Monthly Archives: December 2017
Your Cabin Air Filter, It’s About Preventive Maintenance
There are a lot of new features, both optional and standard, on Lawrenceville drivers’ vehicles these days. One you may not have heard of is called a cabin air filter. Simply put, its job is to keep the air in the passenger compartment of your car nice and clean.
A cabin air filter is similar to the filter you use on your furnace at home in Lawrenceville. Cabin air filters can catch particles down to three microns. By comparison, a grain of sand is 200 microns. So cabin air filters are effective against dust, dirt, pollen, mold spores and most pollutants in our Lawrenceville area atmosphere. Good news if you suffer from any types of allergies, or if you live in an area in GA prone to air pollution.
Cabin air filters are generally located in the engine compartment or 
under the dashboard. They can be tricky to access and replace, so you’ll probably want to go to your friendly and knowledgeable service advisor at Global Auto Solutions to get it done. Check your vehicle owner’s manual to find out if your vehicle is equipped with a cabin air filter and how often it should be changed. Recommendations vary, but generally a cabin air filter should be changed every 12,000 to 15,000 miles (19,000 to 24,000 kilometers).
Of course, if you are an allergy sufferer in Lawrenceville, you may want to replace it more often. Also, if you do a lot of driving in polluted or dusty areas in GA, you’ll also want to shorten the cabin air filter replacement period. Dirty air filters just don’t work well, and they can exude an unpleasant odor if ignored for too long.
Most Lawrenceville folks know that good car care includes keeping your vehicle clean, including the air inside the passenger compartment, so changing your cabin air filter should be part of your routine preventive maintenance. It’s good auto advice as well as good medical advice that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You really shouldn’t wait until the interior of your car starts to smell and your eyes start to water before you change your filter. And trying to cover it up with a dangling green pine tree is not the right answer, either!
Cabin air filters can be a welcome relief to Lawrenceville allergy sufferers, but they’re also a great idea for anyone in GA who just wants to breathe better.
Global Auto Solutions
2710 Lawrenceville Highway
Lawrenceville, GA 30044
770.931.0222
Better Technology, Better Engines-When to Service My Car For an Change Oil?
Oil changes are probably the most recognized service on a vehicle. Almost all Lawrenceville residents know about them. But do we know enough?
Several decades ago, 
oil changes were fairly standard: every three months or 3,000 miles or 5,000 kilometers. But recent advances in both engine technology and oil quality have led to longer oil change intervals.
Delayed or skipped oil changes are a problem for Lawrenceville residents because they lead to the build-up of oil sludge in your engine. Oil sludge forms when engine oil breaks down, which happens with both time and miles. Obviously, driving will take its toll on engine oil, but the oil also breaks down even as the vehicle just sits in the garage. This is why oil change intervals are listed in both time and distance traveled, and the phrase “whichever comes first” is applicable.
Oil sludge is essentially petroleum jelly. Imagine this stuff squishing around in your vehicle engine, pushing into small engine passageways and blocking passage of oil to vital engine parts, shortening your engine’s life expectancy.
To prevent sludge, you have to get your oil changed regularly, as often as the manufacturer recommends. Check your owner’s manual for every vehicle you own to know the interval for each one. Don’t assume they will be the same.
If you tow a trailer, haul heavy loads, make a lot of short trips around Lawrenceville, usually engage in stop-and-go (or around-the-town) driving, drive in cold or hot GA weather, or drive in polluted or dusty conditions, you may need to change your oil more frequently. Check your vehicle’s owner’s manual for a “severe service” recommendation.
If the manual doesn’t give you the advice you need, talk to your friendly and knowledgeable Global Auto Solutions service advisor. He will be able to answer any questions about preventive maintenance or vehicle care that you may have, including how often to change your oil.
Lawrenceville residents need to get the right weight and type of oil recommended for their vehicles. More and more are using synthetic oil in their vehicles. Synthetic oil typically lasts longer and is more resistant to sludge formation than conventional motor oil. But it is also more expensive. So it can be tempting for Lawrenceville residents to ask for conventional oil, but if you replace synthetic oil with conventional oil, you will have to change your oil more often to prevent sludge build-up. In the end, you’re probably not saving money at all.
Also, your engine may not be designed for the conventional oil. Check your owner’s manual before replacing synthetic oil with conventional.
Talk to your Global Auto Solutions service advisor for more information.
Global Auto Solutions
2710 Lawrenceville Highway
Lawrenceville, GA 30044
770.931.0222
Wheel Alignment – Straight and True in Lawrenceville
Most Lawrenceville folks worry about running out of gas or having a breakdown on the side of the road. That is why we practice preventive maintenance on our vehicles — that and to keep our repair bills down. But one important part of preventive maintenance that may get overlooked by drivers in Lawrenceville is a periodic alignment inspection.
Poor alignment causes tires to wear rapidly, unevenly or both. This means they will have to be replaced early, and new tires are more expensive than an alignment check in Lawrenceville. Bad alignment can also cause damage to suspension and steering systems, which can be expensive to repair in Lawrenceville.
Tire wear on misaligned wheels can also lead to blowouts, which are dangerous, can lead to serious accidents and can seriously damage your vehicle. Also, poor alignment itself can be the cause of an accident since the vehicle may not steer properly.
One or more wheels on your vehicle can be knocked out of alignment by running over a curb or a pothole on a bumpy Lawrenceville street. An accident — even a minor one — that involves a wheel on your car can lead to misalignment. The small bumps and bangs of everyday driving can also gradually put your wheels out of alignment.
If you have had wheel damage to your vehicle, or if you suspect that your wheels are out of alignment, you should get your alignment checked NOW. Any service center will give you that piece of auto advice. But good vehicle care suggests that you also get your alignment inspected on a regular basis. At Global Auto Solutions in Lawrenceville, we can take care of that for you.
Your owner’s manual or Global Auto Solutions can give you a suggestion on how often your alignment should be checked. If it doesn’t, then once a year is a good rule of thumb. However, if you drive a lot — and especially if you drive on rough surfaces a lot — then you may want to consider alignment more often. Ask the pros at Global Auto Solutions for a recommendation.
If your vehicle is out of alignment, one or more of the wheels is not tracking correctly and will “pull” against the others. Thus, one sign of poor alignment is that your vehicle pulls to one side when you drive around Lawrenceville. Also, if you are driving a straight path and your steering wheel is off-center, that usually indicates an alignment problem.
Lawrenceville drivers should also check the wear on their tires. If they seem to be wearing out too quickly, or if you notice that a tire is wearing on one side more than the other, you should get your alignment checked.
When you get an alignment inspection, your vehicle will be put on a rack and all the parts of the steering and suspension systems will be inspected for wear or damage. The alignment of the tires will be charted and compared to the original factory settings. If no repairs are needed on the steering or suspension systems, the wheels will then be adjusted to bring them back into alignment.
This may seem like a lot of bother for drivers, but it’s a lot less trouble than a blowout or an accident. The old adage is good auto advice for all Lawrenceville residents: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
So keep on driving, and keep all four tires on the road.
Global Auto Solutions
2710 Lawrenceville Highway
Lawrenceville, GA 30044
770.931.0222
Time for Differential Service at Global Auto Solutions?
Hello Lawrenceville – let’s talk differentials. If you have a rear-wheel drive vehicle, your differential is on the back axle. With front-wheel drive cars, the differential is up front. All-wheel drive and 4-wheel drive vehicles have three differentials – front, rear and in the middle. So you see, you’ve got a differential (or two or three) and it needs service now and then.
What does your vehicle differential do? Well, it compensates for the differences in speed between your outer and inner wheels in a turn. Using the dimensions of a typical car, let’s compare the distance the wheels travel from the start of a turn through to the completion of the turn.
The inside wheel travels about 12.6 feet/3.8 meters. How much farther does the outside wheel travel? About 18.8 feet/5.7 meters – over 6 feet/1.9 meters more. This means the outer tire has to rotate 9 times in the same amount of time that the inner tire has to rotate only 6 times – so the outer tire has to spin faster in order to keep up. The differential makes this possible.
The gears in the differential are cooled and lubricated by differential fluid. It’s this fluid that needs to be serviced. Small bits of the gears break off and are suspended in the differential fluid. The dirtier the fluid, the faster the gears wear.
So your Global Auto Solutions technician drains the old fluid out and replaces it with fresh fluid. Some differentials also need a special additive that is put in at this time.
So when should you have your vehicle differential serviced? Intervals vary from vehicle to vehicle – and may be as short as 15,000 miles/24,000 km – so check your vehicle owner’s manual or ask us at Global Auto Solutions. If you frequently drive with heavy loads, tow a trailer or drive in hot GA conditions, you may need to change differential fluid more often. Servicing your differential on schedule at Global Auto Solutions can save a pricey replacement down the road.
Global Auto Solutions
2710 Lawrenceville Highway
Lawrenceville, GA 30044
770.931.0222
Fuel Injectors
The last new American vehicles sold in Lawrenceville with a carburetor rolled out of the GA dealerships in 1990. Since then, all new vehicles here in Lawrenceville, and nationally, have had fuel injectors. In very simple terms, a fuel injector is a valve that squirts fuel into your engine. Your engine control computer tells the fuel injector how much gas to deliver as well as the precise time it should be delivered. Of course this happens thousands of times a minute. Fuel injectors deliver fuel far more precisely than carburetors. That translates into better fuel economy and more power for Lawrenceville drivers. Virtually all fuel injectors for gas engines are known as port fuel injectors because they deliver the fuel to a port just outside the cylinder. Port fuel injectors operate at about 40 to 80 pounds per square inch of pressure.
A few vehicle manufacturers have introduced gas direct injection systems on some engines recently. These systems inject the gas directly into the cylinders under very high pressure – hundreds of times the pressure of port injection systems. Although more complicated, direct injection technology promises greater power with improved fuel economy, so GA drivers can expect to see more of it in the future.
As Lawrenceville residents can see, the level of precision required of fuel injectors is very high. It’s important that they operate properly in order for your vehicle to run right.
High temperatures under your hood and variations in Lawrenceville gas quality cause fuel injectors to become fouled with wax, dirt and carbon. Injectors can become partially clogged, preventing them from delivering the proper amount of fuel at the correct pressure. The design of each engine requires a specific spray pattern from the fuel injector that might be altered when the injector is dirty. When injectors are dirty, the fuel doesn’t burn as efficiently, resulting in poor fuel economy and loss of power. So it is important to keep your vehicle fuel injectors clean.
Skilled service technicians at Global Auto Solutions in Lawrenceville can perform a fuel system service for you. That is a fuel system service – not just fuel injector cleaning. That is because the fuel has a lot of ways to become dirty or contaminated between the Lawrenceville gas pump and your fuel injectors. A fuel system service at Global Auto Solutions starts with a fuel filter replacement. This filter cleans the gas as it leaves the tank. The various parts of the fuel intake system need to be cleaned from time to time to remove harmful gum deposits and varnish. Finally, the fuel injectors are cleaned so that they operate properly for you and deliver the right amount of fuel at the right time.
Our pros at Global Auto Solutions use a process for cleaning your vehicle fuel system that includes state-of-the-art cleaning chemicals as well as some old fashioned scrubbing. Proper maintenance of your fuel system means that you will enjoy strong performance and prevent repairs down the road.
Global Auto Solutions
2710 Lawrenceville Highway
Lawrenceville, GA 30044
770.931.0222
Fuel System Cleaning at Global Auto Solutions for Better Performance
Hi Lawrenceville residents. Let’s talk fuel injectors. A fuel injector is a valve that delivers fuel to a vehicle’s engine. It has to deliver the precise amount of fuel to precisely the right place, precisely when the engine needs it. The fuel also has to be mixed with air before it can burn in the engine.
Fuel injectors are engineered to spray fuel in a specific pattern into the engine. (The pattern varies by engine type and design.) In order to achieve these spray patterns, the fuel must be pressurized.
Vehicles have one fuel injector for each cylinder in the engine. Your vehicle’s control computer constantly monitors the engine and various sensors in the vehicle. It also adjusts the fuel injectors accordingly so that they can deliver the proper amount of fuel to the engine. As you can see, fuel injectors are a sophisticated and vital part of your vehicle’s engine. Because fuel injectors are such precision instruments, dirt and contaminants are a serious detriment to their performance. When an injector gets gummed up, it affects the pressure, pattern and timing of the fuel delivery. The result is a decrease in fuel efficiency and loss of engine performance for Lawrenceville residents.
So it’s to Lawrenceville residents’ advantage to keep their fuel injectors clean. That starts with keeping the fuel in your tank clean. High-quality fuel contains detergents and additives that help clean your engine. Brand-name fuel companies also deliver a more consistent quality of fuel to Lawrenceville vehicles than do bargain Lawrenceville area service stations.
The second way to keep your injectors clean is to keep your fuel filter clean. This filter screens dirt and rust out of the fuel as it travels from the tank to the engine. If the filter clogs up, fuel will bypass it and carry its load of dirt into the engine.
Lawrenceville residents should check their owner’s manual to find out how often they should change their fuel filter. This should be part of your regular preventive maintenance. Also, remember that if you use bargain-brand or low-grade fuels, or if you drive an older vehicle, your filter will need to be changed more often.
You can also purchase cleaners at Global Auto Solutions that will protect your fuel injectors. These cleaners are added to the fuel tank. They work best at preventing build-up in your fuel injectors and can clean up small amounts of carbon, gum and varnish. But they won’t be able to clean a fully gummed-up injector. Read the labels before using any of these products for full directions on their use. If your fuel injectors are gummed up, you can get a professional deep cleaning service at Global Auto Solutions in Lawrenceville that will result in better fuel economy and improved vehicle performance.
Good vehicle care will prevent serious damage to your fuel injector system. And this is one system that you want to keep in perfect condition.
Global Auto Solutions
2710 Lawrenceville Highway
Lawrenceville, GA 30044
770.931.0222
