All posts by autotronics

Trip Inspection at Autotronics of ST Peter in St. Peter

Cleveland drivers love their cars. And one of the most enjoyable things about them is taking a road trip. Freedom from daily schedules, new sights and the open road – it’s great! But there’s nothing like car trouble to bring the fun to a grinding halt.

Now St. Peter motorists can’t always avoid problems, but you can take steps to reduce the probability of getting sidelined on your trip. The first step is to look at your trip plan from your vehicle’s perspective. What kind of roads will you be traveling – winding MN byways or interstates? Purple mountain majesties or fruited plains? What weather conditions are you likely to encounter? How many miles will you travel each day? How much weight will you be hauling – passengers and luggage. Pulling a trailer, roof top carrier, or ATVs? Will it be dusty?

Prepared with answers to these questions, you can schedule a trip inspection at Autotronics of ST Peter in St. Peter to help you prepare your minivan for your big adventure. A lot of our St. Peter customers prefer to go through this exercise with their knowledgeable  service specialist to get their input and make sure they haven’t overlooked anything.

A great place for St. Peter motorists to start is with the tires. Inspect them for tread wear and proper inflation. Is it time to rotate your tires? Replace them? Are they up to the job – you wouldn’t want to drive regular highway tires on a muddy off-road adventure on St. Peter rock-crawling trails. 

Shocks and struts play a major role in both driving comfort and safety. If they need to be replaced, you’ll really be glad you did once you hit the road. Is it time for a wheel alignment? Fighting a car that’s pulling to one side all day can be tiring and dangerous for St. Peter auto owners. 

And don’t forget your brakes, St. Peter motorists. Any strange noises, grabbing, soft or hard peddle feel? If there is any doubt, get a brake inspection at Autotronics of ST Peter in St. Peter before you leave.

Moving under the hood, have a belts and hoses inspection. If something is excessively worn or near failure, the stress of a long road trip might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Talk to your knowledgeable Autotronics of ST Peter service specialist.

Your engine air filter will be vital. For every gallon of gas you burn, your car will filter and use 12,000 gallons of air. If the filter needs to be changed, you’ll notice improved fuel efficiency on your trip.

How close are you to your next oil change? Will you be able to complete your trip before it’s due? If not, just get it taken care of before you go so that you don’t need to interrupt your trip. In fact, a full service oil change at Autotronics of ST Peter is a great idea because they will top off all your fluids and check to see if any other key maintenance items are due, such as transmission or cooling system service.

Do you notice any unusual odors in your minivan? If so, it could as harmless as a dirty cabin air filter. But if it’s an exhaust leak it could be fatal for St. Peter motorists and their passengers on a long trip. Of course you’ll want to be comfortable, so get an air conditioning service if you aren’t getting the cold air you used to. 

Are your wiper blades still working well? If not, that is quick and inexpensive to fix for smart St. Peter auto owners. Headlamps are often overlooked when planning for a trip. If you haven’t changed the bulb in six months or so, replacement bulbs will really light up the night on your trip and provide the necessary after-sundown visibility.

All the items mentioned are part of any good vehicle maintenance plan. These are things that you want to take care of anyway, but they all become more essential as you plan for your trip.

They will always save you cash in the long run and may prevent inconvenient and expensive delays on your trip. After all, you wouldn’t want to miss the world’s largest ball of string, would you?

What To Do After You Buy a Used Vehicle in St. Peter

So you’ve bought a used car in the St. Peter area. Do you know what you’re getting? It is hard to know what you’re getting because people in the St. Peter area sell cars for different reasons. Think about why you’ve sold cars. Did you just want something new or were there problems that you wanted to run away from. Maybe it was a little of both.

Used cars in MN with 25,000 to 35,000 miles on them are often lease returns, Cleveland corporate program cars or rental fleet vehicles. Most St. Peter buyers feel pretty confident about these because they’re newer and may still be under warranty. But how well have they been maintained?

St. Peter motorists who are planning to own a car for a long time will keep up on auto maintenance so that they can avoid pricey repairs down the road. But, if you know you’re only going to have the car for two or three years, you may not be so committed to maintenance. It would be easy to think that skipping an oil change here and there wouldn’t ruin a brand new engine. Then it’ll be someone else’s problem when it comes time to pay for the damage.

It is very tempting for St. Peter drivers to skip the 30,000 mile service if they know they’ll be turning in their leased vehicle in a couple of months.

If the vehicle didn’t come with maintenance records, St. Peter used care buyers need to assume the worst. Most likely the coolant system and transmission have never been serviced. The cabin air filter has probably not been changed and a fuel system cleaning at Autotronics of ST Peter may be in order.

You’ll want Autotronics of ST Peter to check the A/C, battery, engine air filter, serpentine belt and hoses. A used car inspection at Autotronics of ST Peter is well worth the cost.

And if your “new” used vehicle has more miles on it, an inspection is even more important. Check your owner’s manual or talk with your knowledgeable Autotronics of ST Peter tech (call 507.934.9290) about what should have been done. Please don’t forget the timing belt; that can be very expensive if it fails.

Autotronics of ST Peter will help you with a plan to take care of vital services and get the rest caught up. If your budget won’t allow you to take care of everything right away, we can help you prioritize your needs and get it taken care of over the next several months. And remember to keep your key maintenance records. They’ll help you get top dollar on the MN used car market when it’s time for you to sell.

Autotronics of ST Peter
111 Jefferson Avenue
St. Peter, MN 56082
507.934.9290

Fuel Injectors

The last new American cars sold in St. Peter with a carburetor rolled out of the MN dealerships in 1990. Since then, all new vehicles here in St. Peter and nationally 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 injectors deliver fuel far more precisely than carburetors. That translates into better fuel efficiency and more power for St. Peter drivers. 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 manufacturers 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 systems. Although more complicated, direct injection technology promises greater power with improved gas mileage, so Cleveland auto owners can expect to see more of it in the future.

As St. Peter drivers can see, the level of precision required of fuel injectors is very high. It’s essential that they operate properly in order for your car to run right.

High temperatures under your hood and variations in St. Peter gas quality cause fuel injectors to become fouled with wax, dirt, and carbon. Injectors can become partially clogged, preventing them from delivering the proper amount of fuel at the correct pressure. The design of each engine requires a specific spray pattern from the fuel injector that might be altered when the injector is dirty. When injectors are dirty, the fuel doesn’t burn as efficiently resulting in poor gas mileage and loss of power. So it is important to keep your minivan fuel injectors clean.

Skilled service technicians at Autotronics of ST Peter in St. Peter can perform a fuel system service for you. (Visit contact-us.) That is a fuel system service – not just fuel injector cleaning. That is because the fuel has a lot of ways to become dirty or contaminated between the St. Peter gas pump and your fuel injectors. A fuel system service at Autotronics of ST Peter starts with a fuel filter replacement. This filter cleans the gas as it leaves the tank. The various parts of the fuel intake system need to be cleaned from time to time to remove harmful gum, deposits and varnish. Finally, the fuel injectors are cleaned so that they operate properly for Autotronics of ST Peter and deliver the right amount of fuel at the right time.

Your knowledgeable Autotronics of ST Peter service professional uses a process for cleaning your minivan fuel system that includes state-of-the-art cleaning chemicals as well as some old fashioned scrubbing. Proper maintenance of your fuel system means that you will enjoyed improved gas mileage, enjoy strong performance and prevent expensive repairs down the road.