A vehicle Tune-Up is one of the more common terms customers hear when discussing vehicle maintenance.  Every vehicle manufacturer has a suggested, routine maintenance schedule outlined for each vehicle.  You can access that schedule from the vehicles Owner’s Manual or on-line.  Some of those routine items include services that help maintain your vehicle’s power, efficiency and performance.  Those services are usually the ones classified as a Tune-Up. 

Automotive Triage understands that in order for your vehicle to get the best gas mileage and engine performance, it must have sparks plugs in good condition, clean air filters, clean fuel filters, and clean fuel injectors.  If you get Tune-Ups based on your vehicle manufacturer’s recommendations, you are investing in the long-term health of your vehicle that will ultimately save you time and money.

Here are items offered during a Tune-Up at Automotive Triage:

• Comprehensive inspection of the engine components
• Remove and replace spark plugs
• Timing and idle setting (if applicable to your vehicle)
• Fuel Filter Replacement
• Air Filter Replacement
• Fuel System Cleaning Service

Automotive Triage understands that if your brakes are not functioning properly, then you, your passengers, and other drivers on the road run the risk of an accident. We feel so strongly about our customer’s safety that we offer free brake system inspections.  If you are in need of a brake service and inspection, look no further than the Automotive Triage, where we offer free brake inspections year-round. 

Our inspections include:

• Measurement of front and rear brake pad wear
• Measurement of rotor wear
• Measurement of drum wear
• Brake fluid test
• Parking/emergency brake inspection

Common brake warning signs:

• Squealing/grinding noise when applying brakes
• Vibration when applying brakes
• Brake pedal goes down too far
• Brake pedal feels spongy or soft
• Brake pedal is very hard
• Dash brake light is ‘on’
• Brake fluid is low

Our brake services include:

• Remove and replace brake pads with new quality pads
• Remove and replace brake shoes with new quality shoes
• Machining or turning of rotors and drums
• Anti-lock brake diagnostics
• Repacking of wheel bearings
• Replacement of seals
• Lubricating critical wear items
• Brake fluid exchange / bleeding lines (removes brake fluid contaminants and air)
• Brake calipers and/or wheel cylinders installed
• Lifetime warranty on labor*
• 12,000-mile/12-month warranty on drums and rotors*
• Inspecting/adjusting parking brake
• Many more adjustments, as needed

Tire alignment, also known as wheel alignment, can help your tires perform properly and help them last longer. It can also improve handling and keep your vehicle from pulling in one direction or vibrating strangely on the road.

What is Tire Alignment?

Alignment refers to an adjustment of a vehicle’s suspension – the system that connects a vehicle to its wheels. It is not an adjustment of the tires or wheels themselves. The key to proper alignment is adjusting the angles of the tires which affects how they make contact with the road.

How Do I Know if I Need a Tire Alignment?

There are a couple ways to tell if your car needs a tire alignment. If you’ve noticed one or more of these indicators, you should have your alignment checked by a licensed service technician immediately.

• Uneven tread wear
• Vehicle pulling to the left or right
• Your steering wheel is off center when driving straight
• Steering wheel vibration

Camber, Toe, & Caster

When a technician checks your tire alignment, he or she is mainly concerned with three things:

1. Camber

This is the inward or outward angle of the tire when viewed from the front of the vehicle. Too much inward or outward tilt, also known as negative and positive camber, respectively, indicates improper alignment and will need to be adjusted. Worn bearings, ball joints, and other wheel-suspension parts may contribute to camber misalignment.

2. Toe

Distinct from camber alignment, toe alignment is the extent to which your tires turn inward or outward when viewed from above. If that’s confusing, just stand up and look down at your feet. Angle them inward toward the center of your body. When the tires on your car are angled the same way (remember, we’re thinking in terms of birds-eye-view), we call this toe-in alignment. Angle your feet outward and you have toe-out alignment. Both require adjustment.

3. Caster

Your caster angle helps balance steering, stability, and cornering. Specifically, it’s the angle of your steering axis when viewed from the side of your vehicle. If you have positive caster, the steering axis will tilt toward the driver. Negative caster, on the other hand, means the steering axis tilts toward the front of your vehicle.

Why Tire Alignment Matters

Improper wheel or tire alignment can cause your tires to wear unevenly and prematurely. Here are some specific types of undue tread wear attributable to misalignment:

Feathering

Tires are “feathered” when the tread is smooth on one side and sharp on another. This is usually a sign of poor toe alignment.

Camber wear

This strain of tread wear means the inside or outside of the tread is significantly more worn than the center of the tread. As its name implies, positive or negative camber causes this type of wear.

Heel/toe wear

This happens when one side of your tread blocks wears down more quickly than the other in a circumferential direction. When you run your hand over the tread, it will look and feel like saw teeth when viewed from the side. Heel/toe wear could be a sign of under inflation and/or lack of rotation.

If you’re experiencing any of these unusual wear patterns, you should have a technician check your alignment. While tire wear prevention is a good reason to keep your wheel alignment in check, the consequences of misalignment can also play out in overall vehicle performance. A car that pulls to one side or steers erratically, for example, probably has an alignment problem.

Tire Rotation is the practice of moving the wheels and tires of an automobile from one position to another, to ensure even tire wear. Even tire wear is desirable to extend the useful life of a set of tires.

The weight on the front and rear axles differs which causes uneven wear. With the majority of cars having the engine in front, the front tires typically bear more weight than the rear tires. Front-wheel drive vehicles have not only the engine but also the transaxle in front, adding to the weight difference. Moreover, additional stress is placed disproportionately on the front tires by braking and steering.Thus, tire rotation needs to occur more frequently for front-wheel drive vehicles.

Turning the vehicle also causes uneven tire wear. The outside, front tire is worn disproportionately. In countries with right-hand traffic, for example, right turns are tighter than left turns and most cloverleaf interchanges and parking ramps are right-hand curves, so the left front tire wears faster than the right front, because the left tire travels a greater distance around those turns and a majority of turns will be to the right. Conversely, the sidewalls on the right tire tends to be bumped and rubbed against the curb while parking the vehicle, causing asymmetric sidewall wear. The symmetric opposite occurs in countries that drive on the left.

In addition, mechanical problems in the vehicle may cause uneven tire wear. Wheels misaligned with each other and/or with the vehicle’s axis will tend to be dragged along by the other wheels, causing uneven wear in that tire. If the alignment is such that the vehicle tends to turn, the driver will correct by steering against the tendency. In effect the vehicle is constantly turning, causing uneven tire wear.

Car manufacturers will recommend tire rotation frequency and pattern. Tire rotation is often recommended every 5,000 mi to 8,000 mi, however this will differ between tire manufacturers and car makes. The rotation pattern is typically moving the back wheels to the front, and the front to the back, but crossing them when moving to the back.If the tires are unidirectional, the rotation can only be rotated front to back on the same side of the vehicle to preserve the rotational direction of the tires. Most unidirectional tires can be moved from side to side if they are remounted; tires with asymmetric rims are a rare exception.More complex rotation patterns are required if the vehicle has a full-size spare tire that is part of the rotation, or if there are snow tires.

Four (4) Tire Rotation

What tire rotation pattern should be followed? The Tire & Rim Association has identified three traditional rotation patterns covering most vehicles (equipped with non-directional tires and wheels which are the same size and offset). The first being the “Rearward Cross” (Figure A); the second being the “Forward Cross” (Figure C); and the third is the “X-Pattern” (Figure B). The X-Pattern can be used as an alternative to A or C.

Today’s performance tire and wheel trends have provided the need for two additional tire rotation patterns.

• The “Front-to-Rear” (Figure D) pattern may be used for vehicles equipped with the same size directional wheels and/or directional tires.
• A “Side-to-Side” (Figure E) pattern may be used for vehicles equipped with different sized non-directional tires and wheels on the front axle compared to the rear axle.

If the last two rotation patterns do not provide even wear, dismounting, mounting and re-balancing will be necessary to rotate the tires.

Vehicles that use different sized directional wheels and tires, and/or wheels with different front and rear offsets with directional tires will require dismounting, mounting and re-balancing to rotate tires.

Five (5) Tire Rotation

While many vehicles are equipped with temporary spares that cannot be included in a tire rotation program, if the vehicle’s four wheels and tires on the ground match the spare wheel and tire (if non-directional and not branded “for temporary use”), they should be included in the tire rotation pattern. Follow the vehicle manufacturer’s recommended tire rotation procedures, or if not available, insert the spare in the right rear position at every rotation. Place the tire that would have gone to the right rear in the trunk as the spare until the next tire rotation.

• On front-wheel drive cars with full-size matching spare, rotate the tires in a forward cross pattern (Figure F)
• On rear-wheel or four-wheel drive cars with full-size matching spare, rotate the tires in a rearward cross pattern (Figure G)

Five tire rotation results in equally distributed use that will help maintain equivalent tread depths on all five tires throughout their life. When applied to many four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles, this is required to prevent driveline damage if a flat tire forces a new spare to be put into service with partially worn tires on the other three wheel positions.

Six (6) Tire Rotation

Vehicles with dual rear wheels and non-directional tires of the same type and size in all six wheel positions may use either of the following rotation patterns (Figure H and Figure I), keeping in mind the wear pattern and wear rate of dual rears are sensitive to significant differences in tread depth within the pair. If the vehicle has tires of a different type and/or size on the front and rear axles, they should only use the rotation pattern depicted in Figure I, rotating across the axle side-to-side, but not front-to-rear.

Studded Winter / Snow Tire Rotation

In order to achieve the best possible wintertime performance and longest lifetime from a set of studded tires, they should be rotated periodically to equally share the vehicle’s workload. Tire rotation will help all four tires maintain equivalent tire wear throughout their life in spite of the different driving demands experienced on a vehicle’s steering and non-steering positions, as well as its driven vs. non-driven axles. The resulting equivalent tread depths will help balance traction levels and handling characteristics, as well as help drivers get more life out of their set of four tires.

Tire Rack recommends rotating studded tires at the beginning of every winter season or every 4,000 miles, whichever comes first.

The rolling direction of studded tires should never be changed.

This can be achieved by rotating tires from front to rear on the same side of the vehicle.

It is also permitted to remount the tires inside-out on the wheels to allow them to be used on other side of the vehicle if uneven wear due to camber is detected.

Replace Your Engine or Have Your Old Engine Rebuilt?

The first step in replacing an engine is to confirm the old engine is beyond fixing or requires so much labor to repair that it is better to replace it. In some cases, engine replacement is a viable alternative to buying a new vehicle. It’s almost always less expensive to repair a car than buy a new one. Our trained professionals can help you make the decision to replace the engine on your old car or buy a new one. Many internal problems can be repaired without having to completely overhaul the engine, provided the rest of the engine is still in relatively good condition. Some of these other fixes include replacing a blown head gasket, a broken or rounded camshaft, a cracked piston, worn valve guides, burned or bent valves, a cracked head or even a spun bearing. However, if the block is cracked, can’t be repaired without major machine work or has to be completely disassembled, the cost of parts and labor may tip the scale in favor of replacing the engine.

After an in-depth assessment of your vehicle including year, make and model, AutomotiveTriage will provide you with pricing options: Replacing your current engine with a brand-new engine, a re-manufactured (i.e., rebuilt) engine, or a used engine from a reputable salvage yard. We provide you with corresponding warranty options depending on what engine you select. This will helpyou weigh the financial options available.

Timing Belt
A timing belt is a part of your car’s internal combustion engine. The belt synchronizes the camshaft and the crankshaft rotation so that the engine valves open and close at the correct timings. Also, the belt prevents the piston from striking the valves in an interference engine. Most cars we drive now have timing belts instead of timing chains and gears. Although different manufacturers have their recommended mileage, you need to have your car’s timing belt checked regularly.

Cylinder Block
A cylinder block is the powerhouse for the motor vehicle. The solid cast car part houses the cylinders and their components (gaskets, valves, and seals) inside a lubricated and cooled crankcase. Since it is one of the most important parts of your car, the block is designed to be extremely strong and sturdy. Although strong and sturdy, the block is susceptible to failure resulting in a vehicle that won’t start. Cracked blocks, porous blocks, core plug, or freeze plug failure are some of the problems facing cylinder blocks.

Cylinder Head
A cylinder head is the closed end of a cylinder (located in a car’s engine block). It sits above the cylinder block, closing the top of the cylinder and forming the combustion chamber. The cylinder head coordinates airflow in and out of the engine. Since the cylinder head’s chief function is to seal the cylinders properly, insufficient compression results in the car being difficult to drive.

Frame Replacement

A vehicle frame, also known as its chassis, is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle, to which all other components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an organism.

Until the 1930s virtually every car had a structural frame, separate from its body. This construction design is known as body-on-frame. Over time, nearly all passenger cars have migrated to unibody construction, meaning their chassis and bodywork have been integrated into one another.

Nearly all trucks, buses, and most pickups continue to use a separate frame as their chassis.

Automotive Triage’s skilled technicians have the ability to swap out any frames on trucks and pickups that have a body-on-frame chassis.  We specialize in supporting the Auto Body Collision industry where damaged frames are in need of replacement.  Our techs swap over the engine, transmission, suspension, body and all electrical components.  An OBDII Pre-Scan of the vehicles components are completed before the swap begins and a Post-Scan is performed after the swap to make sure all the systems are working and communicating properly.  If any recalibration or reprogramming is required, Automotive Triage takes care of these things in-house.

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