Enjoy Your Summer Road Trip

By Dave Trux

Nothing can ruin a summer vacation faster than being on the road and having your vacation cut short or interrupted because of a car repair. This is where preventative maintenance can make the difference between having a dream vacation or a nightmare.

Be sure that your car is ready for an extended road trip by having it thoroughly checked over before you take off. Are all your fluids in good condition or do they need to be flushed or replaced? Are your belts and hoses up to snuff? Do your tires have enough tread left to get back home safely? Are they inflated properly and do they have even wear? These are some of the most basics things to be aware of.

You will want to be proactive as you prepare and look forward to that summer adventure. Again, you don’t want to ruin it with unexpected surprises. Be sure to pay attention to all the things that are affected by heat, like belts, hoses, air conditioning and basic engine fluids. Those are your most common points of failure that can lead to bigger problems. You will want to stay away from having to rent a car to continue the trip while your vehicle is in an unfamiliar shop in the middle of nowhere. Not every shop is reputable, especially when a customer is in a vulnerable position and needs their car back in one piece.

At Valley Motorwerks, we offer a free pre-trip inspection check. We’ll be happy to look at your BMW, Mini, Volkswagen or Audi vehicle to give you greater peace of mind before you leave. We’d prefer to point things out to you before you leave rather than having your car break down and ruin your trip. 

Safety First for our Newest Drivers!

By Walter Ford

With kids now back in school, parents have good reason to be concerned with safety. Safety is especially important for our new drivers, so now is a good time to have an overall safety check of your vehicle before you hand over the keys. First of all, a teenage driver is a new driver, so they are inexperienced. They tend to be more inattentive when compared to more seasoned drivers. You want to make sure that your car is in good overall health. Kids have enough challenges operating a car on a public highway, so you don’t want to throw them any curve balls. A good place to start is to make sure that the brakes and tires are in really good condition.

When inspecting your brakes, be sure to have plenty of life on your brake pads and the rotors are in good shape. You really want to check the rotors to make sure they don’t have any ridges, even though the pad does not run across the whole face of the rotor. You want to look at the edge of the rotor, because that’s a clear indication of how much has been taken off. With most cars nowadays, the old rotors are tossed out and new ones are put on. They are relatively inexpensive now compared to what they used to be. As for the brake pad itself, you probably want 3/32 of an inch or more. The issue with the brake pads is the more material it has, the more heat can dissipate, so the less likely it will stay under pad in stopping conditions.

When you inspect your tires, make sure you have a decent amount of tread on them, especially now that the rainy season is here. In the old days, people used a penny as a guide and measure to the top of Lincoln’s head, which is 2/32 of an inch. In the state of California, you’re allowed to have a minimum of 2/32 of an inch on your front steer axle. The rear axle must be a minimum of 1/32 of an inch of tread. A word of caution is that these are minimums.

Most new cars now tend to be a little sportier, with tires that are more of a summer tire. So, I would take my car to someone who really knows what they’re doing and ask if the tires will be good for the winter time. If you are driving a vehicle with a sports package, you’ll likely have a tire that is a performance summer tire. If you only have 2/32 of an inch, it’s pretty useless in the rain. So, be sure to examine not only the trend depth but also the tread design. 

1 Year after Expansion

By Walter Ford

When we started our business several years ago, our goal was to be the premium facility for BMW service and repair. Once we achieved that goal, we listened to what many of our customers had been asking for: To expand our scope of service to include Audi and Volkswagen vehicles. We decided to go for it; however, we would not have done it unless we were able to hit the ground running by doing it right.

One year later, we’re proud to announce that this expansion has worked out great for everyone. Not only is our business up, we’re also in a great position to help more of our current customers and new customers too. More than once, we have heard our customers say that they had been going to the Volkswagen or Audi dealer but now they would bring the car to us and get the same level of expert care and cost savings. For the last year, with every work order, we’re handing our customers a flyer to give them an additional price break on future service or repair work.

In preparation for our expansion early last year, I hired two people, one in management and one out in the shop. Our office person has a lot of experience in that field, so he takes care of all the daily tactical decisions. Our newest mechanic is an Audi and Volkswagen certified tech, so our current customers continue to enjoy the same level of great service they’ve received on their BMW’s.

So far, it is been a great financial decision as well. Our business is up 40% when compared to the same time last year. Some of that is due to the Audi and Volkswagen work, while the rest is growth from our BMW customers. So, the goal was to add volume in car count and that’s exactly what’s happened. On top of all that, we’re also getting more value out of our advertising. Before, when we were targeting only BMW owners, we were reaching a very small percentage of people who owned that particular car. When we added the two car lines, there was no increase in our advertising budget; however, we’re getting a higher percentage of potential customers, so we’re very pleased we decided to go for it

Can your car stand the heat?

By Walter Ford

An AC service starts out with a function test to make sure that the fan operates at each speed setting and the temperatures of the air vent is also measured. In cases where we don’t get adequate temperature, we perform a vacuum test and draw all the freon out of the system. The vacuum test is our way of making sure that the system is not leaking. It is against EPA regulations to put refrigerant into a system is. Basically you are just pumping it back out into the environment.

It’s more important nowadays with new refrigerants because they are not as efficient, they have to operate at much higher pressures. We find that because of the higher operating pressures, it’s even more important to make sure the system is sealed and working. Refrigerant is not the only thing in the system; there is also oil. Oil is used to lubricate the pump. If you just keep adding refrigerant and not drawing it down making sure it’s not leaking and doing a proper service, you could burn up your pump because you don’t have adequate oil in your refrigerant system.

It’s a good idea to have your entire AC system inspected before the weather gets any hotter. Make sure your mechanic does a comprehensive function test. If the system doesn’t function properly, the next step is to go back and perform a vacuum test. If they don’t do that test and merely add more refrigerant without adding additional oil, then you will likely end up with a system that will fail because the pump could burn up.

We offer a free basic function test and inspection. Based on the results, we’ll determine whether we will move forward with a vacuum test. If we do see a leak, then we will add dye to the system and use an infrared light to see where the leak is located.