maintenance service

A vehicle service record is the history of the maintenance and repair of your car. Every vehicle should have one. All too often we are too busy to keep service records. That failure can cost money. If you are like most people, you service your vehicle at more than one business. Sometimes you change oil at a quick service oil change center near your home. Other times you go to a place with a discount coupon. You buy tires at a warehouse outlet. Then go to an alignment shop when the steering pulls to the left. You buy a battery from an auto parts store and install it yourself. And you wait for something to go wrong before you head to the dealership or look for an auto repair shop. When you buy automotive services this way, you may save a few bucks in the beginning....

Remember the days when transmission maintenance meant you periodically checked your transmission fluid level by pulling a metal dipstick from a tube alongside your engine? Well those days are rapidly coming to a close. Many new vehicles are doing away with the transmission dipstick and easily accessible tubes for adding fluid to your car’s transmission. Here is the reason for the change: a vehicle owner can damage a transmission by overfilling or putting the wrong transmission fluid in the car. Transmission fluid is not a generic item any more. Various manufacturers are installing fluids with specific formulas to match the precision internal components of modern transmissions. Use the wrong fluid and the transmission can fail long before the car’s new car...