check engine light

Imagine driving pleasantly along when you look down at your dashboard to discover that your check engine light has gone on. There goes that sinking feeling in your stomach. What has happened?

A flashing checking engine light is frustrating as the check engine light could signal a number of different issues. When all is running well with your vehicle, your engine light should light up when you switch your ignition on and go dark immediately thereafter. When your engine light either remains illuminated or suddenly goes on while you are driving, it usually indicates an issue with the engine management system. Get in to a certified technician as soon as possible.

Get your car in right away if your check engine light starts flashing abruptly while you are driving. Experts recommend that you reduce your speed immediately until your check engine light stops flashing and stays lit constantly. If your check engine light keeps flashing, get your car to a repair shop right away. You should never ignore a flashing check engine light.

When your check engine light first goes on, pull over, turn off your car and leave it off for several minutes before restarting. This should give your engine management system enough time to reset. It is safe to drive your car with the check engine light on so long as no other engine problems are apparent, but you must still get your car to your repair shop for a checkup as soon as possible. A delay in proper check engine service could cause damage to your catalytic converter.

Do not take your car to a parts shop that offers check engine light service. The employees can only translate the trouble codes for you, not repair the problem itself. For the best service, take your car to a certified technician. It is well worth the time and expense.

Having a good vehicle is not just about convenience or speed, it is also about safety. If you take good care of your vehicle, it will take good care of you, and your loved ones. Learning more about how your car works will help you make effective decisions about maintenance and repair. Some guidelines on brakes and brake repair follow.

We all like to think of cars as machines that go, taking us to our destination. It is common sense that being able to stop your vehicle is just as important as getting it to move. Staying on top of brake repair is an important part of car safety. Brake wear and tear is a sign that your brakes are doing their job well. If brakes were designed to last as long as the vehicle then they would not be as useful for stopping your car. Brakes work by pressing against the wheel, creating the friction that actually stops your car. An incorrectly functioning brake system could damage the wheel, which of course has a negative effect on your cars driveability. So, brake repair is not the end of the world. Brakes just need occasional repair as does any other part of a functioning whole. Luckily there are a lot of indicators that you can watch for that will alert you to when you should invest in brake repair.

Do not hesitate to take your car in for brake repair if your brake fluid begins to leak. You can tell if your brake fluid is leaking if you smell a really strong odor, or if you see an amber fluid dripping from your car. Pay attention if your brake light goes on when your emergency brake is disengaged, as this is another indication that your brake fluid is low and your brakes may need repair. Take note, too, that you should not automatically have your brake fluid topped off just because your brakes are being repaired. Fluid levels are supposed to run a bit on the low side so that your brakes can wear properly.

If you are noticing shaking, squealing or grinding when you use the brake, these are also signs that you should be looking into brake repair soon. Those signs are designed as a warning system for you to look into repairing your brakes and they should not be ignored. Be sure to schedule a brake repair appointment and have the brake fluid tested, the contact points lubricated and at every other oil change, you should have the tires rotated.

Keep brake repair at the top of your list of regular car maintenance tasks. Brakes that wear down are performing their job properly and need periodic attention to keep them at their best, just like any other vehicle operating system. It’s a good idea to stick to a regular brake inspection schedule and get brake repair when needed.

One essential component to proper brake function that many people may miss is the need to rotate your tires every 5,000 to 7,000 miles. Evenly worn tires provide your brakes with a balanced road surface contact that creates the most effective friction between the rubber and the road. (While brakes stop the wheels, road and tire contact stops the entire car.) Regularly rotated tires reduce the need for brake repair. You also need to have your brake fluid inspected as part of your car maintenance regimen, as the fluid can become contaminated with moisture and metal flakes. This contamination can have an adverse effect on your braking system.

Your brakes have their ways of letting you know when it’s time for brake repair. Have you noticed a light amber colored liquid pooling beneath your car, or a distinctive odor? That means that you have a leak in your fluid line. The grinding and growling sound that metal on metal makes means that your brake pads are completely worn. Have you felt any vibrations? There could be problems with your wheel rotors. Immediate attention from a certified brake repair technician is crucial to your safety in any one of these situations!

Even in the absence of any warning signals, you should have your brakes inspected at least annually, semi annually if you tow or haul heavy loads on a regular basis. Treat your car and your brakes well, and you will have no reason to be concerned for your safety while driving.

Brake repair is in truth just a car maintenance task, not a response to a major flaw in the system. If you think about it, brakes are not doing their job correctly if they do not wear down. Those squealing noises that you hear are signals that your brakes need repair in order to keep functioning properly. It is similar to when your oil light goes on when the fluid level drops too low. If you top your oil off, all will be well. Repair your brakes, and you can keep on driving safely. Same thing.

Brakes do more than make noise when they need repair. If your brake light goes on when your parking brake is disengaged, have your brake fluid replenished. (You will be able to smell your brake fluid if a leak is the source of the trouble.) A vibrating wheel or brake pedal signals rotor surface difficulties. Grinding or growling is your clue that the brake pads have completely worn away.

Any issues should be discovered in time if you have your brakes inspected on an annual basis. (Your brakes should be inspected twice a year if you do any heavy towing or hauling.) Make sure that your brake repair technician also keeps your metal on metal parts well lubricated to maintain an appropriate barrier between them and performs a general inspection of the overall condition of your brake fluid. Metal flakes and moisture can contaminate the fluid and wear down essential braking components such as calipers and wheel cylinders.

Be sure to address your brake repair needs as soon as problems arise, before they get any worse.

Brake repair is a common do it yourself project for the car owner, particularly during economic downtimes when money is tight. However, it is extremely important to perform brake repair correctly, since top performing car brakes are one of the most vital safety components of your vehicle. The following instructions are designed to demystify the process and reassure the car owner that brake repair can be done properly at home. They assume a familiarity with basic brake components.

Brakes work by pressing together two pads that rest on either side of a rotating metal disk in your wheel mechanism. Each wheel is equipped with two brake pads that close up when you press on the brake pedal of your car. These pads will, of course, wear down over time. That metal scraping sound that you one day start hearing whenever you press on the brakes is your car telling you that brake repair is needed. You could choose to ignore the sound, but the pads will wear completely away and only metal against metal will be left to stop your car. The scraping and grinding of metal on metal will eventually completely ruin the wheel mechanism. So, as the saying goes, pay me now or pay me later. Brake repair now saves money later on.

Brake pads can easily be purchased from any auto parts store, but be sure to give the store the exact make and model of your car as the pads may vary. Back home with your car in the driveway, the next step is to jack it up and remove the wheel. You will have completed the bulk of your brake repair with these two tasks. If you want to check to see if brake repair is really necessary, you can view the pads through the view port in the brake housing before starting. If you determine that brake repair really is necessary, then your next step is to remove the wheel and the bolt or bolts holding the brake housing in place and swing the unit out of the way. You are now ready to begin actual brake repair.

You should be able to see the old brake pads clearly once the housing is out of the way. Sitting loosely on the side of the disk without anything to hold them in place, they are easily removed. You then take them off and replace them with the new brake pads and swing the housing back down. Next, adjust the caliper to allow for the new pads and slide the piston back into the unit.The prospect of performing your own brake repair may be intimidating at first, but once you get started you will see just how easy the process really is.

When you need a mechanic to do a car repair, you first need to decide whether to go to an independent mechanic or to a national chain. Although independent mechanics are plentiful and often very good, there are three reasons that a national chain may be better for you.

The first reason is speed. Chains can afford to keep larger inventories of parts, which cuts back on the time you and the mechanics have to spend waiting for the necessary parts to come in. Chains also have more employees than all but the very largest independent shops, so they have the staff on hand to a two man car repair easily and to speed up repairs by adding more mechanics if the job can go faster with more hands.

An assurance of quality is the second reason. Chains hire only licensed and certified mechanics. On top of that, having more mechanics at the shop means having more experience on hand to puzzle out obscure problems, and means it is more likely that you will get the services of someone who specializes in your car’s type of problem.

Convenience is the third reason. The warranties that independent mechanics offer on their car repair are generally good only at their own shop. If you’re caught away from home, what good is a warranty for a shop a hundred miles away? On the other hand, national chains cover the country, so you would have to be someplace exceptionally remote to be more than a short drive or tow from the nearest branch of a chain where your warranty is good. That can mean considerable savings for you.

You can also get personalized service at a chain just as easily as at an independent mechanic’s. Getting to know a particular mechanic at your local branch is just as easy as getting to know a mechanic at an independent shop. The nationally accessible records that chains keep are also extremely helpful in getting personal service. When you need a car repair at a different branch than you normally go to, the mechanics there have immediate access to your repair history. The data is there in writing, saving you the trouble of explaining the details to yet another mechanic. This makes it even more likely that the mechanics will diagnose the necessary car repair correctly, instead of being distracted by your car’s quirks.

With all the benefits a national chain can offer you, you should give chains serious consideration the next time you need car repair. Your car is one of your most important belongings, and deserves the best care possible. National chains can give your car that care.

There are not many things on a car, besides for scratches and dents, that can ever be “let go,” even in the short term. How come? The longer a person waits to get something on their car repaired, the more expensive it will become, and a car also needs to be in good working condition for it to be safe for driving. Regular check ups and maintenance for vehicles is the way to keep them safe and reliable.

To get brakes checked is a very common thing for people to bring their car into repair shops for. It is also common for people to put off getting their brakes checked, but this usually results in more expensive repairs than what they would have paid to only go in sooner and get just the pads replaced. Since brake pads wear out as time passes, they need regular checking and replacements. When the pads are worn out, how can you tell? Brake pads will start to make a squeaking noise as they begin to wear down, signaling the owner to replace them. At that point, you will need to go to an auto repair shop and get your brakes checked. Never put off getting your brakes checked! If the pads wear down too far, the brake shoes will begin to scratch the rotors. Instead of only replacing the pads, a very reasonable and inexpensive fix, the cost of getting your brakes in good condition again will go up because now new rotors are needed.

There are other reasons to get your brakes checked. It is very dangerous if brake lines on a car stop working. No one under any circumstances should be driving with a broken brake line, even if it is just the back brakes. A car repairman can tell you if your brake line needs to be replaced soon. How can you tell if you have a broken brake line? It will take a long time and a lot of pressure on the pedal to brake, making driving and braking very dangerous.

The best place for getting brakes checked is at a shop that specializes in brakes. These places also do other, regular repairs and maintenance on cars such as oil changes and state inspections. Such shops do mainly those very common fixes and do lots of them. One benefit to taking your car to such a shop is that the workers will have plenty of experience fixing brakes.

It is easy to conclude that, with all the reports of declining car sales, people are choosing car repair to keep their older vehicles on the road for as long as possible rather than spend the money for a new car. A new car purchase has become an unattainable dream for the millions of people who have found themselves unemployed during the economic recession of 2008 and 2009. It makes better sense for the time being to keep an existing vehicle running well.

A do it yourselfer can find all the information he needs either in car repair manuals or in one of a multitude of car repair sites on the Internet. Others leave it to the experts and take their vehicles to car repair shops. Depending on whom you ask, car repair shops are either experiencing an upturn in business from people seeking to keep their old cars in good shape or a simultaneous increase in small maintenance repairs and decrease in expensive ones. Many car dealerships have fallen victim to declining car sales, which leaves the car owner high and dry unless he can find a car repair shop having experience with his particular make and model. For the most part, any car manufactured in 1994 or after has more complex electronics and computerized systems and requires service performed by highly skilled technicians.

Basic car maintenance and repair that the vehicle owner can perform himself includes a routine check of steering and brake fluids, oil and oil filter, air filter, wiper blades and fluid, headlights and turn signals. Check your mirrors, dashboard lights, door locks and gear shaft to be sure they are operating properly, and keep the interior upholstery looking sharp. A good appearance can make you feel better about driving that older car.

It may be advisable to leave to the professionals certain car repair and maintenance tasks like checking your timing belt, transmission, radiator, air conditioning, and electrical and computer systems. Car repair shops also keep detailed records of each service performed on your vehicle, which is invaluable information you can pass along to the next owner of the car.

Maintaining an older vehicle is not too difficult a task if you keep up with regular service and repair. Careful upkeep and good driving habits make all the difference. It stands to reason that, if you take good care of your car, it will take good care of you.

Many people opt to repair their current vehicles rather than purchase a new one during uncertain economic times. Nothing can substitute for quality car repair if you want to keep your car operating well.

A do it yourselfer with an eye towards saving money, particularly during a rough financial patch, will prefer to save money by doing his or her own car repair. Minor tasks that a car owner can reasonably handle include replacing wiper blades, oil and air filters, blown headlights, dead batteries and spark plugs, and changing the oil. One weekend worth of work can save hundreds of dollars in car repair costs.

Gather a ratchet, oil filter wrench, recycling container and funnel along with a new oil filter, oil, and a clean rag, and you are able to do your own oil change. A simple radiator flush requires a Phillips head screwdriver or wrench, rag, radiator flush solution, coolant, funnel, and receptacle for the used coolant. If you have a set of needle nose pliers and a replacement valve, you can replace the engine PCV valve for relatively low cost. Regular car repair projects performed by the owner can contribute to the long life of a car.

More complicated tasks, though, should be left to a certified car repair technician. It is vital that the shop you choose for your professional car repair service is ethical and takes top notch care of your vehicle. Ask for recommendations. Investigate whether a particular car repair shop has repeat customers. That shop should also use only the most current equipment and employ only ASE certified car repair technicians. A seal of approval from ASE, or National Institute for Auto Service Excellence, is the standard for quality service and competency and your guide to quality car repair.

The car repair technician of today will be certified to service all makes and models of domestic and foreign cars and trucks. The technician will perform such tasks as inspection and replacement of windshield wipers and fluids, tire inspection and balance, wheel alignment, and a thorough check of all fluids, filters, brakes, lights, and electronics. Vehicles equipped with computerized operating systems also require diagnostics as part of their service routine, which is best performed by a professional. Such maintenance, performed at regular intervals by a certified car repair technician, will keep your car running smoothly.

A well maintained car that is serviced on a regular basis can easily last well past the 100,000 mile mark. Combining self performed minor car repair with professional service can assure this level of performance.

Your life depends on your brakes. Getting brake repair done at a good mechanics shop is essential. If you do not have a regular mechanic, then finding a good mechanic to do your repairs can be daunting. Here is how to turn finding a good mechanic to do your brake repair into less of a hit or miss proposition.

Your first option is to choose a national chain, like Midas or Meineke, that does brake repair. National chains usually have reasonably good mechanics working for them. Because chains space their branches to cover the area, you are likely to be within a short drive or tow of a branch if you need more repairs, and the warranty on any repairs the chain does will allow you to get free followup repairs at any branch in the country. Also, because major chains usually have large, well stocked shops with plenty of mechanics, you may get your car back in less time than it would have taken a smaller shop. The tradeoff for convenience and speed is higher prices.

Your second option is to find a local independent mechanic. Independent shops may take a little longer to do your repairs because they may need to order more parts and may have fewer mechanics available to do the work. They also have more variable quality than a national chain: You could find someone brilliant, or you could find a shyster. However, doing a little research beforehand will make it possible for you to find one of the very best.

How do you locate one of the best mechanics? Unfortunately, there’s no one way, no central clearinghouse for information on mechanics’ shops. Find friends, family, and coworkers who needed the same kind of brake repair, and get recommendations from them. Look for complaints about the shop online and at the Better Business Bureau. Find out whether the shop is accredited by the American Automobile Association (AAA) and whether the mechanics are all certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). Trust your instincts: When you call the shop, can you reach someone, or do they let the phone ring? Does the mechanic you speak with sound sincere, or does he or she sound shady or overconfident? If you are not knowledgeable about cars, is the mechanic condescending or respectful?

Get information from as many sources as you can before you pick a shop to do your brake repair. Whether you take your car to an independent shop or to a chain, your life and the lives of everyone around you depends upon the mechanic you pick to repair your brakes.