Some Tallahassee motorists are confused by Auto Super-Service Center charges for diagnostic services for a vehicle repair. Many services at Auto Super-Service Center and other Tallahassee automotive repair shops include diagnostic fees.

When you take your laptop into a Tallahassee computer repair shop for a problem you’ll likely have to leave a deposit for diagnostics. When we visit our Havana doctor for a medical problem, we’re paying him to diagnose our ailment and of course for the tests that go along with it.

So receiving a diagnostic charge at Auto Super-Service Center for a tricky automotive problem shouldn’t be a surprise. In the Tallahassee area, automotive diagnostics can cover quite a range. If you hear a noise in your all passenger cars & light trucks brakes when you slow down in rush-hour traffic on a busy Florida expressway, you pull off the next off-ramp and take a quick visual check. That is usually enough to know what needs to be done. If you’re having an intermittent problem with your all passenger cars & light trucks engine, Auto Super-Service Center diagnosis may be much more involved.

Much of the Tallahassee public’s confusion comes when the problem involves the check engine light. The check engine light comes on when the engine management computer has sensed a problem.

There’s a common misconception among Havana, Quincy, and Crawfordville drivers that the trouble code tells the Auto Super-Service Center technician exactly what’s wrong. Why then is there a diagnostic charge, the scanner just gave the diagnosis?

Reality is more involved than that. The computer monitors many sensors throughout the vehicle. When one of these sensors has a reading that’s out of parameters, the computer will record a trouble code and turn on the check engine light.

The all passenger cars & light trucks computer’s trouble code just tells the Auto Super-Service Center technician what engine parameter is out of range – not what’s causing it. The technician needs to determine the underlying problem that’s causing the symptom.

There are many problems that could cause a troublesome sensor reading for Auto Super-Service Center Tallahassee customers. The Auto Super-Service Center technician makes a list of the most likely causes and begins tracking down the source of the problem.

Tallahassee service centers subscribe to databases that document possible causes for a given trouble code. They outline procedures for confirming a diagnosis and provide the documented fix. These databases are specific to each vehicle and engine combination.

Some diagnoses are quick and easy. Others are more involved and difficult. Of course Auto Super-Service Center wants to figure out what’s wrong with your all passenger cars & light trucks and get you back on the road as quickly as possible.

A recent report stated that over 80 percent of the vehicles on our Tallahassee Florida roads have one or more service or repair that’s needed, but hasn’t been taken care of. Now that’s a lot of undone service. That translates into something over 160 million vehicles in the U.S. alone. Some of the neglected items are minor. Others are serious safety concerns.

There are several reasons why we hesitate to take care of recommended services; especially services that our Tallahassee Florida automotive advisor recommends when we’re in for something else, like an oil change.

The first issue boils down to comfort with car care. We don’t always feel we know enough to make good decisions. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that vehicles are so reliable these days. They almost become an appliance. Of course you love your all passenger cars & light trucks, but if you don’t have to worry about it breaking down all the time, you’re not forced to think as much about preventive maintenance.

Perhaps your dad knew a lot about cars and always made sure they were taken care of. He was very comfortable dealing with his local Tallahassee Florida service advisor. People who don’t know as much about cars hesitate to ask questions because they don’t want to look ignorant.

It’s human nature. But, there’s so much to know in this world, we can’t all be experts in everything. So we specialize. It’s very important to ask questions of any specialist, whether it’s your doctor, financial advisor or your automotive technician in Tallahassee, Florida.

Your auto technician at Auto Super-Service Center wants your questions. We want you to understand the recommendation and why it needs to be done.

That brings us to the next issue; people say that they don’t always know if they really need the service or if they are just being sold something.

At the heart, it speaks to trust. Do you trust your Tallahassee service center and your service advisor? Trust has to be earned and that takes time and experience. But you can shortcut the process when you realize that most of the recommendations are based on manufacturer’s maintenance schedules.

In other words, “you don’t have to trust me, you can trust your owner’s manual”.

Your Tallahassee service center has computer databases that contain the manufacturer’s recommendations for almost all vehicles, so they don’t need to rummage through your glove box to look for your owner’s manual to know what to do.

Basically, the engineers who designed the car say “here’s when you need to have it serviced”. That’s who makes the recommendation, not the technician. He’s just reminding you.

Now you do need to trust your Tallahassee technician’s experience and judgment from time to time. When he inspects your vehicle, he may find problems or concerns. He will explain things so that you can prioritize the concern and make a good decision about whether or not to have something done.

That brings us to the third issue; money. Often the concern is about spending the money to take care of a recommended service. Our money has many places it needs to go. And we have another list of places we want it to go. Auto maintenance isn’t usually on either of those lists.

Look, everyone who works at Auto Super-Service Center has a family budget, too. They can relate. Maybe a little look behind the scenes would be helpful.

Service centers like Auto Super-Service Center invest heavily in training, diagnostic equipment and tools so that they can make repairs and perform services as efficiently as possible. And like any other business, they have labor costs, insurance, rent, utilities, shop and office supplies, taxes and so on.

We work hard to make sure that we diagnose the problem correctly and fix it right the first time. That’s the only way we can maintain our reputation and remain in business. If we’re not satisfying our customers and providing a good value, you won’t come back and the service center won’t be around for long.

When there is a real budget concern, your Tallahassee service center can help you prioritize the work that needs to be done and come up with a plan for taking care of it that works within your budget.

Let’s say you have a serious problem with your brakes. That’s a safety concern so a technician can’t ethically say, well, let’s put that off for a couple of months. What they can do is take care of the brakes now and address the cabin air filter or transmission service next month.

Suspension systems will continue to operate effectively for many years and tens of thousands of miles. Eventually all passenger cars & light trucks components do wear out, but how long that takes depends a lot on how you drive in Quincy.

As you can imagine, if most of your driving is on smooth Florida highways, your shock absorbers will last a lot longer than if you do most of your driving on bumpy roads or hauling heavy loads. In addition to just wearing out, all passenger cars & light trucks suspension components can be damaged in an accident or by a hard impact – like a pothole, hitting a curb or a rock in the road. Because the life span of shocks can vary so widely, your all passenger cars & light trucks manufacturer recommends periodic inspections.

During an inspection at Auto Super-Service Center, your professional Quincy service technician will check for worn, broken or missing parts. Let me give a rundown of the major suspension components.

First there are the springs. The springs hold the weight of the vehicle. There are several kinds of springs. Springs are obviously heavy duty parts that rarely break or wear out. Shock absorbers work in conjunction with springs to smooth out the ride and help keep the tires on the road. The shocks are key to handling performance and ride comfort.

You’ve probably heard of struts. They combine a shock absorber and a coil spring in one unit. Shocks and struts will wear out over time. There are some signs that shocks or struts are wearing out. The tires may have a cupped wear pattern. This is from the shocks bouncing unevenly. You may notice a floaty or drifting sensation when cornering. If the front of your all passenger cars & light trucks dives excessively when stopping, or rocks back and forth after you stopped, your shocks may be worn out. And if they are leaking fluid, it’s definitely time to replace them.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, visit Auto Super-Service Center for a suspension inspection. Same if you’ve been in an accident that involved one of your wheels. If your all passenger cars & light trucks suspension actually fails, it could lead to a serious accident, so take care of these things.

When you replace your shocks, it’s usually a good idea to replace all four at the same time. That’ll give you more even handling. Talk with your Auto Super-Service Center service advisor because you don’t want a big difference between the performance of your shocks from wheel to wheel, and replacing all may be the safest bet.

There different grades of shocks and struts. You always want to use a replacement shock or strut that equals the one that came as original equipment when your all passenger cars & light trucks was new. But remember, they were designed to meet the expected needs of the broad range of Quincy people who buy that particular vehicle. Your needs may be more specialized.

For example if you want increased handling performance for your all passenger cars & light trucks, your professional Auto Super-Service Center advisor can recommend an upgraded shock or strut to give you what you want. If you haul heavy loads or trailers, you can get a more heavy duty shock absorber.

One topic that hits the news in Tallahassee on a regular basis is the price of gas. The answer for some people in Tallahassee is to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle. For the rest of use, we need to improve our fuel economy anyway we can.

Following recommended service intervals by coming into Auto Super-Service Center is one of the best ways to keep your car running efficiently. That means better fuel economy. When you give it some thought, it only makes sense. Dirty oil or transmission fluid can’t lubricate or clean. That means more drag which reduces fuel economy.

Keeping up with scheduled oil changes and transmission services will save gas.

Dirty engine air filters are another efficiency pirate. They rob your engine of enough air to effectively burn the fuel, so you need more gas to get the job done. Replacing a dirty air filter can pay for itself in fuel savings before the next oil change.

You can imagine what dirty fuel injectors can do to your all passenger cars & light trucks as you drive around Tallahassee. If your owner’s manual recommends a fuel system cleaning, come into Auto Super-Service Center and ask us to get it done for you.

A simple, but very effective way to save gas is to keep your tires properly inflated. Low tires can cost you up to a mile per gallon. Check your tire pressure when you gas up – or at least once a month.

Auto Super-Service Center
3781 N. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, Florida 32303
850-562-4608

We find that a lot of Tallahassee service and repair at Auto Super-Service Center are a little tentative when they talk with their automotive advisors. 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 Tallahassee 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 you’re trying to find the right service center in Tallahassee. But once you’ve developed a relationship, the communication should come easier.

What are some of the barriers to communication? Well, let’s go back to the medical example. When your doctor’s explaining something to you, it’s something that she understands very well and is very familiar with. So she may use jargon you don’t understand or that you don’t have the education and training that’s foundational to understanding what she’s trying to explain.

So you fall behind and get frustrated.

It can be the same with your Tallahassee automotive service advisors. Most of them are very busy trying to service and fix cars to get their customers back on the road. So, just ask when you feel you need more information.

Financial related issues seem to be most frustrating to customers. If you’re not sure, ask what the payment policies are. For example, there’s a big difference between giving your car a quick once over and doing a thorough inspection. Diagnosing a problem may take quite a while. Make sure you know what’s done as a courtesy and what has a fee. Remember, you still have to pay for the office visit even if the doctor says you only have a cold.

Communication is a two way street. If you have some real budget concerns, ask your Tallahassee service advisor what he can do. He can give you priorities and options. He can tell you what needs to be taken care of right away for safety or financial reasons. Then you can work out a plan for when to get the rest done. He can also help you with options on the parts. The preference is to always use a high-quality part with a reputation for reliability. But if money is real tight, he might be able to find a rebuilt part or a used part. He should tell you the difference in the guarantee for the part so you can make a good decision.

Ask about warranties for parts and labor. Be sure to get all the paperwork you need to make a possible claim in the future. Your service center and its technicians stand behind their work and want you to understand precisely what that means.

Be sure to ask for and keep a detailed explanation of all the work that’s done on your vehicle. These records will help you keep track of service, warranties and document the good care your vehicle has received when the time comes to sell it.

Call Auto Super-Service Center to make an appointment.
3781 N. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, Florida 32303
850-562-4608

Welcome to the Auto Super-Service Center blog. Today, let’s talk about the effect of tire tread depth on braking. When talking about stopping power, most of us Crawfordville drivers tend to focus on our brakes. But our tires are where the rubber meets the road. So having good brakes isn’t enough. Safe Crawfordville drivers need to have tires with enough traction to translate braking power into stopping power.

Let’s focus on stopping in wet Crawfordville conditions. In order for a tire to have good contact with the road, it has to move the water out of the way. If it can’t move the water, the tire will actually ride on top of a thin film of water.

That’s called hydroplaning. If it’s really bad, Crawfordville drivers can actually spin out of control. At best, you won’t stop as fast.

So how does a tire move water? It has channels for water to flow through. Look at your all passenger cars & light trucks tire and you’ll see channels: channels that run around the tire and channels that flow across the tire. They’re designed to direct water away from the tire so it can contact the road better.

And the deeper the channel, the more water it can move. A brand new Auto Super-Service Center tire has very deep channels and can easily move a lot of water. As the tire wears down, the channels become shallower and can move less water. When it wears down enough, it can seriously affect your ability to stop your all passenger cars & light trucks on wet Crawfordville roads.

So that’s why it’s so important to replace our all passenger cars & light trucks tires when they get worn. Consumer Reports and other advocate groups call for a standard of 3/32 of an inch and they have the studies to prove it.

By comparison, you’ve probably seen the wear indicator that’s molded into tires. When tires are worn 3/32 of an inch, the tread wear bar is visible. So the recommended standard has twice the tread depth as a completely worn out all passenger cars & light trucks tire.

At Auto Super-Service Center, we want our customers to know that the deeper recommended tread depth makes a big difference. Stopping distances are cut dramatically on wet Crawfordville roads. A safe stop from Florida freeway speeds with 4/32 of an inch of tread would result in a crash with worn out tires.

There’s an easy way to tell when a tire’s worn to 4/32 of an inch. Just insert a quarter into the tread. Put it in upside down. If the tread doesn’t cover George Washington’s hairline, it’s time to replace your all passenger cars & light trucks tires. With a Canadian quarter, the tread should cover the numbers in the year stamp.

Many Crawfordville car owners have heard of this technique using a penny and Abe Lincoln’s head. That measure gives you 2/32 of an inch – half the suggested amount. Of course, all passenger cars & light trucks tires are a big ticket item. Most of us in Crawfordville want to get as many miles out of them as we can. But there’s a real safety trade-off. It’s your choice.

The PCV Valve is a little, inexpensive part that does a big job for Tallahassee drivers. PCV stands for Positive Crankcase Ventilation.

The crankcase is the bottom area of the engine that holds the oil. When the all passenger cars & light trucks engine’s running, fuel is burned to generate power. Most of the exhaust from combustion goes out through the exhaust system. But some exhaust blows by the pistons and goes into the lower engine, or crankcase.

These hot gases are about seventy percent unburned fuel. This can dilute and contaminate the oil, leading to damaging engine oil sludge. It can also cause all passenger cars & light trucks engine corrosion, something we see occasionally at Auto Super-Service Center. At high speeds on Tallahassee freeways, the pressure can build up to the point that gaskets and seals start to leak.

Back in the old days, engine makers simply installed a hose that vented these gases out into the atmosphere. But starting in the 1964 model year, laws mandated that these gases be recycled back into the air intake system to be mixed with fuel and burned in the all passenger cars & light trucks’s engine.

This is much better for the environment and it saves gas too. (Budget-conscious Tallahassee drivers take note!) The little valve that controls all this action is the PCV valve. The PCV valve lets gases out of the engine, but won’t let anything back in. Over time, the vented gases will gum up the PCV valve and it won’t work well. That can lead to all of the problems I’ve already described, oil leaks, excessive oil consumption and wasted gas.

Fortunately, it’s very easy to test the PCV Valve at Auto Super-Service Center and quick and inexpensive to replace. Even so, it’s often overlooked because many Tallahassee drivers don’t know about it. Check your all passenger cars & light trucks owner’s manual or ask your Auto Super-Service Center service advisor. If this is the first time you’ve heard of a PCV valve, you might be in line for a replacement.

There’s another aspect to the PCV system. In order for the valve to work correctly, it needs a little clean air to come in. This is done through a breather tube that gets some filtered air from the engine air filter. Now some vehicles have a small separate air filter for the breather tube called the breather element. That’ll need to be replaced at Auto Super-Service Center when it gets dirty.

Please ask your professional Tallahassee service advisor about your PCV valve. For the price of a couple of burger combo meals in Tallahassee, you can avoid some very expensive deep engine repairs.

Today’s Auto Super-Service Center auto maintenance article focuses on your serpentine belt. Your serpentine belt is a long belt that’s driven by your engine. It winds around several accessories that power important automotive systems. Let’s go over them.

First, the serpentine belt drives your all passenger cars & light trucks air conditioning system. It spins the compressor that makes the cool air that takes the edge off the summer heat in Tallahassee.

Next, the belt powers the alternator. The alternator creates electricity that’s used by your all passenger cars & light trucks’s electrical systems and also charges your car battery. All Tallahassee drivers know that without the alternator, the battery will go dead in a few miles.

The serpentine belt may also run the pumps for both the power steering and power brakes. And, on many all passenger cars & light truckss, the serpentine belt powers the water pump. The water pump circulates coolant through the engine to keep it within normal operating temperatures as you drive around Tallahassee.

Now on some all passenger cars & light truckss, the water pump is powered by the timing belt instead of the serpentine belt. So you can see the serpentine belt does a lot of work. And it if breaks, it affects a lot of systems. That’s why manufacturers and your service advisor at Auto Super-Service Center have recommended that it be changed every so often so that it doesn’t fail.

Your Tallahassee service technician can perform a visual inspection of the belt to see if it has any cracks that signal the belt could fail soon and will measure the amount of belt material to make sure there is enough.

There’s a special, spring loaded pulley attached to the engine called the tensioner pulley. Its job is to make sure there’s a constant tension on the serpentine belt so that it doesn’t slip. The spring can become worn and no longer provide the necessary pressure to keep the belt tight. At Auto Super-Service Center, we recommend that the tensioner be replaced at the same time as the serpentine belt.

All in all, the serpentine belt’s an important part for the function of your all passenger cars & light trucks. And it’s not that expensive to replace in Tallahassee – so it’s good to do so before it fails.

Wheel alignment is often overlooked by busy Quincy and Cawfordville car owners until serious tire damage has been done. One wheel can be knocked out of alignment from the rest by hitting a curb or pothole on Tallahassee roads.

When a vehicle’s out of alignment, one or more of the wheels does not track true and pulls against the others. The tires will wear out very quickly and will need to be replaced prematurely. It could also lead to all passenger cars & light trucks suspension damage.

But the big issue for Quincy, Cawfordville, and Tallahassee motorists is safety. When your all passenger cars & light trucks wheels are out of alignment, the vehicle will pull to one side, which could lead to an accident. When you’re out of alignment, you should have it taken care of right away at Auto Super-Service Center in Tallahassee.

At Auto Super-Service Center, your vehicle is put on an alignment rack where the tires, steering and suspension parts are checked for damage. Then the alignment is charted and checked against the factory settings.

Adjustments are made to bring the wheels back into alignment. This gets all four wheels going in precisely the same direction.

Signs of alignment problems are: Your car pulls to one side. Also, your steering wheel may not be centered when you’re going straight. If you see the edges of one or more tires rapidly wearing down, you should have your Tallahassee service center look it over. If you’ve been in an auto accident in Florida that involved a wheel, you should get your alignment checked.

A big jolt can seriously knock things out of alignment, but Quincy drivers also need to understand that a series of smaller ones can add up.

That’s why your manufacturer recommends periodic alignment checks. If your all passenger cars & light trucks owner’s manual doesn’t specify, once a year might be appropriate. Or check with Tim Coxwell or your service advisor at Auto Super-Service Center in Tallahassee.

One thing’s for sure: the cost of the alignment at Auto Super-Service Center is cheaper than having to buy a couple of new tires because of neglect.

People near Tallahassee Florida often ask Auto Super-Service Center 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 Tallahassee Florida service advisor at Auto Super-Service Center 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 Tallahassee Florida 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.

• Most of your trips are less than four miles.
• Most of your trips are less than ten miles and outside temperatures are below freezing.
• The engine is at low speed most of the time – not on the highway. You operate your vehicle in dusty areas.
• You regularly tow a trailer or carry heavy loads.
• Drive with a car-top carrier.
• Stop and go driving.
• Driving in very hot or very cold weather.

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. And I live close to a freeway on-ramp. Everywhere I need to go is right off the freeway, at least four miles from my home. I can drive at a steady 60 miles per hour when I’m on the freeway.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like my normal driving. It sounds more like ideal conditions. I live where it gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I run short errands around Tallahassee. Occasionally we load up for family trips.

For me, normal driving includes elements of severe service driving. So here’s what I tell people: think about how you drive, where you live, where you go and what you are expecting to with your vehicle in the near future.

Picture a line with ‘regular’ on one end and ‘severe’ on the other, and make a judgment on where you fall. If your regular oil change recommendation is 5,000 miles and the severe service recommendation is 3,000 – when should you change your oil? For me, it’s closer to 3,000 miles. For my wife, it’s closer to 5,000 miles. Your Tallahassee Florida auto service advisor at Auto Super-Service Center will be happy to have this discussion with you and help you sort it out.

Just a quick word on why severe service intervals are shorter. One has to do with heat. That can either be external heat from the weather or engine and transmission heat from stop and go driving or working extra hard moving heavy loads or towing. The heat causes the fluids like oil and transmission fluid to break down more quickly and then they aren’t as effective.

Another factor is water. Moisture naturally collects in fluids as they cool. In your motor oil, for example, if you don’t drive long enough for the oil to fully heat up, the water won’t evaporate. Water in the oil can lead to the buildup of damaging sludge.

If you live where the air is dusty or polluted, fluids will become contaminated and filters will get dirtier more quickly.

So make an honest evaluation of your driving conditions. You’ve made the commitment to take care of your vehicles, so it only makes sense to follow the right schedule.