Rockville Auto Repair

Uneven tire wear, the car pulling to one side or a steering wheel that is off-center are signs for Rockville drivers that their wheels may be out of alignment.When doing an alignment inspection, the service advisor at Auto Clinic Care will inspect your tires for uneven wear as well as suspension and steering parts for signs of wear or damage. He?ll also compare your current alignment with the vehicle manufacturer?s settings.Your vehicle owner?s manual will have a recommendation for when to check alignment. Of course, this recommendation is based on normal driving. If you have been in a crash, hit a curb/pothole, frequently drive off-road around Rockville, or notice any symptoms of misalignment, have your Auto Clinic Care service advisor perform an important alignment check.Auto Clinic Care5531 Nicholson LaneRockville, MD 20852301.881.7891http://WWW.autocliniccare.com

Here is a questions for Rockville drivers: What is a cabin air filter?Is it: A filter for a house in the middle of the woods? A fresh, piney scent? A filter for the passenger compartment of your car? Clever you, it's 3.A cabin air filter cleans the outside air before it comes into the passenger compartment. It filters out dust, pollen, spores, bacteria, pollutants, sparrows, exhaust gas and odors.These high tech filters can block particles larger than 3 microns. By contrast, a grain of sand is about 200 microns.Now not all vehicles in the Rockville area have cabin filters. They are fairly new on the scene in MD. About 40 percent of new vehicles come with cabin air filters, but the number is growing every year.Cabin air filters can make for a very nice driving environment for Rockville. Your car can be a haven during MD allergy season with very little dust and pollen getting into the cabin. However, like all filters, your cabin air filter eventually ge ... read more

Your brake pads are the important parts that rub against the rotor (or disc) to slow and stop your car when driving in Rockville. They eventually wear down.When your pads are worn too much, they won’t stop your vehicle as well. When the friction material is worn away, metal parts of the pad are exposed and you’ll hear a squeal or grinding sound. That’s when Rockville drivers should replace their brake pads at Auto Clinic Care. Not only will new pads restore your stopping power, but replacing them on time will prevent damage to the rotor.If your brakes are making noise, ask your Auto Clinic Care service advisor to inspect your brakes. Addressing problems early will restore your safety and prevent expensive brake damage.Auto Clinic Care5531 Nicholson LaneRockville, MD 20852301.881.7891http://WWW.autocliniccare.com

Fuel filters clean the dirt, dust and debris out of your fuel. Both gasoline and diesel-powered engines have them. The fuel filter is located in the fuel line between the fuel tank and the vehicle engine.Rockville auto owners don't need to filter their fuel because it has lots of grit in it; they need to filter it because it has some grit it in. Any dirt is bad for your engine. The cleaner the fuel, the better your vehicle engine will run.Over time, the small amounts of rust, dirt and contaminants in your fuel settle out inside the fuel tank. After about five years, this can amount to a quite a bit of sediment. This means that as your vehicle ages, your fuel filter has to work harder to screen your fuel: more sediment in your tank means more potential for grit in your fuel.The harder your fuel filter works, the more often it needs to be replaced. Check with your owner's manual to find out how often it should be serviced and how long you can expect it to last. Roc ... read more

These days many people in the Rockville area are really committed to making their cars last a long time. First thing: you've got to start with what you've got. It'd be ideal if people started with a brand new car, never missed a scheduled service item, paid attention to the severe service maintenance schedule and had regular inspections. But if you've had the vehicle for a while or bought it used, its maintenance history is what it is; and that's where you start.Go through the maintenance schedule for your vehicle and see what's been done and when. Have your Rockville service advisor at Auto Clinic Care do an inspection and come up with a list of stuff that needs to be done. Review the list and prioritize the work, talk about budget and make a plan to get caught up.Making a plan is so important. Suppose you go in for an oil change and learn you need your cooling system serviced, a transmission service and are coming up on a timing belt replacement in the next ... read more

If you've ever been driving around Rockville and had a headlamp go out, you've probably just wanted to replace the bad bulb. If your car uses halogen headlamps, they dim over time. So if you just put in one, they won't have the same brightness, which can be distracting and will affect your field of vision.To have your headlights inspected, visit us at Auto Clinic Care. We're at 5531 Nicholson Lane in Rockville, MD 20852. Or give us a call at 301.881.7891.Experts at Auto Clinic Care recommend replacing your halogen headlamps every year. It's easy to remember if you do it when Daylight Saving Time changes in the fall. That way you'll have bright headlamps for those long MD winter nights.There are other types of headlamps in addition to halogen. There are the old standard bulbs that have been around for decades. These are OK, but you can usually upgrade to halogen. They cost a little more but you can't believe the difference. If you do a lot of night driv ... read more

Some Rockville vehicle owners wonder why Auto Clinic Care and other Rockville auto repair shops charge a fee for vehicle diagnostics. Receiving a diagnostic charge at Auto Clinic Care for a tricky automotive problem shouldn't be a surprise. In the Rockville area, automotive diagnostics can cover quite a range. If you hear a noise in your vehicle brakes when you slow down in rush-hour traffic on a busy MD road, you pull off at the next off-ramp and take a quick visual check. That is usually enough to know what needs to be done. If you're having an intermittent problem with your vehicle engine, however, a Auto Clinic Care diagnosis may be much more involved.Much of the Rockville driver's confusion comes when the problem involves the Check Engine light. The Check Engine light comes on when the engine management computer has sensed a problem. There's a common misconception among MD drivers that the trouble code tells the Auto Clinic Care technician exactly what's wrong. They wonder w ... read more

Your alternator makes electricity to start and run your engine and all of the vital electrical systems in your vehicle. That’s everything from the on-board computers to the turn signals. And of course there is the entertainment system, seat heaters, power windows and everything you plug into the power outlets. After your alternator makes enough electricity to do all that, it recharges your battery with what’s left over.When Rockville drivers constantly have a low or dead battery, the alternator is usually a prime suspect. However, the alternator is just one vital component of the starting/charging system, and a problem with any of the other components could be the actual cause.In addition to the alternator, the charging/starting system includes the battery, starter, serpentine belt system and all of the electrical cables that connect them. Your Auto Clinic Care service advisor has a systematic process of testing components and connections to get to the source of your t ... read more

Ever heard the sad tale of a staggeringly steep repair bill from a broken timing belt? Bad news. Let's take a lesson from their woes and remember to think about our timing belt.First, let's review what a timing belt does. The top part of the engine over the cylinders is called the cylinder head. The head contains the valves. There's at least one valve that lets the fresh air into the cylinder. This air, mixed with fuel, burns to create power. Then another valve or two will open to allow the exhaust out of the engine. Each cylinder has 2 to 4 valves - that's 12 to 24 valves for a V-6, up to 32 values on a V-8. The opening and closing of the valves is done by a camshaft. The timing belt uses the rotation of the engine to drive the camshaft which opens and close the valves. It's called a timing belt because it has to be adjusted to rotate the camshaft to keep proper time with the engine so that everything's in sync.The timing belt is a toothed rubber belt. But some vehicles use ... read more

When winter approaches in MD, Rockville residents break out the sweaters, coats, boots and mittens. We want to be ready for MD winter conditions. Your vehicle needs to be ready for winter as well. The last thing Rockville residents want is to get stranded out in the cold. You need your vehicle to be safe and reliable. It's a good idea to get caught up on any neglected maintenance items anytime - but the stakes are higher in cold MD winters.There are some specific things Rockville drivers need to do to have their vehicle ready for winter. The most obvious is having the antifreeze checked. If the antifreeze level is too low, it can't properly protect your engine, radiator and hoses from freezing. If your car does not seem to be making enough heat to keep you warm, your antifreeze level may be low or you could have a thermostat problem. Get it checked out at Auto Clinic Care in Rockville. If you are due for a cooling system service, now is a perfect time to have it done.In the cold months ... read more