North Kansas City Auto Repair

There are several essential factors that go into how often North Kansas City drivers should replace their wiper blades. Of course, the more you use your wipers, the faster the blades will wear out – especially if you use them on an icy windshield. Whether it’s a lot of bugs and road grime fromMissouriexpresswaydriving or lots of wet weather – your blades get a work out and start to wear. But your wiper blades break down even when they aren’t used frequently. They are damaged by sunlight and temperature changes as well. The rubber in the blades can dry out and crack and eventually fall apart. Check your wipers : If they’re not doing their essential job, have them replaced. Talk to your Northtown Auto Clinic service advisor about how you drive – we can advise you on the optimal blades for your needs. Give us a call Northtown Auto Clinic 2235 Taney Street Nort ... read more

Your serpentine belt drives vital engine accessories like your alternator, air conditioning compressor, and power steering. In some vehicles it may also power the power brakes or water pump. The serpentine belt is powered by the engine and winds around pulleys and the accessories. Some vehicles have two serpentine belts. The serpentine belt, the belt tensioner (which maintains the appropriate tension on the belt) and the idler pulleys are together known as the accessory drive system. Now your serpentine belt and the belt tensioner will just wear out over time – that’s why your automobile manufacturer has a scheduled belt replacement interval. The team at Northtown Auto Clinic in North Kansas City can inspect your serpentine belt for wear and get it replaced if it’s time. Give us a call Northtown Auto Clinic 2235 Taney Street North Kansas City ... read more

The simple fact is that 70% of car batteries fail within 4 years. They just need to be replaced when they are no longer able to hold a full charge. Batteries are a big ticket item for most North Kansas City auto owners and it’s tempting to put off buying a new one as long as possible. But a battery that cannot hold a full charge requires the alternator to work extra hard, causing it to wear out prematurely. Your Northtown Auto Clinic service specialist can test your battery to see if it should be replaced. Testing is a good idea for Missouri motorists because a battery might still be good, but become dead because of a bad alternator or even a worn serpentine belt and tensioner. Give us a call Northtown Auto Clinic 2235 Taney Street North Kansas City, Missouri 64116

Unless you live in Death Valley, you really don’t hear much any more about cars overheating. That’s because cooling systems in vehicles have been much improved. That doesn’t mean you can’t overheat your SUV engine, though. Without proper preventive maintenance, you could still find yourself on the side of the freeway in North Kansas City waiting for your SUV engine to cool down. When you service your cooling system at Northtown Auto Clinic, your service professional will check the condition of the coolant. It can become corrosive over time, which can damage a radiator — leading to an overheated engine. Changing the coolant periodically is good car care. Your SUV owner’s manual can give you guidelines on how often to replace it. If your engine overheated, your friendly tech will also check your coolant system for leaks. Check the S ... read more

The exhaust system on a vehicle is more complex than most North Kansas City car owners realize. It contains everything from old-fashioned pipes and clamps to sophisticated computers and sensors. All Missouri folks know a properly functioning exhaust system is good for the environment, but sometimes we forget that a damaged exhaust system can be deadly. That’s why preventive maintenance on your exhaust system is so essential. We can help you with that at Northtown Auto Clinic in North Kansas City. The exhaust manifold is the first component in your exhaust system. The manifold is attached to the engine. It collects the gases that are produced by the engine and directs them into the exhaust pipes. At this point, these gases are both hot and chemically dangerous. One of the gases produced in your engine is carbon monoxide. This gas is colorless and odorless. Breathing it can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea ... read more

There are a lot of new features, both optional and standard, on North Kansas City car owners’ 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 North Kansas City. 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 Kansas City atmosphere. Good news if you suffer from any types of allergies, or if you live in an area in North Kansas City 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 pr ... read more

It’s important for North Kansas City auto owners to know battery basics. First, let’s talk about which is harder on a battery – hot or cold Missouri weather. Most Kansas City motorists think it’s cold weather because that’s when we call on our batteries to have enough power to start a cold SUV engine. However, heat does more damage to a battery than cold. Truth is, our batteries start to die a little from day one. Keeping a full charge slows the process, which is hard with short North Kansas City trips because the alternator doesn’t have time to fully recharge the battery from starting the engine. North Kansas City drivers can top off the charge with a computer controlled battery charger – say, once a month in the Missouri summer and every three months during the winter. As far as how long a battery will last, statistics show that 70% have given up the ghost within four years ... read more

The transmission system in your vehicle allows you to change gears. Lower gears are power gears. They get your vehicle moving and get it up hills. Higher gears get the vehicle up to speed and get it rolling faster. If you have a standard transmission, then you have to do the work of shifting gears yourself. But with an automatic transmission, the vehicle shifts gears on its own. It automatically starts out in low gear and automatically shifts to high gears as it gets rolling. Again, it will automatically shift to a lower gear to climb hills or when you need a burst of speed. How does it know when to change gears? Today’s automatic transmissions are computer-controlled. The computer gathers information about what the vehicle is doing, and changes the gears as needed. Automatic transmissions are becoming more sophisticated all the time. More gears, or “speeds” are being added. Almost all vehicles have four at least speeds ... read more

Would you be surprised to learn that about half of the passenger cars in Europe have diesel engines? You might also be surprised to learn that most manufacturers produce a variety of diesel-fueled cars for purchase abroad. Diesel-fueled vehicles haven’t been as popular in the North American markets like Missouri. But that won’t be true for long. North Americans are seeing a lot more diesel-fueled vehicles on the road. And we’re not talking about buses and trucks. These vehicles will be passenger cars, pick-ups and SUV’s. There are two reasons for this. The first is a recent change in environmental laws that have upgraded emissions standards for diesel fuel in North America. Diesel fuel in North America used to have higher sulfur content than European fuel, meaning that it was a dirtier fuel to burn. That was okay for larger vehicles, but the lighter-weight engines in passenger vehicles just couldn’t tolerate it. ... read more

Differential? What’s that? And what’s it for? I’ve been told by my service specialist that I need to get it serviced, but is that on the level? Do these questions sound familiar? They’re not uncommon for North Kansas City car owners. A lot of us in North Kansas City don’t know what a differential is or what it’s for. Every vehicle has a differential, and, yes, it does need to be serviced. In fact, it’s more vital to the operation of your SUV than the air conditioner or windshield wipers. A differential allows your SUV tires to move at different speeds. This happens more than you think. The best example is when a vehicle is turning. The inside wheel travels a much shorter distance than the outside wheel during a turn. This means the outside wheel has to move faster than the inside wheel. Without a differential, your tires would hop and skip while turning. They would also lose traction in sand or snow. The l ... read more