Mechanic for Blackburn Hamlet

Innes Road, start to finish

Blackburn Hamlet sits inside the Greenbelt with Innes Road running past it, and that road brings you almost to our door. Head west on Innes, through the open Greenbelt stretch and then the lights and shopping plazas closer to the 417, pass under the highway, and turn onto Sheffield Road. Blackwell Street is the industrial strip off Sheffield.

It is about 6.8 km and ten minutes. No highway, so there is no Split to sit at in the morning. The shop is Unit 112, 2595 Blackwell St, Ottawa, Ontario, with a glass door marked 112 next to the bay door.

Open roads and winter tires

The Greenbelt roads around the Hamlet are wide open, and in a January wind the snow blows straight across them. Innes Road between the Hamlet and the city can go from bare to drifted in a few hundred metres, and all season tires do not handle that well once the temperature drops below about seven degrees.

A seasonal swap with tires already on rims is $60, and mounting tires onto your rims starts at $120. The tire change and installation page explains what gets checked while the wheels are off. Book in early October, before the first snowfall sends everyone online at once.

When it will not start on a cold morning

A car parked outside overnight at minus twenty, with the wind coming across open fields, wakes up with a battery that has lost a lot of its strength. If the car turns over slowly on the coldest days, the battery is telling you it is close to the end.

Slow cranking is not always the battery’s fault, though. A weak alternator or a parasitic drain will flatten a good one. Battery, starter and alternator testing checks the whole system together, so the right part is replaced the first time.

Heat that works when you need it

The open Greenbelt stretch of Innes Road is a cold drive if the heater is weak, and frosted windows are a safety problem, not a comfort one. Weak heat usually comes down to coolant, a thermostat or the heater core. A fan that only works on high is almost always a blower motor resistor.

Heating and A/C repair starts with an inspection at $120 an hour. In summer the same page covers air conditioning that blows warm, which is usually a leak, not a system that just needs topping up.

Checking a used car before you buy

If you are shopping for a second car, or a first car for a new driver in the house, have it looked at on a lift before you hand over money for a private sale. Rust on brake lines and the subframe is the big one on Ottawa cars, and you cannot see it standing in a driveway.

A pre purchase inspection is billed at $120 an hour. Drop offs run from 8am to 4pm on weekdays, so arrange a weekday with the seller, then book online and bring the car in.