Labor Day Road Trip Ready: Five Checks Before the Long Weekend

Labor Day lands on September 7 this year, and for a lot of Albuquerque families that means one last summer run: I-40 west toward Flagstaff, I-25 north into Colorado, or a short haul up to the Jemez before the aspens turn. The highway does not care that summer is almost over. Pavement temperatures are still brutal, and the most common holiday breakdowns are the ones a one-hour inspection would have caught. Here is the five-point check we run before you load the cooler.

• Five checks catch the classic trip-enders: tires, brakes, coolant, air conditioning and battery.
• A full summer of Albuquerque heat has already stressed your battery and cooling system more than any winter will.
• A pre-trip inspection takes about an hour and costs far less than a tow back from Gallup.

Five Checks Before You Load the Car

First, tires. We check tread depth, look for uneven wear that hints at an alignment problem, and set pressures for a loaded vehicle, because a family, luggage and 75 miles per hour ask more of a tire than the school run does. Second, brakes. Long descents like the grade coming down through the Sandias or the drop into Durango punish worn pads and worn fluid. Third, coolant. We test the condition and level and inspect hoses and the water pump area for seepage, since overheating is the classic summer holiday breakdown. Fourth, air conditioning, which is a safety system when it is 98 degrees outside and the kids are in the back seat. Fifth, the battery, which we load-test rather than eyeball, because a battery that cranked fine this morning can still be one hot parking lot away from quitting.

What an Albuquerque Summer Did to Your Car

Heat, not cold, is what actually wears a battery out. Months of 95-degree afternoons evaporate electrolyte and corrode internal plates, and the damage shows up suddenly, usually at the worst possible time. The same heat hardens rubber, which is why belts, hoses and wiper blades that survived June can fail in September. Tire pressure has been swinging with every temperature spike, and monsoon season has had your wipers and defroster working harder than usual. Monsoon season leaves its own homework behind: wiper blades that streaked through the August storms will not improve on their own, and washer fluid that ran low during the dusty weeks should be topped before the trip. None of this is a reason to worry. It is simply a reason to have someone look before you commit to three hundred miles of interstate. The math favors the inspection every time; a worn hose replaced in the shop costs a fraction of the same hose failing outside Socorro, once the tow, the lost afternoon and the holiday-weekend repair rates are added up. Our repair team sees the pattern every year: the cars that come in during the first week of September with heat-related failures are the ones that skipped the August once-over.

Book Ahead of the Rush

The week before a holiday weekend is the busiest stretch on our schedule at 8811 2nd Street NW, and travelers who wait until Thursday or Friday may not be able to be seen. Booking a couple of days ahead means anything we find, a battery at the end of its life, a hose that needs replacing, a set of pads that will not enjoy the mountain grades, can be handled before you leave rather than discovered on the shoulder. If the trip includes a trailer or a loaded roof rack, mention it when you book; tongue weight and tire pressures shift with the load, and we set the car up for the trip you are actually taking, not the empty-car defaults. AAA New Mexico answers thousands of roadside calls every holiday weekend, and the majority trace back to exactly the five items above.

As an AAA Approved Auto Repair shop and a NAPA AutoCare Center, Christian’s stands behind every service with a 5-Year Warranty. Give us an hour this week and drive into the long weekend with nothing to think about but the destination. Schedule your pre-trip inspection online or call us today.

Christian’s Automotive and Tire
8811 2nd Street NW
Albuquerque, NM 87114
(505) 899-2400