Tag: Seattle Auto Body Shop

Maintaining a good tire pressure is an important part of keeping up your fuel efficiency and maintaining the integrity of your tires. Tires gradually lose air over time, and can take a sharp drop in pressure when the cold season comes around. Checking this pressure and maintaining good tires is a simple procedure that our Seattle body shop can do for you on a routine visit, but it also pays to be able to keep track of it by yourself.

All you need to check your tire pressure is a digital tire gauge. These can be bought for about fifteen dollars in many stores with an automotive section. Try checking your pressure before you drive your car first thing in the morning, and compare the pressure to the ideal tire pressure listed in your owner manual, inside your gas-filler door, or on the door jam. If the pressure is low, take your car to your gas station to get a fill-up.

Do you remember the last time you had your spark plugs changed? It’s a simple procedure, one that our Seattle body shop could have done in minutes. However, it’s still something that far too many driver’s neglect. This hurts fuel efficiency, and will eventually prevent your car from starting.

The function of the spark plug is to create an electrical spark so as to ignite your fuel when you start your engine. To do this, it forces an electrical charge to jump across a tiny gap, like a miniature bolt of lightning. Over time, this gap is getting sullied by the fuel that runs through your engine. Carbon builds up, inhibiting the flow of electricity. The more of a build up you get, the more fuel you have to burn to get your car started. Eventually, you won’t be able to get a spark going at all.

A normal spark plug will generally last between ten and twenty thousand miles. If you’re approaching that limit, don’t wait to have your plugs checked out. You’re probably saving money in the long run.

An overheating engine is a bad thing.  It can cause your car to shut down in the short term, and letting it continue to overheat is taxing on your car and can lead to more serious damage very quickly.  You’ll want to get your overheating car down to Greenwood’s Seattle body shop as soon as possible.  Meanwhile, here are some tips to cool down your car so that you don’t damage it further before you can bring it in:

• When you notice your car overheating, shut off the engine.  Give it a minute; do not open the hood if the engine is giving off steam or smoke.

• When the engine has cooled down, open the hood and check the coolant reservoir.  This is a plastic jug-like structure fitted with a hose that feeds into the radiator.  Don’t open this unless you’re confident your engine has cooled down enough, as you can burn your hand with the blast of hot steam that may shoot out at you.

• Use a rag to open the radiator cap.  Again, be careful that you’re not going to get burned by a blast of hot steam.  Fill to the top of the radiator if you need to.

• If you’re out of coolant and you don’t have access to new coolant, go ahead and use water.  This won’t last as long as coolant, but it’ll get you out of an emergency situation.

• Look at the hoses coming out of the radiator or the heater system.  Have any of them burst?

• If you’ve got the engine cooled down and the coolant replaced, try starting your car again.  Watch your temperature gauge closely.  Run the heater if you can stand to.

• If your overheating problem continues, have your car towed to the body shop.  Driving an overheated car more than you need to is only making your problem worse.

Have you noticed your car suddenly taking bumps harder than it used to?  Chances are that your shock absorbers have taken some sort of damage, probably from going over a particularly nasty bit of terrain.  If this is the case, you should think about getting in to our Seattle auto body shop as soon as you can; after all, it’s not just your comfort that is suffering from bad shocks.  Damaged shock absorbers can also bring you any or all of the following:

• Bad Braking: With bad shocks, your car might start to nose-dive a bit when you brake.  It’s not absorbing the energy of your brake like it should, and it leaves you more prone to skidding and sliding on slippery surfaces.

• Poor Steering: Your shock absorbers help your car deal with the unbalanced pressure that comes with making a turn.  Bad shocks hurt your ability to steer effectively, putting you in danger when you merge on the freeway or hit an intersection in a busy city street.

• Excessive Tire Wear: With bad shocks, your tires are no longer standing on even legs.  This subjects certain tires to more wear than others, and leaves you vulnerable to blow-outs.

• Additional Engine Damage: Your car is a complex machine, and it doesn’t benefit from taking the worst of every bump in the road.  You need your shocks to spare your more delicate engine parts from further abuse.

Perhaps you’ve heard of “low profile” tires. A lot of dealers are fond of putting these on their cars and touting their merits, drawing buyers in with the sharp aesthetic and the superior gas mileage that they offer. But are these tires really right for you? Let your Seattle auto body shop help you in determining whether or not low profile tires would really be worth your money.

First of all, it is true that low profile tires can help with your fuel economy. The increased leverage offered by the thinner layer of tire between your rim and the road can offer an extra mile or so per gallon, depending on your specific car and driving habits. Unfortunately, low profile tires lose something in being able to handle rough terrain. The advantages can go away really quickly if you live in a colder region that is prone to potholes. When you drive over a pothole, you want the cushioning of a regular tire to protect your car from damage. Couple this fact with the higher price that you usually end up paying with low profile tires, and you may better off with a more conventional tire.