North Road Auto – For All Your Car Maintenance! 845.471.8255

When you take a corner in your car, the outside wheels have a slightly longer distance to go than the inside wheels. That means that the outside wheels have to turn a bit faster than the inside. The piece of mechanical wizardry that makes this possible is called the differential.

The differential allows the drive wheels to rotate at different speeds in turns without the wheel binding or hopping. If you have a rear-wheel drive vehicle, the differential is on the rear axle. You’ve seen that bulge in the middle of the axle when you’re behind a truck – that’s the differential.

If you have a front-wheel drive vehicle, the differential function is handled by your transaxle. Of course, all-wheel drive vehicles have differentials on both axles. They also have a center differential or a transfer case between the front and rear axles to compensate for speed differences between the front and rear.

Because all the power of the engine is transferred through the various differentials, you can imagine that they are very strong and are built last a long time. That’s why it’s important to keep your differential properly lubricated. Differential fluid cools and protects the gears.

Our service technician will check differential fluid level and top it off if necessary. With low fluid, the differential will run too hot and wear prematurely. Ask your service advisor for when it’s recommended to change your differential fluid. Fresh fluid will extend the life of your differential. Your technician will also inspect the u-joints which connect your drive shaft to the differential and may recommend service. Some u-joints can be lubricated as part of a routine lube, oil and filter change as well.

Now, of course differentials eventually wear out and need to be replaced. You might notice a strange noise from you axle area as one of the first warning signs. When the differential shows signs of failing, it’s important to repair it. If you leave it too long and it freezes up when you’re driving you could lose control of your vehicle and other parts like the axle, driveshaft and transmission could be damaged.

We’re often asked questions about the cooling system – the system that cools your engine and keeps it at the proper operating temperature. Let’s examine the topic in two areas: first the coolant itself and, second, the parts that make up the cooling system.

The coolant in you truck is the mix of water and antifreeze that circulates through the engine to draw off heat. First, you need to have the proper amount. If you don’t have enough coolant it can’t keep your engine cool.

You also need the right kind of coolant. Different makes of trucks and other vehicles require different coolant formulation to protect against corrosion.

Finally, your coolant needs to be fresh. Over time and miles, the anti-corrosion additives in the coolant are depleted and the coolant can actually start to eat away at the cooling system parts. Your owner’s manual and your service adviser can help you with the recommended coolant replacement schedule and make sure you’re getting the right type of coolant.

Now let’s talk about the cooling system components. These will all eventually wear out and need to be replaced.

Starting with the radiator, we see them coming into the shop with leaks or clogged with deposits. Depending on the damage, we will clean, repair or replace. We also see radiator pressure caps that can no longer hold the proper pressure. We recommend replacing pressure caps when you change your coolant to avoid this problem.

We see leaky water pumps and hoses that need to be replaced, too. There’s also a part called the thermostat that opens and closes to regulate the flow of coolant. Sometimes they stick open or closed and the cooling system won’t work properly.

Engine damage from overheating can be very expensive to fix so it’s important to maintain your cooling system properly with scheduled coolant replacement and periodic inspections of the cooling system. Certainly come in if you suspect a leak and have us take a look.

Today we’re going to talk about windshield wiper blades. Now that may seem like a pretty mundane topic, but think about how important your vision is: We protect our eyes. If we need contacts or glasses, we taken care of them too. And, well, wiper blades are critical to our vision when we drive around the area.

We really ought to think about wipers as part of an important safety system. We should think about maintaining safety – not just responding when our wiper blades fail: how many times have you been caught off-guard by the first storm of the season with a streaky windshield you can barely see out of? Or with no washer fluid.

Wiper blades live outside the vehicle, exposed to heat and sun in summer and cold and ice in winter. It’s no wonder that they get dry, brittle and torn.

We recommend changing wiper blades twice a year – before they’re so damaged that they don’t work. If you replace them in one of your spring and fall oil changes, you should always have wiper blades that can get the job done.

Some of us live in areas with more extreme weather and temperature conditions. You might just live somewhere where it rains more so your blades wear out faster, or you travel a lot and use your wipers to clean bugs and road grime.

If that’s the case, consider a premium grade wiper. There are special wiper material compounds, blade designs and wiper arms that really improve your vision in adverse conditions. There are even special winter blades that don’t get all clogged up with ice and snow.

We can also apply a special windshield treatment that repels rain, sleet and snow as you drive. The increased visibility can improve your driving response time.

When it comes to wiper blades, it’s important to think of it as maintaining this safety component by replacing your blades before they fail. That’ll keep you seeing clearly in all conditions.

When your check engine light comes on, you may be torn between utter panic and just wanting to ignore it and hope it goes away. That’s perfectly understandable. That same check engine light could come on for anything from a serious engine or transmission problem all the way down to a loose gas cap.

There’s a very common misconception that the trouble codes stored in your engine computer when your check engine light comes on will specifically identify a problem. It’s really more like pointing to the symptoms of a problem.

Think of taking your temperature. Say it’s 101. Your heat sensor – the thermometer – tells you that your temperature is out of the normal range. But it doesn’t tell you why you have a fever. Is it the flu or a sinus infection? You need more information; more tests.

For any given trouble code, there could be a number of causes. So our trained technician takes the trouble code as a starting point and begins a diagnostic process to determine the cause of the problem. And some problems take longer to solve than others.

When your engine management system logs a problem and illuminates the check engine light, your service technician at our shop will plug in a scanner, download the trouble codes and go to work tracing the cause of the problem.

That’s just the first step. That’s when your technician’s training, equipment, databases and skill get put to work diagnosing the problem and fixing it.

If your check engine light is flashing it means that the problem could lead to serious damage. You should get to our service center as soon as possible to get the problem solved. If it’s on but not flashing, you have some time to get in at your convenience.

Let’s talk about cabin air filters. There seems to be some confusion about them that we should be able to clear up. Much of the confusion starts because cabin air filters are relatively new. Not all vehicles have them, so some people confuse their cabin air filter with the engine air filter.

Every vehicle has an engine air filter that cleans the air going into the engine, but not all have a cabin air filter that cleans the air going into the passenger compartment. Easy to get mixed up.

The cabin air filter cleans out dust, pollen, spores and other pollutants. To give a point of comparison, a grain of sand is about 200 microns across. A cabin air filter can stop particles that are just 3 microns in size. It really does make the passenger cabin a much more pleasant environment.

When the cabin air filter gets dirty, you just need to replace it. Your owner’s manual may have a recommended interval for changing it. If not we can inspect it. You know, it’s ironic that many people who don’t realize they even have a cabin air filter first find out they do when it starts to get smelly.

Some cabin air filters are very easy to access when it’s time to replace them. Others, not so much. We may have to get behind the dashboard and it takes some time.

A clean cabin air filter keeps out smog, allergens and other harmful pollutants. If it’s time, get it changed right away.

Batteries are a huge part of modern life. I mean, how many battery chargers do you have?

Of course, our purpose here is to talk about your car battery. When people come into our service center and need a new battery, they’re really not that happy about having to spend the money. But the fact is that 70 percent of batteries don’t make it for 4 years.

There are some things that you can do to extend the life of your battery. First, keep it clean. If you see it getting dirty or greasy, let us know and we can clean it off. A dirty battery runs hotter and that shortens its life. If your battery terminals are corroded, let us take a look at that too. We can clean them, and if the corrosion has gotten into the battery cables, we can replace them.

Also running your battery way down is bad for it: Things like running the headlights or watching a DVD player with the car turned off can deeply deplete your battery. The typical battery can only take about 10 of those deep cycle depletions before it gives up the ghost.

Because we often take short trips with lots of stops for errands, our batteries can end up not getting fully recharged just by driving around. That also shortens battery life. You can hook up a good quality automatic battery charger at home from time to time. We recommend charging once a month during hot months and every three months during cold months.

Now when it’s finally time to get a new battery, we can help you find the right replacement. We’ll always make sure to meet your manufacturer’s recommendations. Now if you have special needs – like live in a very cold climate or run a lot of electrical accessories, we can look at an upgrade that’ll give you the power you need.