Archive for April 2012

Give Your Engine Clean Fuel With A New Fuel Filter From Don's Complete Auto Service

Your Automobile requires plenty of clean fuel to run. When your fuel isn’t clean, your fuel injectors can start to become clogged up. When this happens, your Automobile engine may not get the proper amount of fuel at the correct pressure to run efficiently. This hurts fuel economy and performance as you drive around Saint Cloud . It can also lead to the buildup of harmful deposits on valves and in the combustion chamber.

That’s why all vehicles, including Automobiles, come equipped with a fuel filter somewhere between the engine and the fuel tank. The job of the filter is to clean out little pieces of dirt and contamination. The filter captures the contaminants and holds them out of the fuel stream. Of course, the filter will eventually get clogged up and need to be replaced at Don's Complete Auto Service.

If your fuel filter is clogged, the Automobile engine can’t get all the fuel it needs, and it may sputter at high speeds or quick acceleration. Many fuel filters have a bypass valve that will allow unfiltered fuel through when they are clogged. This keeps your engine running, but doesn’t protect it from contaminated fuel.

You may find that you need to change your fuel filter at Don's Complete Auto Service more frequently as your Automobile ages. Over the years, additional sediment and rust accumulates in the fuel tank and can be drawn into the fuel system. Your fuel filter stands guard at the gates to your engine to protect expensive parts and to maintain performance and fuel economy.

Suspension Service At Don's Complete Auto Service

Suspension systems will continue to operate effectively for many years and tens of thousands of miles. Eventually Automobile components do wear out, but how long that takes depends a lot on how you drive in Oak Ridge.

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, Automobile 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 Automobile manufacturer recommends periodic inspections.

During an inspection at Don's Complete Auto Service, your Honest and Fair Oak Ridge 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 Automobile 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 Don's Complete Auto Service for a suspension inspection. Same if you’ve been in an accident that involved one of your wheels. If your Automobile 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 Don's Complete Auto Service 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 Automobile was new. But remember, they were designed to meet the expected needs of the broad range of Oak Ridge people who buy that particular vehicle. Your needs may be more specialized.

For example if you want increased handling performance for your Automobile, your Honest and Fair Don's Complete Auto Service 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.

Clean Air for Your Engine: Engine Air Filters In Kissimmee

Every Kissimmee car owner who has taken their car in for an oil change has been told that their engine air filter’s dirty.

Here’s what goes into the determination of when to change the filter: First, your Automobile owner’s manual will have a recommendation of when to change the filter. Second, a visual inspection by your Saint Cloud technician may determine that your filter it is visibly dirty and needs to be changed.

So between your owner’s manual and your Saint Cloud technician’s inspection there’s really no guesswork involved.

Now, most air filters purchased in Orlando, Oak Ridge, or Pine Castle don’t cost a lot to replace. It’s just that Florida people hate getting caught with an unexpected expense. On the plus side, though, changing a dirty air filter at Don's Complete Auto Service can often save enough on gas to pay for itself before your next oil change in Saint Cloud .

Think about a dirty furnace filter in your Oak Ridge home. When it’s all clogged up, enough clean air can’t get through. In your Automobile, that means that your engine can’t get as much air as it needs to burn the fuel efficiently. So it makes do with less air and has to use more expensive Florida gas to move your vehicle around Saint Cloud roads.

Your Automobile actually needs about 12,000 gallons of air for every gallon of gas it burns. Engine air filters don’t cost much in Kissimmee at Don's Complete Auto Service. When it’s time to change yours, just get it done. You’ll buy less fuel, have better performance and protect your engine.

Budgeting for Maintenance In Kissimmee Florida

Life's full of surprises in Kissimmee Florida, some of which cost money. A leaky roof, a broken tooth, or an unexpected car repair. Don's Complete Auto Service of Kissimmee Florida and AutoNetTV have done some research on how we can budget for proper vehicle care.

Everyone in Kissimmee Florida does our best to budget for scheduled vehicle maintenance. What's hard is unexpected repairs. The truth is that our vehicles can stay on the road longer than ever before with proper maintenance. That's because of improved vehicle design and manufacturing quality. But some of those same improvements also lead to higher repairs costs.

Let's take the fuel pump. Previous generations were often stranded by the side of the road by vapor lock. This occurred when the gas vaporized between the gas tank and the fuel pump. Fuel just stopped flowing.

You had to sit and wait until the car would start again. To alleviate the problem, fuel pumps are now located inside the gas tank. This is a great solution, but when the fuel pump fails, it's a much more expensive proposition to replace it.

Sealed wheel bearing assemblies are another example. These wheel bearings can't be serviced – you just have to replace the entire assembly when it starts to fail. That costs several times as much as service on non-sealed bearings.

So we all benefit in Kissimmee Florida from design improvements, but we need to plan for repairs down the road.

There's a tool that can be found on Edmunds.com that you can use to prepare your service and repair budget.

Let's suppose you have a 2003 Toyota Camry – a very popular car in Kissimmee Florida. It's now paid for and you'd like to keep it running for the next three years. You can go to Edmunds' True Cost to Own calculator and enter your vehicle's data. The calculator will provide estimates of what it'll cost to service and repair your vehicle over the next five years. The estimate is based on where you live in or near Kissimmee Florida, manufacturers' recommendations and repair experience for your particular model.

Of course these are just estimates – there's no way to predict what'll actually happen to the car in your driveway, but it's a good starting point.

The calculator also has estimates for depreciation, financing, insurance, taxes and fuel costs.

Let's focus on maintenance and repair. This table shows that the average monthly cost of maintenance and repairs is eighty-three dollars. That may sound like a lot, but compare it to a new car payment.



So if you set aside eighty-three dollars a month, you'd go a long ways towards taking care of routine maintenance and being prepared for the unexpected repairs that arise.

Of course, you can't predict when something will go wrong or what it'll cost, but at least you have a reasonable target to shoot for.

Some people around Kissimmee Florida are afraid of what can go wrong with their older car so they buy a new one. That's fine if you really want a new car, but if you properly maintain your older vehicle, you'll save a lot of money on new car payments and insurance. It just makes good economic sense.

Get with your Kissimmee Florida service advisor at Don's Complete Auto Service and work out a plan for keeping your vehicle on the road.

You can visit Don's Complete Auto Service at 508 E. Vine Street in Kissimmee, Florida 34744 or just give us a call at 407-847-3427.

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