Sarasota Auto Repair

A lot of our viewers have asked whether or not they should use their severe service maintenance schedule, which is listed in their car owners’ manual. It can be confusing. Let’s clear the air on this subject. Cricket Killingsworth is from QMI/Heartland, a manufacturer of automotive products and fluids. She’s been in the automotive business for 20 years and is a speaker, a trainer, and a writer. Cricket says there’s so much confusion on this topic because, “Most owners’ manuals actually have two maintenance schedules. Sometimes these are called ‘regular service’ and ‘severe service’. Sometimes they’re simply called Schedule 1 and Schedule 2. A severe service schedule recommends that things like an oil change, air filter replacement, and transmission service be done more often: either in fewer miles or in less time. Manufacturers create these specific schedules for each vehicle they make. So there isn’t one generic schedule that applies to all cars. In addition to your owners’ manual, S ... read more

At the recent EcoFest held in Sarasota, Dave’s Auto Repair helped support the Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences “Generation Green Team” by sponsoring special coupons in the Green Totes that were sold at their booth. These bags are also sponsored by other members of the Green Business Partnership and they help fund activities for the Green Team. Although these bags sell for $15, Dave’s Auto Repair donated electronic coupons for $20 off any service or repair. “Although we service and repair enviro-friendly vehicles, it was important to help the SSAS students as they raise funds for their environmental and sustainable economics education,” stated Karan Kathmann. “The monies they raise will help fund field trips that give them new insights to such topics as evolving energy sources. As they utilize this knowledge, it creates a better community for all of us.” The Green Totes (and the Dave’s Auto Repair $20 coupon) will appear at other fundraisers in the future, so if ... read more

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 have cabin filters. They are fairly new on the scene. About forty 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. Your car can be a haven during allergy season with very little dust and pollen getting into the cabin. However, the filter eventually gets clogged. When this happens, your heating and air conditioning flow can become restricted. The filter can even get kind of smelly. Dave ... read more

Whenever we talk about exhaust service, most people normally think about exhaust pipes and mufflers. Well, actually, exhaust service is a lot more comprehensive these days. For example, catalytic converters were mandated in 1976 and on-board emission control computers in 1990. Governmental emissions requirements have forced manufacturers to come up with much more sophisticated ways to comply with environmental regulations. Exhaust service has really become exhaust and emissions service. High-tech computer controlled emissions devices are now a big part of exhaust service. Because it is so sophisticated, your vehicle manufacturer recommends you have your emission system checked out by a qualified Sarasota exhaust technician regularly to make sure everything is working right – usually every 6 months or 10,000 miles/16,000 kilometers. If your Check Engine light comes on, especially if it’s flashing, get your car looked at right away. Technicians at Dave’s Auto Repair handle emission pro ... read more

Here’s a travel tip that’ll I’ll bet you didn’t know, and, it might keep you safer… The average American commuter in FL spends two and a half hours daily in their car. The government says a hundred thousand auto accidents yearly are caused by drivers who fall asleep at the wheel. (Aggressive driving is the number one traffic safety concern.) So what does this have to do with how your car smells while you’re driving around FL? Well, which scent did you think makes drivers more alert? Is it: A. Strawberry B. New Car C. Pine D. Warm Vanilla Breeze It’s C. Drivers are more alert and have less fatigue with pine scent in the car, according to AroMetrics. And, drivers were less angry with overall improved driving performance with strawberry and pine scents. And you thought they just smelled nice. Name:Dave's Auto Repair Address: 4547 Bee Ridge Road Sarasota Florida 34233 Tel.: Email: [email protected] Websitehttps://www.davesautosarasota.com

The coolant system is a vital part of your vehicle. It is also the second most common cause for vehicle failures. Even though coolant system failure is fairly common, it is easy to prevent. Dave’s Auto Repair 4547 Bee Ridge Road Sarasota, FL 34233 () The most recognizable part of the coolant system is the radiator. It is connected to the engine with hoses and is filled with coolant. The coolant draws heat off the engine and then goes into the radiator. Air passes through cooling fins to reduce the temperature of the coolant and then it’s back to the engine again. There are several ways for the cooling system to fail. Most common is with the coolant itself. Coolant is a mixture of water and antifreeze. The proper mixture keeps the coolant from either boiling away or freezing. Both of which can result in massive engine damage. Another very important coolant issue that is often overlooked is the age of the coolant itself. Antifreeze has additives that protect the coolant system fro ... read more

If you aren’t currently using synthetic motor oil in your Sarasota vehicle, maybe now’s the time to consider it. Need more information? Well, synthetic motor oil is a substitute for petroleum based oil. Synthetic oil doesn’t gel or gum-up like petroleum based oil and it doesn’t vaporize as easily. It protects better in severe driving conditions like stop and go driving around Sarasota, as well as in very hot or very cold conditions. More and more new vehicles are being delivered with full synthetic motor oil; with the recommendation to use synthetic for the life of the vehicle. Why is this? Synthetic motor oil maximizes engine power and fuel economy. To see why; we’d need a microscope, so we’ll have to settle for using our imaginations. The molecules of conventional motor oil are long hydrocarbon chains. Synthetic motor oil, on the other hand, has uniform, round molecules. Which is more slippery, a pile of pencils or a pile of marbles? Synthetic motor oil lubricates better because ... read more

The last new car sold with a carburetor in North America rolled out of the dealership in 1990. Since then, all new vehicles have had fuel injectors. In very simple terms, a fuel injector is a valve that squirts fuel into your engine. Your engine control computer tells the fuel injector how much gas to deliver as well as the precise time it should be delivered. Of course this happens thousands of times a minute. Fuel injection is a much more precise way of delivering fuel than carburetors. That translates into better fuel economy and power. Virtually all fuel injectors for gas engines are known as port fuel injectors because they deliver the fuel to a port just outside the cylinder. Port fuel injectors operate at about 40 to 80 pounds per square inch of pressure. A few auto makers have introduced gas direct injection systems on some engines recently. These systems inject the gas directly into the cylinders under very high pressure – hundreds of times the pressure of port injection syst ... read more

Do you find yourself filling up more often than you used to in Sarasota? Do you have a clue what your average highway/city MPG is on I-94 or driving through downtown, or what it should be? Bad gas mileage is caused by one of three factors: driving conditions, environmental conditions and/or vehicle conditions. Factors: Road conditions in Sarasota Frequent braking followed by brief spurts of acceleration at low-speeds can have an adverse affect on your gas mileage. Consider alternate routes, but think twice before skipping the major highways–like I-94, I-84 and I-43 altogether–as city stoplights and stop signs might be just as bad on your mileage as stop-and-go traffic on the freeway. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, don’t leave your car idling. Sure, shutting off and restarting your car does require some additional reserves, but if you’re going to idle for more than two to three minutes, consider saving the heat or the AC for a moment and kill the eng ... read more

All new passenger vehicles on our Sarasota, FL roads now have tire pressure monitoring systems – TPMS for short. They are designed to alert you if your tires are under inflated. Since they are fairly new, a lot of people have questions about TPMS. First off, the most important thing is that you still need to check your tire pressure every week – or at least every time you gas up. The TPMS system alert comes in when your tire is twenty percent below the factory recommendation. So if the recommended pressure is thirty five pounds per square inch, the TPMS warning won’t come on until the pressure is at twenty eight pounds. That’s significantly under-inflated. Enough to raise safety concerns. The worst is tire failure. A severely under inflated tire can overheat and fail. Also, handling degrades to the point that you may not be able to steer out of trouble. Also under-inflated tires wear out faster and they waste fuel. So it’s costly to not stay on top of proper inflation. What’s the pr ... read more