Tucson Auto Repair

Don’t Get Stranded, We Can Help Vacation season is rapidly approaching and many of us will be headed out to our favorite places with our families. Before you head out on the road, why not drop off your vehicle for a pre-trip safety inspection and regular maintenance? Nobody wants any unexpected surprises while traveling with family, specifically If you have small children.  Your vehicle is most likely the second most expensive purchase you will ever make, helping you maintain it is why we are here.  Modern vehicles are very complicated and very fragile. If your vehicle was built during the Covid era, then you are very likely facing a vehicle failure of some type due to the poor quality workmanship and substandard parts used during manufacturing.  We make things very convenient for you. Drop off your vehicle in the morning and pick it up when repairs are finished, usually the same day.  Think of it like this. How much of an inconvenience wo ... read more

One of the most overlooked items on a vehicle is the cabin air filter. Cabin air filters are installed in your vehicles HVAC system and are designed to filter dirt, pollen and other disgusting things out of the air that you and your passengers breath inside the vehicle.  They should be inspected at every oil change and changed every 12,000 miles or once a year.  If neglected the filter becomes filled with debris and restricts the airflow, and less airflow means the cabin cannot be heated or cooled efficiently. A clogged filter also creates back pressure for the blower motor, making it work harder and contributing to possible premature failure.  Most people think these filters are checked at every service when the vehicle is in the shop, but the truth is, many of these cabin filters are hard to access so shops with poorly trained employees may miss or skip this step.  If you have asthma or other respiratory problems, it is imperative that these filters be changed ... read more

You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve seen vehicles on the road with tires/wheels that are noticeably out of balance. To see this with the naked eye, the imbalance has to be pretty extreme, but believe me, I HAVE seen it! I’ve seen tires so badly imbalanced or damaged that they literally bounce up and down, some bouncing so high that they were lifting off the ground! We’ve had people come into our shop that were understandably upset about a vibration in their vehicle. This is frequently mis-diagnosed by some shops as bad brake rotors, but it usually turns out to be tires that are damaged or out of balance.  Simple tire balancing is very inexpensive or free in most cases because almost every place that sells tires offers free lifetime tire balancing.  One of the first questions we ask a customer when they deliver their vehicle to us with a vibration complaint is "When was the last time you had your tires balanced"?  No one ever really ... read more

Arguably a vehicle’s most important safety system is its brakes. Specific components, including brake pads, shoes, rotors, drums and brake fluid are maintenance items that need regular replacement. A pulsation or shaking during braking can be a strong indication that the brake rotors are warped from excessive heat caused by extended or hard braking.  It is important to change brake fluid every 20,000 miles or 2 years. As brake fluid ages, it begins to corrode parts such as brake lines, calipers, caliper pistons, and wheel cylinders. It can cause the ABS light to come on and will ultimately lead to reduced braking performance. It is not uncommon for the braking system hardware to move, become dislodged or even break. In Very basic terms the hardware is what holds the brake pads or shoes in place. This is very common on vehicles with drum brakes, but still happens on disc brakes.  Modern braking systems are more complicated than the old ones, they include sensors, compu ... read more

Your vehicle's cooling system serves a few very important functions. It maintains the engines optimal operating temperature which is where it works most efficiently, and removes any excess heat from the engine when its under a load or outside temperatures are high.  While your vehicle is in use, the coolant exits from the bottom of the radiator after it's cooled, where its then drawn into the water pump, to cycle it back through the engine where it absorbs the heat and travels back to the top of the radiator where the cycle continues.  A vehicles cooling system is basically made up of the engine, radiator, the water pump, cooling fan(s), circulatory hoses, and a thermostat and coolant temperature sensor.  During the engine combustion process (intake,compression,power,exhaust) the fuel energy is converted into heat, which is transferred throughout the cylinder head and block to the coolant, and cycled through the cooling system via the water pump. The hose carr ... read more