Contact Us
Blog
Brake Caliper Servicing? What's That?
If youre not a hard-core car enthusiast, you may not understand all of the maintenance that needs to happen to keep your vehicle running at its best. One important process that you might not realize your vehicle needs is brake caliper servicing. You may be wondering what brake calipers are! Brake calipers house the brake pads and, using brackets, pistons and caliper slide pins, help push the pads into the brake rotors when you apply the brakes. Over time, the slide pins lose their lubrication and dont slide the calipers so well. This lack of lubrication causes a few things to happen. First, because the brakes dont contact the rotor properly, your brake pads can wear unevenly. Second, the slide pins may stick, causing the brake pad to continually contact the rotor, resulting in a buildup of heat, which wears your brake pads down faster. Third, your brakes stopping power may be weak due to the brake pads not hitting the full surface of the brake rotor. All this means you arent getting the
Squeaks and Noises
Now that the weather is (finally!) warming up, you are sure to be driving with the windows down, enjoying the warm breeze. Also coming through the window may be squeaks noises you hadnt heard with the windows rolled up. A loose or worn serpentine belt will cause a squealing noise coming from under the hood. A slipping belt can be heard immediately after starting the car when the belt starts to move. Have your automotive professional check if the belt is loose or needs to be replaced altogether. Squeaking noises may be a sign that your brakes need to be inspected, or perhaps your shocks struts took a beating this past winter. Do you hear thenoisewhen you turn a corner? Thisnoiseusually comes from yourcarssuspension and often is caused by normal wear or from hitting potholes or other road debris. Worn out bearingsmake noise as well, as they are a buffer between the axle and the wheel. The friction from the worn-out bearings is what can cause the humming noise. Under-inflated tires
Preserving the Life of Your Fuel Pump
Two Tips for Helping Your Fuel Pump Last Longer Fuel pumps can be an expensive and unwanted hassle to replace. You can improve fuel pump longevity in your vehicle by using these simple tips. Save yourself time, money and stress by incorporating the following into your car-care regimen. 1. Avoid Contamination Fuel tank contamination can destroy your fuel pump. Contamination can occur from the fuel itself or simply from an older fuel tank. Buying your fuel from a reputable pumping station can reduce the risk of poor-quality fuels contaminating your fuel pump. When the fuel is clean, the risk is considerably less. If you are dealing with an older vehicle and therefore an older fuel tank, the build-up of rust from corrosion that can occur over many years may be contaminating your fuel from inside your vehicle. The solution here is to have your tank cleaned thoroughly. In some cases, depending on the level of corrosion, it may even need to be replaced. 2. Dont Go Below a Quarter Tank Youre
Quality Replacement Parts
Let me tell you about an experience, at a well-established Italian restaurant, that had changed hands a few months ago. The previous owners were an Italian couple that used old family recipes and fresh ingredients to make their pasta and sauces from scratch. They enjoyed stellar reviews for decades. The new owners took a different approach. The cooks followed the same recipes, but were told to use bagged salads, canned sauces and vegetables, frozen meat, and boxed pasta. As you can imagine, there was a difference between the old and new way of preparing the food and their online reviews reflected that change. Same chefs same recipes. Poor ingredients. From that story, you can understand how quality affects results. The same applies to the quality of replacement parts that an auto repair shop places in your vehicle. The parts need to deliver the performance you expect right out of the box and over the long haul. At Weber Automotive, our North Olmsted auto repair shop features quality
What's Gasoline Octane?
Have you ever wondered why there are different grades of gasoline? All grades of gasoline have whats called an octane rating. So what is it and, more importantly, what should you use in your vehicles? What It Tells You First of all, the engine in your vehicle burns fuel by compression in other words, your engine is an internal combustion engine or burns fuel internally. The engine allows a mixture of air and fuel into the combustion area and a piston then compresses this mixture. Your spark plug then ignites this mixture causing an internally explosion that produces the power to run your engine. Therefore, the octane rating tells you how much the gasoline can be compressed before it ignites spontaneously. Should gasoline ever ignite by compression rather than by the spark plug, then it would cause the engine to knock, possibly damaging your engine (think of it as taking a hammer striking the top part of your piston) obviously this is not something thats desirable. For Example Take
Is Your Car Leaking Fluid?
Leaking Fluids Because automotive fluids provide essential braking, cooling and lubrication, it is important to identify and correct the problem as quickly as possible. The loss of fluids, even in the slightest, can have an adverse effect on vehicle performance or worse. When there is no fluid to lubricate the engine, for example, a repair that would have been inexpensive initially could cost far more if ignored and engine failure occurred. Because of this, it is important for all vehicle owners to understand how to identify what type of fluid may be leaking from their car or truck. While many leaks are easy to identify, others can be more of a challenge. Knowing where and what to look for is the first step in identifying what may be leaking. On the following pages you will find some helpful tips about the types of fluids used in modern day vehicles, what they look like when they drip onto the driveway and where these fluids may be coming from. Since finding the location of a leak can
How to Figure Out the Proper Grade of Gas
There are a lot of misunderstandings in regards to fuel grades and by fuel grades our auto mechanic experts mean the octane rating. With names like Standard, Super, Plus, and Premium its easy to see why you might associate the octane rating/grade with quality. Octane ratings are shown as a number that usually ranges from 87 to 91 at the pump. The number does not mean better but rather signifies the appropriate amount of a certain grade of fuel for a certain engine. How It Works Octane is a measure of gasolines ability to resist igniting before the spark plug goes off. Gasoline and air compress in the engines combustion chamber. When that pressure reaches a certain point, the gas will spontaneously combust. You dont want that happening; rather, you want the spark plug to ignite the fuel at the exact right time. When the gas combusts too soon, the piston will try to lower while it is still being pushed up by the crank shaft and that is when you hear a pinging or knocking sound. That sound
Why Do People Use Seasonal Tires?
Understanding Winter Tire Use Here in Northeast Ohio, winter weather is a given, often stretching from late October into April. Thats about half a year where winter storms are possible! Many new cars come with all-season tires that can handle winter weather conditions like freezing rain and snow. However, its important to be aware that there is not truly a one-size-fits-all seasonal tire. All-season tires end up being a compromise between ideal summer performance tires and high-performing winter tires. Basically, they just cant handle extreme weather like dedicated seasonal tires do. All-Season Tires vs. Winter Tires Winter tires offer significantly more traction, ranging from about 25 50% more than all-season tires. Another important factor to consider is that studies have shown that all-season tires can take approximately 40% longer to stop during braking. That could mean the difference in you getting stuck in the snow or preventing a car accident. Additionally, summer tires and
Understanding the Cabin Air Filter
Lets talk aboutcabin air filters. There seems to be some confusion about them among drivers that we should be able to clear up. Much of the confusion starts becausecabin air filtersare relatively new. Not all vehicles in Ohio have them, so some of our customers we see in North Olmsted confuse their cabin air filter with the engine air filter. Every vehicle has anengine air filterthat cleans the air going into theengine, but not all have a cabin air filter that cleans the air going into thepassenger compartment. Easy to get mixed up. The cabin air filter cleans out dust, pollen, spores and other pollutants. To give a point of comparison, a grain of sand is about 200 microns across. A cabin air filter can stop particles that are just 3 microns in size. It really does make the vehicle passenger cabin a much more pleasant environment. When the cabin air filter gets dirty, your local auto repair center can replace it. Your owners manual may have a recommended interval for changing it. If
