Gig Harbor Auto Repair

All those automotive fluids can be confusing for car owners. Recent years have brought new grades of engine oil, types of transmission fluid, coolant, and brake fluid. The right fluid protects your vehicle and helps it perform at its best. The wrong fluid won't work as well for car owners and could even cause damage. In addition to new grades of engine oil, many s now leave the factory with synthetic oil. car owners should always use the recommended grade and type of oil in their engine. All coolant, also called antifreeze, used to be green. Now there are several other colors of coolant sold at in . Each type is designed to protect the cooling system components that are particular to your vehicle. The wrong stuff can void your cooling system warranty and could even cause engine damage. Most passenger vehicles on roads today use either DOT 3, DOT 4 or DOT 5 brake fluid. Your power brake sys ... read more

If you aren't currently using synthetic motor oil in your vehicle, maybe now's the time to consider it. Need more information? Well, synthetic motor oil is a substitute for petroleum based oil. Synthetic oil doesn't gel or gum-up like petroleum based oil and it doesn't vaporize as easily. It protects better in severe driving conditions like stop and go driving around , as well as in very hot or very cold conditions. More and more new vehicles are being delivered with full synthetic motor oil; with the recommendation to use synthetic for the life of the vehicle. Why is this? Synthetic motor oil maximizes engine power and fuel economy. To see why; we'd need a microscope, so we'll have to settle for using our imaginations. The molecules of conventional motor oil are long hydrocarbon chains. Synthetic motor oil, on the other hand, has uniform, round molecules. Which is more slippery, a pile of pencils or a pile of marbles? Synt ... read more

So you love your job, and your family life is great. Congratulations! You have achieved balance. But can you say the same for your wheels? You can tell if your tires are out of balance by vibrations at higher speeds on freeways. If one of the front tires is out, you feel the vibration in the steering wheel. If it's a back tire, you'll feel the vibration in your seat. Tires and wheels are pretty heavy. When a tire is mounted on a wheel at , it is usually not perfectly balanced. So the tire technician will spin the tire on a machine to determine where it's too heavy. He will then place weights on the wheels in strategic locations to balance it out. When a tire is out of balance, it actually bounces down the road instead of rolling smoothly. Since the average size tire rotates at about 850 revolutions per minute at 60 MPH, it is actually slamming into the pavement 14 times a second. That's where you get your vibration. Most car owners are surprised at how smoothly their car rides after b ... read more

People near often ask how often they should have a particular service done. It's a great thing to ask. You can look at your owner's manual, or have your service advisor at look up your vehicle in a service database. What you find is often a surprise to people - there are actually two service schedules. One is the regular schedule and the other is the severe service schedule. Service intervals are shorter on the severe service schedule. When asked, most folks in will say that their driving is normal and that the ‘regular' schedule probably applies to them. ‘Severe service' sounds pretty extreme - ‘I don't drive like that'. Well, here is what the manufacturers say constitutes severe driving conditions; you can draw your own conclusions. If that's severe driving, what constitutes regular driving? Well, it would look something like this: I live somewhere with moderate temperatures all year round - I'm thinking San Diego here ... read more

We find that a lot of service and repair at are a little tentative when they talk with their automotive advisers. They want to ask questions, but don't want to be embarrassed or to seem pushy. Cars are very complicated and there's more to know about them than most of us have the time to learn. Maybe it's because cars have become so much more reliable that the average person just doesn't need to know as much to keep their vehicle on the road. You know, your local hospital has a Patient's Bill of Rights that they post throughout the hospital. We think our automotive service customers also have a right to ask any question they need to understand what is wrong with their car and what it will take to fix it. They need to feel free to ask the cost and benefits of recommended services. And they certainly have a right to understand the financial end of the transaction. It's all about the communication. It's a little harder when yo ... read more

Did you know that most of the cars driving around carry more computer power than the Apollo 121 Lunar Module that landed on the moon in 1969? New cars sold in the area have as many as twelve networked computers and over five miles (eight kilometers) of wiring. In fact, for the last decade or so, auto computers have been controlling about 85 percent of your vehicle's functions. Cars have sensors for manifold air temperature, coolant temperature, manifold air pressure, airflow, throttle position, vehicle speed and oxygen content. All of this electronic wizardry is pretty complicated. So how do you know when there is a problem? It's simple; the Check Engine light comes on. The computer monitors all the sensors and uses that information to decide what to adjust such as the fuel mix, spark timing and idle speed. In addition, the computer monitors its own circuits. When it finds a fault, it turns on the Check Engine light and stores a tr ... read more

Drivers rely on their car's coolant system to keep their engine cool. Coolant (also called antifreeze) mixed with water flows through your engine and absorbs heat. The mixture then flows out to the radiator where it's cooled by air flowing over the radiator. From there the coolant/water mix circulates back through the engine to absorb more heat. There's a reason we mix coolant and water. Water alone actually does a good job transferring heat from the engine. The problem is that water boils at a temperature that's easily reached inside your ‘s engine, so it can turn to steam which does not conduct heat as well and is harder to contain. Also, if it's freezing outside in , the water in your engine could freeze while your vehicle is sitting out in the cold. So, if you remember your high school chemistry, you'll know that a mixture has both a higher boiling point and a lower freezing point than either component alone. Coolant, or ... read more

Having trouble with your fuel system? Bring your into for a check up.MAckert Automotive, 253-851-3307 In today's auto post,we're talking about fuel system cleaning. The first thing to know is how important it is to have a clean fuel system. drivers need fuel to go, and the cleaner the fuel system, the more efficiently the fuel will burn. That means more power and better fuel economy. A clean fuel system saves money at the pump. We guess you could say, it all starts and ends at the pump. One of the most important things drivers can do to keep their fuel system clean is to buy good quality gas. Major brands have detergents that keep gum and varnish from rapidly building up in the fuel system. So buying cheaper gas in can actually cost more in the long run. Now, most cars on highways are more than five or six years old. That means they've had time for some dirt and rust to start accumulating in the fuel tank. This junk needs to be f ... read more

Improved fuel economy has two benefits: less fuel is necessary and fewer emissions are released. cars and trucks run cleaner than ever. auto owners may not realize that the first federally mandated pollution control device came out almost fifty years ago. Auto owners that were around in the early 60's may remember that the PCV valve came out on 1964 model cars. PCV stand for Positive Crankcase Ventilation. The crankcase is the lower part of the engine where the crankshaft is housed and where the engine oil lives. The crankshaft is connected to the pistons that power the engine. When fuel is burned in the engine, it pushes the pistons down and the crankshaft rotates and sends power to the transmission. Some of the explosive gases from combustion squeeze past the pistons and down into the crankcase. Now this gas is about 70% unburned fuel. If it were allowed to remain in the crankcase, it would contaminate t ... read more

Something you're going to be hearing a lot about around , is diesel engines. We're not talking about semi-trucks and buses - We're talking about diesel engine cars, pick-ups and SUVs. Most people in , are surprised to learn that around half the cars on the road in Europe have diesel engines. Nearly all import auto manufacturers offer a range of diesel engines abroad - even the ultra-luxury brands like Mercedes and BMW. For the most part, these diesel engines haven't been available in , . But that's about to change. In the past, North American diesel fuel has had a much higher sulfur content than European fuel. Recent environmental laws have required changes in diesel formulation and emissions standards here in , so we are now ready to start seeing more diesel options offered over the next few years. Why are so many motorists interested in diesel engines? Well first off, diesel fuel is more energy dense. There's more pow ... read more