Tag Archives: #AutoRepair

Blog

Seasonal Auto Inspection at Global Auto Solutions

Leave a comment

Good vehicle care for us Lawrenceville residents has always meant taking our vehicles in every spring and fall for a check-up. Vehicles needed routine maintenance to prepare them for the changes in weather. You can imagine, after the harsh winter period chances are your vehicle has taken some level of battering. Today’s vehicles aren’t quite as sensitive to seasonal changes. Older vehicles required different weights of oil for summer and winter. But today’s engines can run on the same oil all year. Both the engines and the oils have been improved.

Antifreeze—or coolant as it’s also called—protects the engine from both freezing and hot temperatures and thus is required by the engine year-round. Modern coolants don’t have to be changed as often as they did in the past, but your owner’s manual has a recommendation for when it should be replaced to extend cooling system life.

Getting a spring and fall checkup at Global Auto Solutions in Lawrenceville for your vehicle is still good auto advice.

First of all, there is a lot of preventive auto maintenance involved in properly caring for a vehicle. Dropping your vehicle off twice a year at Global Auto Solutions for a quick inspection and routine maintenance is still part of good vehicle care. The changes in the GA seasons can provide a good reminder that it’s time to get the vehicle serviced, just as they remind us that it’s time to take care of the furnace or air conditioner, purchase school clothes or bathing suits, drag out or put away the coats and boots.

There are other advantages to spring and fall maintenance for Lawrenceville residents. Springtime signals the advent of warmer weather. Although modern coolant is designed to last longer than one season, it’s a good idea to check it regularly to ensure you have enough. While you’re at it, your vehicle should also be checked for leaks and worn hoses in the cooling system.

Summer is the time when most of us Lawrenceville residents take vacations or go on road trips. So a spring check-up for our vehicles can lead to a stress-free summer and better memories on the road.

Fall, of course, signals the advent of colder weather in the Lawrenceville area. This is a good time for a routine battery check. The hot weather of summer takes a toll on battery life – then comes winter. Cranking up a cold engine takes a lot more battery power than starting a warm one. So before that cold weather hits, it’s a good idea to check your battery and replace it if necessary. But your tires aren’t completely adapted to changing weather conditions. If you live where temperatures drop below 45°F (7°C) in the winter, or if your commute frequently takes you through snow or ice, you may want to consider changing to winter tires in the fall.

A fall check-up at Global Auto Solutions, just like a spring check-up, can keep you on the road no matter what GA weather brings. Consider how much a worry-free summer vacation and a less stressful Lawrenceville winter commute are worth to you. Then, spring and fall, reset your clocks, change the batteries in your smoke detectors and take your vehicle in for a check-up.

Global Auto Solutions
2710 Lawrenceville Highway
Lawrenceville, GA 30044
770.931.0222

Blog

Are all oils the same ? Should I Use Synthetic Oil

Leave a comment

If you are a driver in Lawrenceville and you aren’t currently using synthetic motor oil in your vehicle, maybe now’s the time to consider it. Need more information? Well, synthetic motor oil is a substitute for petroleum-based oil.

Synthetic oil doesn’t gel or gum-up like petroleum based oil and it doesn’t vaporize as easily. It protects better in severe driving conditions like stop and go driving around Lawrenceville, as well as in very hot or very cold conditions. More and more new vehicles are being delivered with full synthetic motor oil, with the recommendation to use synthetic for the life of the vehicle.

Why is this? Synthetic motor oil maximizes engine power and fuel economy. To see why, we’d need a microscope, so we’ll have to settle for using our imaginations.

The molecules of conventional motor oil are long hydrocarbon chains. Synthetic motor oil, on the other hand, has uniform, round molecules. Which is more slippery, a pile of pencils or a pile of marbles?

Synthetic motor oil lubricates better because there’s less friction. That means better wear protection, cooler operating temperatures, more power and better fuel economy. And synthetic oil doesn’t sludge up like conventional oil, so it prevents those small oil passages from clogging up.

Some manufacturers are extending oil change intervals. The added protection of synthetic oil covers you for these longer intervals. Talk with your service advisor about how you drive and see if he thinks you can benefit from synthetic oil. Also ask about the appropriate oil change interval for synthetic, because it may very well be longer than for conventional oil.

Most of us here in Lawrenceville have a busy life and might occasionally miss an oil change; go ahead, admit it. Since we’re not perfect, doesn’t it make sense to use a motor oil that’s got your back?

Now synthetic oil costs more. But it lasts longer, protects better and increases fuel economy. You’ll likely save money in the long run. If you’re serious about making your car last longer, start using synthetic motor oil right away.

Give us a call to schedule an oil change, or visit us at our Global Auto Solutions website.

Blog

Your Cabin Air Filter, It’s About Preventive Maintenance

Leave a comment

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

 

Blog

Fuel Injectors

Leave a comment

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

Blog

What You Need to Know About Tire Rotations…

Leave a comment

Why does tire rotation and wheel balancing matter? As a driver, you want to make your family’s vehicles and your own vehicle’s tires last longer with regular tire rotation and wheel balancing.

 

Let’s start with tire rotation. In normal driving around Lawrenceville, GA, your front tires wear more on the shoulders because they handle much of the cornering forces in turns. Front-wheel drive vehicles have even more force on the front tires.

At Global Auto Solutions in Lawrenceville, we rotate the tires so that all of the tires do some duty on the front end as well as getting a little break on the back end. That way, all four tires wear more evenly over their life and last longer for Lawrenceville car owners.

For most vehicles in Lawrenceville, GA, tires are rotated front to back. Some recommend a cross rotational pattern as seen to the diagram to the right, that includes the spare tire, and some high-performance vehicles have different size tires on the front and rear and may even have uni-directional tires which means that they can only be on the left or the right side of the vehicle. Our friendly, knowledgeable and professional staff at Global Auto Solutions can help you sort that out and will perform the right tire rotation for your vehicle.

Your car manufacturer will have a recommendation for how often you should rotate your tires.

What is wheel balancing? Ever notice your wheel wobbling? That’s when there are heavy spots on the tire.

Balancing adds weights to the wheel to balance it out. Now, we are talking about very small weight differences. Variations in the tire and wheel manufacture can cause a slight imbalance. The valve stem, and now the tire pressure monitoring sensors in the tire, also play into the equation.

Even small differences can cause annoying vibrations at speed for Lawrenceville drivers: the wheel is essentially bouncing a bit as it goes down the road. For example, at Lawrenceville speeds, an out of balance wheel can be slamming into the road 14 times a second. That’s annoying and can cause tires to wear out more quickly for Lawrenceville drivers.

If a front wheel’s out of balance you’ll feel the vibration through the steering wheel. When it’s a rear tire, you’ll feel the vibration through your seat. If you’re getting bad vibes from your vehicle, bring it in to Global Auto Solutions in Lawrenceville to see if it’s a balance issue or something else. Lawrenceville drivers should balance the wheels whenever they get a new tire or remount a tire like when it’s been removed for a flat repair.

Global Auto Solutions.2710 Lawrenceville Highway. Lawrenceville, GA 30044. 770.931.0222