North Kansas City Auto Repair

The drive train in your vehicle includes all the vital components that transfer power from the transmission to the wheels. Those components differ depending on what type of vehicle you drive, namely, front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. The preventive maintenance your driveshaft needs will also differ by what type of vehicle you drive. Let’s start with front-wheel drive. In this vehicle, the transmission and the differential are combined in one component, known as the transaxle. The transaxle is connected to two half-shafts (axles), which are then connected to the wheels with a constant velocity (or CV) joint, which is protected by an airtight rubber boot. Northtown Auto Clinic service for this type of driveline includes servicing the transaxle and inspecting the CV boot. If the boot is damaged, the CV joint will need to be insp ... read more

There are a lot of North Kansas City people who are due for a differential service, but had never heard of a differential before.With front-wheel drive being so common in Missouri these days, the differential is just taken care of during a transmission service, so most North Kansas City folks don’t even have to think about it. And rear-wheel drive differentials don’t need to be serviced for years, so it’s understandable that it’s not something on the top of mind. So it’s not uncommon for North Kansas City people to not know they have a differential let alone know that it needs service. To better understand what a differential does, think about a track at any Missouri high school. There are lanes marked off on the track. For the longer distance races, the starting lines are staggered. The starting lines for the outside lanes are ahead of the starting lines for the inside lanes. That’s to compensate for the longer length of the outside lanes. Stagg ... read more

Here at AutoNetTV, we have national viewers, like your neighbors in North Kansas City, who write to us with questions or feedback. One common question we’re asked is: “What is a differential and what does it do?” You may have been told by your Northtown Auto Clinic service specialist that your differential needs service, or seen it as an option up on the service menu. Differential service at Northtown Auto Clinic covers a lot of things, so let’s first talk about what a differential does. As you drive through a turn, your outside wheels and inside wheels turn at different speeds. Kind of like the cars going around a race track – the ones driving in the outside lanes have a greater distance to travel than the cars in the inside lanes. The differential is what allows the outside and inside drive wheels to rotate at slightly different speeds so that the tires don’t hop or skip while taking c ... read more