This week on Facebook we had some UFI goodies to give away to celebrate our month long UFI Filters offer that is ending today. If you haven't got your UFI service parts yet - get them now.

Anyway on Facebook we asked for suggestions for new products, new brands and new videos - we're always on the look out for new stuff to expand our range so we wanted to get an idea what sort of things our audience wants. 

The three winners are:

1st Prize - UFI Pen, Mug and Philips Keyring Torch goes to:

Graham O'Keeffe who suggested a video on checking faulty fuses

2nd & 3rd Prize - UFI Pen and Mug Set - go to:

Siobhán Ahearne who suggested a bigger range of child / baby seats

Rachel Butler who suggested adding Autoglym to our range of car care products

Well done to the winners - if you can email your address to stuart@micksgarage.ie and we willl post out the prizes.

Thanks to everyone for entering, we'll do our best with all your suggestions - so hopefully there will be some new product announcements in the coming weeks. 

The weather in this part of the world is always a given and because of that it's probably worth checking your wiper blades to ensure that they are operating well.  If your windscreen is not clear after using the windscreen washer, there are some tell-tale signs of worn out wiper blades. Good visibility is absolutely essential when driving - especially during wet weather when vision may be obscured by water, road splash, sleet or snow on the windscreen. But good visibility requires wipers that are in good condition. If the wipers are chattering, streaking or otherwise failing to wipe cleanly and consistently, you may need new blades. Here are some of the main tell tale signs:

• Lines appearing on windscreen - A wiper blade's rubber can harden or become damaged with age and weather, leaving fine beads of water on the windscreen.
• Bands appearing on windscreen - Hardened or aging wiper rubber can cause thicker, longer bands of water on the screen.
• Chattering - A deformed wiper element can cause blades to judder across the screen, leaving radial streaks.
• Unwashed Margins - A deterioration in the wiper blades or decreased wiper pressure can leave parts of the windscreen unclear.
• Noise - Noisy wipers may be a sign that the wiper element is deformed or hardened, as a result, the wiper blade structure will then wear.
• Judder - A deformed wiper element, wrong adaptor or blade aging can result in jerky and noisy wiper arm movement
• Wind Lift - If high speeds persistently cause the wiper to miss parts of the screen, either the wiper blade or wiper arm may need to be replaced.

To rectify the issues start by cleaning the outside of the windscreen with a mild detergent. Your windscreen is clean if beads do not form when rinsing with clear water. Clean the blade by wiping it with a cloth soaked in a washer solution. Rinse the blade with clear water. If the windscreen is still not clear after cleaning the blades and using the wiper, replace the blades. In the UK & Ireland where we get a good bit of use out of our wiper blades, wipers should probably be changed every six months. Here at MicksGarage we have a huge range of Bosch wiper blades to suit pretty much every make and model of car. 

Check out the below wiper blade fitting demonstration with Rob from MicksGarage:

This week we decided to have a bit more fun on Facebook with Free Friday. We posted six photos and asked our followers to guess the car in the photo. The winner would be randomly selected from a list of entrants who guessed all of the cars correctly. The prize was a filter kit consisting of an oil, air and fuel filter for the winners car to celebrate this weeks special offer of 15% off Service Parts...

Firstly the correct answers:  

Since it is so close to Christmas we didn't want to make people work too hard to enter our weekly Facebook competititon. All that was needed was to simply "like" a comment and we would randomly select the winners.

Anyway, down to business, the winner of the first prize this week (flashlight tool kit, de-icer and air fresheners) is:

Keith Grogan

The two runner up winners this week (de-icer and air fresheners) are:

Gary Kelly & Sarah Proctor Brothers

If the winners could all email stuart@micksgarage.ie with your address and we will post out the prizes...

Thanks for entering everyone, enjoy the weekend!

Yesterday Rob from MicksGarage completed his video on our range of Christmas (shown at the bottom of the post). One the guys here in the office photo-shopped Colin from the customer service team into his palm and so the idea for Free Friday was born....

Now available on the MicksGarage website, full range of refurbished Bosch fuel injectors and NK Brake Calipers. Both brands are reconditioned to factory standards so they are top quality and because they are reconditioned come at an excellent price too. There is no surcharge, so no messing sending parts back to us.

The Bosch name needs no introductions and their fuel injectors are used in original applications by a host of vehicle manufacturers. Click here to view the injector range on the UK site or here for the Irish website. 

NK Brake Calipers are supplied freshly painted and are fully reconditioned with new seals. To view the brake caliper range on the Irish site click here or click here for the UK site. 

After a long time planning, organising and pricing we are now able to offer multiple brands at MicksGarage. For most technical replacement parts we only had one brand to choose from. Now we have up to four brands for most of the products giving our customers more choice and most importantly different price points.  

For example in the below screenshot for Ford Fiesta ignition coils, we previously had only Quinton Hazell but now we can offer Bosch, ERA and Meat & Doria. Simply click on the brand tab on the top to view the products available from that brand.   

Car tyre bags are a perfect way to store spare wheels and tyres. These have been available from MicksGarage for quite a while but they are becoming very popular lately. And why not, switching to winter tyres is becoming a common practice in both the UK & Ireland and these are a perfect storage solution for the spare set of summer tyres.  

Made of a tough polyester material the bags incorporate a handy tyre position indicator, a carrying handle and instructions on how to store the tyres both with and without rims (see below). 

In terms of rim and tyre sizes, our tyre bags are suitable for 14 to 18 inch wheels with a max rim width of 8.5" and an maximum external tyre diameter of 27 inches. A pretty wide application covering the most common wheel tyre and tyre sizes on modern vehicles. For more details or to purchase a set of tyre bags click here for the Irish website or here for the UK site. 

The below demo video by Rob from MicksGarage highlights some of the main features the tyre bags: