodes your car.”
Kaitlyn Howe said many people drop their vehicle off and pick them up, but don’t know what happens in the garage. The process involves a pre-wash to get rid of any buildup on the underside. There is silicone spray on seals and under the hood. Then they oil spray inside panels, and under the hood. It goes on the panel surrounding your engine, inside the doors, and on inside the rockers. They apply white grease and plug any small holes they have used for getting into the metal. They hit the undercarriage. It gets another painted surface wash.
One tip they give when leaving is that sometimes oil mists onto brakes. “We always recommend you keep a safe distance behind the person in front of you for the first five or 10 minutes of driving. Once you’ve pressed that brake a few times, it just smokes off.”
Some people get their seasonal tire swaps done at the same time as oil sprays. Because it’s been a warm autumn, we asked Scott Howe if it’s bad to have winter tires on when the temperatures have been in the teens. He said it is not advisable to drive on winters when the temperature is warmer than 5C, but “you won’t be driving on them too long before the weather gets cold.”
