Tucson Auto Repair

Vehicle manufacturers have maintenance schedules that should be followed at the very minimum. Having worked at a dealership in the past and still having many contacts in the automotive industry, we would recommend more maintenance. I have been told that the manufacturers established these maintenance schedules to show a lower maintenance cost over the life of the vehicle rather than for increasing the life of the vehicle. During the sales pitch, the dealership will show you that you can go 100k before certain services are due. This is not entirely accurate. Modern vehicles run much hotter than older vehicles and should actually be serviced more often. Some dealers claim you can go a full year without changing engine oil. It's your vehicle and you can do as you choose, engine oil should be changed at a minimum of twice a year or at most, 6000k. Modern vehicles have computers that monitor oil life, and many are set to alert you to change the oil at 7500 miles. We frequently see vehi ... read more

Its Arizona Car-B-Que Season As Arizona residents, we all know the horrors of jumping into a hot car during summer months, while wearing shorts and putting on those red hot sunglasses. First, after you have sought medical attention for the seven layers of skin you have lost from the back of your legs and possible permanent branding to your face from those sun glasses, we can look into summer vehicle maintenance for your sun baked car.  During the summers in Arizona when temperatures regularly reach around 100-120 degrees, the temperatures inside of your vehicle can easily reach around 150 degrees. Some people have even claimed the temperature in their vehicle MUST be around 1 million degrees, but most likely those are exaggerations. But we use these examples to make it easier to understand the affects of our severe weather on vehicles.  Summer heat and sun cause some serious damage, the worst to plastic and rubber components, ie... tires, belts, hoses ... read more

                     The term "serpentine belt" may bring up images of a scarey snake like object crawling around you engine, and that's actually pretty accurate, (except for the scary part).  The serpentine belt is a long, belt that winds it way (like a serpent) around many of your vehicle's components. These can include the power the steering pump, alternator, and air conditioning compressor, and more, to the vehicle's crankshaft pulley. In some engines, the serpentine belt can also run the water pump, radiator fan, and supercharger. Years ago, most engines had several V-type belts, but today, most modern engines have one ribbed serpentine belt responsible for running all of the accessory components. This belt can be tensioned automatically or manually. Automatically tensioned serpentine belts are the most common and are kept taught with a spring loaded tensioning mechanism. Manually tensio ... read more

The engine and transmission in your vehicle are attached to the chassis. When they operate, it creates flexing and twisting from torque or vibrations. There are mounts that hold and support these two units. Mounts for the Engine and transmission are most typically made of metal and rubber, or somtimes filled with a hydraulic fluid. These mounts keep your teeth from vibrating out of your skull by separating the transmission and engine from the chassis so that there is no direct metal on metal contact between the engine, transmission and frame of the vehicle. To improve passenger comfort, some vehicles have fluid-filled hydraulic mounts which absorb and dampen vibrations that would otherwise pass right through a conventional solid rubber mount. While comfort is something we all enjoy, fluid-filled mounts are more expensive than solid rubber mounts, and they can leak fluid and can still collapse after years of service. Some import vehicles have electronically-controlled mounts that can ... read more

No Burned Out Bulbs  When a customer drops off their vehicle at our shop, the very first thing we do when we pull it into a service bay is to have a second technician help check all exterior lighting. Burned out or malfunctioning bulbs are very easy to overlook. Bad bulbs are also an invitation for a "fix it" ticket from the police, and we want to help you avoid those. We do not charge labor fees to replace bulbs so its very inexpensive, just the cost of the bulb (excluding headlight bulbs).  Rest assured that when you leave our shop all of your exterior bulbs will have been checked.