Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

MicksGarage.com were announced today as title sponsors for the 2015 Irish Touring Car Championship. The Dublin based online car parts & accessories suppliers will be on board for a season that is sure to excite spectators & competitors alike. The new partnership will bring Ireland's premier tin-top racing series to new levels. Class Chief Brian Sexton is expecting to see a lot more from the championship as a result of this new sponsorship deal.

“It’s great to have MicksGarage.com on board with us this year, they’re a really good fit for us as a class. It’s not just financial backing that they bring to the party, we’ll be opened up to a new audience we’ve never seen before, and that will hopefully bring more people down to watch! With MicksGarage.com joining us, and the addition of some great new cars on our grid, we should be flying higher than ever before!” 

Speaking on behalf of MicksGarage.com, Rob King said: 

“We’re delighted to be sponsoring the Irish Touring Car Championship and are really looking forward to the year ahead. We’ve had a couple of extremely productive meetings with the Championship organisers already and have a whole range of exciting ideas in the pipeline to help promote the class, broaden its appeal and bring ITCC to a new audience. We’d like to take this opportunity to wish all the teams and competitors the very best of luck for the year ahead”

The first official test day of 2015 took place last Sunday at Mondello Park where a huge turn out of competitors and spectators looked extremely promising for the year ahead. The ITCC class will be boosted by an influx of Seat Leon Supercup cars, supported by Murray Motorosport. The Seat's are an exciting addition to the class and as many as10 of them are expected by the end of the year.

You can keep up to date with all the latest news from the ITCC right here on The Filter, on the ITCC website or watch the races live online on Mondello.TV

Rounds 1 & 2 are to be held in Mondello Park on Sunday 15th of March.

Photo's courtesy of http://www.brianwalshphotos.com/

'How To' Change Your Oil & Oil Filter

Changing the oil and oil filter is arguably the most important part of servicing your car. Using good quality oil, and keeping it in good condition by changing it at the correct intervals will protect your engine and keep it running smoothly.

Many engines suffer premature wear, become smokey, noisy and often suffer complete failure just because their owners don't bother to change the oil.

Although it might seem daunting, an oil and filter change is probably one of the easier jobs you can try yourself, in most cases it's actually no more difficult than changing a wheel and definitely less physically demanding, (although it will take a bit longer)

Before you get started it's essential to have the correct oil for your car. Gone are the days where you could lash any old chip oil into it. Modern engines, especially ones fitted with Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF's) use the engine oil as an integral part of the emission control systems.

Using the wrong oil can not only damage the DPF and the engine, which would lead to a repair bill in the thousands but it will also void your warranty.

To pick the right grade of oil for your car, click on the image below and use our TOTAL oil finder

In the video below we show you exactly how the job is done from start to finish and list the tools we needed on this particular car. The car we used for this demo was a 2005 VW Passat with the 1.9tdi engine, probably the most common engine on the road, you'll find this engine has been fitted to most models from VW, Audi, Skoda & Seat.

If you don't have this engine then what you see under your bonnet will look a bit different, but dont worry, the basic principals of changing the oil and filter are the same for pretty much all cars and if you search YouTube it's pretty likely that you will find a 'How To' video for your specific make and model of car

At MicksGarage.com we stock Total and Castrol oils. We have a full range for all makes and models and we regularly run special offers, discount and promotions. Right now (July 2012) we have 15% off all Total oils for the whole month, plus all the 5 Litre packs come with free delivery right to your door!