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Automotive Maintenance VS Repair

Automotive Maintenance VS Repair

                                                                                                                                                                              Over the course of owning a vehicle, routine maintenance and continued care are necessary to ensure long lasting quality and performance. All too often automobile owners will confuse maintenance with repair, however, understanding what separates them can be beneficial in saving time and expenses. Today we will review the key differences in automotive maintenance and repair and point out ... read more

Tips on gas and when to fill up

Tips on gas and when to fill up

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the denser the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business and service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger generally has three stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low mode, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return, so if you are pumping on ... read more

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maintenance

We are here for you

We are here for you

2020 was an absolute mess for everything business related. As this year is more than halfway over, we as a country are trying to reconcile and "get-back-to-normal" whatever that means, because basically after the first round of Covid much of what we considered "normal" is anything but. News feeds are once again recycling news of mask concerns from last year as well as daily Covid case counts while our local and national governments are reconsidering re-instituting mandates and restrictions. All of this is disheartening, especially if you follow the news too closely. Sometimes one needs to find their own space in all of this. We are not in the business of hype. Instead, we prefer to be a light in the darkness. We have done this throughout 2020 and we are what our local and national governments consider an “essential” business. We are in the transportation business. Communities of people need to get to work, grocery stores, schools, doctors, and other p ... read more

Categories:

maintenance

Quality Control

Quality Control

The subject came up the other day regarding a vehicle in our shop that had new tires installed and balanced at another shop. The vehicle came for a shaking at highway speeds and some unrelated service.  While performing a routine Digital Vehicle Inspection of the vehicle the technician noted the unusual location of the wheel weights on the right rear wheel. All 6 weights on one wheel were evenly spaced in a star configuration around the circumference of the wheel. The weight from one side of the wheel was canceling out the weight from the opposite side to some degree. Also, the weights were all different types, which suggested they were from a used batch of weights. I have been in business for more than 35 years, and I have seen a lot, but I can’t say I’d ever seen anything quite like this. I politely quizzed the customer and learned he had recently had the tires installed by a well-known tire chain store in the area. I am not suggesting that all chain stores are poor ... read more

Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day

. I’ve never served in the Military and will never be a Veteran of the same, so I often wonder what a service person thinks, or feels when a stranger says to them, “Thank-You for your Service”? While I recognize it as one way for those of us who’ve never served to acknowledge a member of the armed services whether retired or currently serving, I sometimes wonder if it’s stated sincerely. Some say it to be cordial or strike up a conversation because they are truly thankful and want to express their sincere appreciation and gratitude to those who elected at some point in their life to join the Military ranks. Some say it because they see someone in uniform and feel it’s the “right” thing to do. Some say it just because they’ve heard others say it and aren’t sure why.    Many who join the service do so with a full head and heart with the intent and fervor of a person on-a-mission. They apply themselves and work hard a ... read more

Back to School Auto Maintenance Tips - What does that mean to you?

Back to School Auto Maintenance Tips - What does that mean to you?

It feels like summer just  started, but back to school is just around the corner.  Are you, or someone you know, going to begin shuffling children between school and school activities? Are you yourself taking night classes, or someone in your household going off to college? Here are a few tidbits to consider: Probably the most important item you can do is maintain your vehicle. Keep in mind that just because your vehicle passes its safety inspection(Virginia State Inspection), that doesn't mean it's properly maintained. Several maintenance items include: brake fluid, transmission fluid, engine coolant(antifreeze), power steering fluid, differential and transfer case fluids, windshield wiper fluid, and in some cases other fluids. Pay attention to your owner's manual and have the scheduled maintenance performed in a timely manner and your car will reward you for it. When was the last time your vehicle had a DMA(digital maintenance advisory) performed? This is a go ... read more

Categories:

maintenance

How Long is a Labor Hour (BrakeandFrontend magazine June 2017 by Scott Weaver)

Did you ever try to define a labor hour? I’m not talking about time ticking away on a clock. I’m referring to the actual time spent on a repair vs. the labor guide’s suggested time.Any tech will tell you that a labor hour can stretch to half a day if a lot of research is involved. Conversely, it can last 15 minutes if you know what you’re doing. Most labor guides typically don’t take into account how much research, diagnosis and equipment setup is neededf or a given job — not to mention the time it takes to recover your 10 mm socket that just fell down into the engine compartment. Even with all of the technically advanced diagnostic tools professional mechanics have at their disposal, there are still people who can’t understand why diagnostic time should be included in the labor estimate, even though it’s not part of the R&R for the component. On the other hand, there are the stopwatch aficionados who count the seconds of every repair ... read more

Freedom is never Free

Freedom is never Free

Memorial Day is fast approaching. Many of us are looking forward to the official beginning of summer and the first three-day weekend off in a while. But how many of us really stop to think about why or how we are able to enjoy our time off and do pretty much whatever we like and go wherever we please within this great country?  For those who are serving or who have served in the military in the past, there is a distinct understanding and appreciation for all who’ve served before them, especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice; their lives for our freedom. For those of us who have never served, but are the children of those who have, we have a responsibility to remind our children and grandchildren as well as others what this day is truly about. Whether you visit the grave site of a departed veteran, or a war memorial, or museum this Memorial Day, remember; This would not be possible if we as a country had laid idly by and allowed those who sought to oppress our freed ... read more

Mother's Day 2017

This Sunday is Mother’s Day once again. Most of us who were fortunate enough to grow up in a family environment never realized what it meant to grow up without a mother and thus, unknowingly, tended to take our mothers love and nurturing for granted. Thankfully most of us were raised to become self-sufficient productive members of society.  To lead a good life accepting the good and the not-so-good along the way. This didn’t happen by accident. The values we know today were the values instilled in us by our parents and generally most notably by our mother- if you happen to be from the baby-boomer generation. In me and my wife’s case, our fathers were military and, in many instances, deployed a large part of our childhood.  Therefore, our mothers played the greater part of our child rearing into adulthood. Not enough can be said about the values instilled in us as a result of our mother’s influence and we are thankful for that each and every d ... read more

De-coding vs. Diagnostics

There is no end of Auto parts stores willing to DE-CODE your Check Engine Light fro FREE with a slant toward selling more parts.  Many will say "de-code" is "diagnosis". It is not! All vehicles sold in the United States after 1994 were required to have a vehicle information port (OBDII port).  This port enables anyone with a device to read trouble codes stored in the computer. This might include the primary computer or ECU(electronic control unit), the BCM(body control module), the TCM(transmission control module), and others.  Each of these units can store a multitude of codes. Some codes are related and some are indicating other switches and sensors throughout the electronic control systems. Most are connected to a dash warning light, CEL(check engine light), SES(service engine soon), and in some cases a symbol that resembles an icon or action. Other warning lights in the dash may include SRS(safety restraint system), TCS(traction control syste ... read more

Categories:

maintenance
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