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See how oil works in your engine plus how oil has changed over the years.

When you see contaminants like dead bugs or bird droppings on the paint surface of your car, rinse them right away. Bird droppings have a high acidity that can eat into the clear coat. If not removed they can dig deep into your paint, leaving “scars” that can only be removed by sanding and repainting. Don't wash your vehicle during the hottest part of the day. The soap and water dry much faster and can dull the finish. Spray the vehicle off with the water hose before washing. A pre-rins...

A car battery provides the power needed to start your vehicle. It is a vital, mechanical component often overlooked. Batteries can fail without warning. There are steps that you can take to evaluate problems and restart your battery. For batteries to provide optimum performance, regular maintenance is necessary. When Starting Your Vehicle A dying car battery causes problems with your car starting, especially after the car sits for a few hours. If your car struggles to turn over, but then the en...

One of the first clues you might have that you have an issue with your water pump is your temperature gauge. Is your engine running hot? Another clue is the strange sounds coming from your engine. After years of pumping coolant, you might hear a grinding or whining sound indicating your water pump is almost all pumped out. Most of the time your shaft seal starts to leak or the impeller inside comes lose, wears down, or the blades wear down or erode. Leaks usually happen in the area where the wa...

Summer heat is brutal in Tucson and precautions should be made to prevent overheating. The three items listed below are common problems that cause overheating, LOW COOLANT – check the radiator tank and overflow reservoir—it sounds obvious, but it is number one for a reason. BAD FAN OR FAN CLUTCH - The fan pulls air through the cooling fins of the radiator, no airflow at low speeds causes overheating. BAD THERMOSTAT VALVE - It regulates engine heat by opening and closing, based on...

Warning Lights - what you need to know. Red Means Stop! Yellow/AMBER are telling you something needs attention and Blue/Green are not a reason to be concerned about immediate service. On most new cars, the dashboard lights up like a Broadway theater marquee with a series of warning lights when the ignition is engaged. And while they typically go out after a second or two, if one or more of those signals remains illuminated, it’s usually a sign of trouble. “Warning lights on the dashboard are ...

You probably don’t think about it much unless you’ve had a challenge with your car starting, but this little motor is vital to getting you where you need to go. It is small electric motor with a framework that ends in a gear. Your engine's flywheel has a ring gear that the starter gear, called the drive gear, engages. When the starter motor runs, it spins the drive gear, which turns the ring gear and the flywheel. That cranks the engine and starts the combustion cycle.  In the early days of a...

Your car starter works like any electric motor. There are fixed magnets with opposite poles on either side of the framework. The framework acts as an electromagnet. It has two plates one on each side called commutators.   The commutators accept a charge from the battery through steel brushes or fixed copper that touch them. This action turns the framework into a two-pole magnet. Each pole of the framework is repelled by its identical-pole fixed magnet and attracted by the opposite pole magnet....

In today’s economy, we talk to a lot of drivers who are not only trying to keep their vehicles longer, but also need to save money wherever they can. Motor and transmission are the two largest expenses that require regular maintenance. Check your owner’s manual for these critical items. These items are much less expensive things you can do to diminish the wear and tear on you motor and transmission—even extending the life of your car. Oil Change - Driving in Arizona qualifies for “extreme”...

Prevent Loss by Locking Your Car Based on improving technology, vehicle thefts are dropping overall. Since we started recording this figure, thefts have dropped over 20% and are now around 770,000 cars according to FBI statistics. Surprisingly, the reason for most of the thefts are preventable. Most commonly these vehicles have keys or key fobs left inside the unlocked vehicles. Despite great gains in technology and security, we are our own worst enemy and common sense seems to be the driving ...