Life is busy and dollars are tighter than ever for many people. The car is just a machine that provides freedom to get where we need to go at a moment’s notice. Many of us remember when the car talked to you when it was not feeling well.
What I mean is before technology, if the car needed spark plugs, it would idle rough, hiccup or stall. With the modern car, the computer system can mask a concern until it’s too late, resulting in an expensive repairs.
Most shops preach service to make sure our customers don’t wait until the car needs major work; we want to keep our customers safe and off the tow truck at all cost.
This is accomplished by the consumer paying attention to their machine. Watching the gauges, having those dash lights checked even when the car seems to runs fine, when you back out of a driveway or parking space, you always look for fluid on the ground.
We have a customer whom is strapped for cash and is always busy. He notices some very small drops of coolant on the ground (the car was talking to him). He chose to ignore the cry for help from the car and because the temperature gauge was reading normal, he was not concerned.
As a result, the car slowly lost coolant and the computer kept the car going until he felt the second cry for help while driving on the freeway. The car was losing power, again it was ignored, finally the car just stopped running on the freeway. Fortunately the customer was able to coast to the shoulder and not stop in the car pool lane.
This customer’s engine locked and was ruined, instead of fixing the coolant leak that would have cost $323.00, he now faces an engine replacement of $7,000.00 and possibly more, depending on the damage.
This scenario is common, when your car cries for help, please don’t ignore it. Your will save money, time and aggravation if you have the car serviced regularly and at least call for advice when your car cries for help.
