How Things Work

That little amber glow shows up on your dashboard, and your stomach drops a little. Is the car about to die on the way home? Is this a fifty dollar fix or a fifteen hundred dollar one? Should you pull over right now, or finish the grocery run first? The check engine light is one of the most misunderstood things on your dashboard. Some people panic the second it appears. Others have been driving around with it on for three…

If you run a truck, a trailer, or anything bigger than the family minivan in Illinois, there’s a good chance the state wants eyes on it on a regular schedule. That’s the IDOT Safety Lane inspection. It catches the stuff that turns a routine Tuesday into a very bad day on Route 23, and it’s the law for a lot of vehicles whether you love it or not. Here’s the good news for anyone in DeKalb County. You don’t have…

The most common reasons a vehicle overheats are low coolant, coolant leaks, a bad thermostat, water pump failure, radiator problems, or a cooling system that cannot maintain proper pressure. Continuing to drive an overheating vehicle can cause severe engine damage. You're driving through Sycamore or DeKalb on a ninety-degree July afternoon when you notice the temperature gauge climbing toward the red. Your stomach drops a little. Nobody plans for this, and it always seems to happen on the hottest day…

In part one, we talked about how a tune-up used to be a specific job with a specific list of parts. On a modern car, most of that list doesn’t even exist anymore. So when somebody asks us for a tune-up today, we’ve learned to ask one question right back before we quote a single thing. Are you due for maintenance, or is your car running poorly? It sounds like a small question, but it’s actually the whole ballgame. Your…

Somebody walks up to the counter and says, “I think my car needs a tune-up.” Fair enough.But that one little word can mean completely different things depending on what year your car was built. To understand why this causes some confusion today, we have to look at where the word originally came from.Back When a Tune-Up Was a Specific JobWhen Charlie Bockman opened up in DeKalb County in 1964, a tune-up was about as routine as an oil change. Cars…

You pull the tarp off. The tires look... fine, probably. The lights worked last fall, as far as you can remember. And the trip is three weeks away, which feels like plenty of time to deal with anything that comes up. That's the optimism talking. Every spring, we see RVs and travel trailers come through our DeKalb location with the same story: it sat all winter, the owner figured it was okay, and somewhere between DeKalb County and their first…

Let me ask you something. When was the last time you had your brakes looked at? Not because they were squealing, not because the pedal felt soft, but just as a matter of routine? If you're drawing a blank, you're not alone. Most drivers operate on the assumption that brakes will announce their own problems. The truth is, they often don't.I've been in this business for a long time. And one of the most common situations I see is a…

Let's be honest. When most people think about their car's exhaust system, they think about one thing: that pipe sticking out the back. Maybe two pipes if they're feeling really fancy. That's it. That's the whole mental picture. But there's a whole lot more going on under your car than just a glorified smokestack, and understanding it could save you money, keep your family safe, and help your car live a long, healthy, non-dramatic life. Unlike that check engine light,…

You know that friend who only goes to the doctor when something is already seriously wrong? Their arm is turning purple, they’re coughing up something green, and there’s a weird noise coming from somewhere that definitely shouldn’t be making noise. A lot of people treat their tires the same way. They ignore them until something is obviously, dramatically wrong. And by then, they’re looking at a repair bill that hurts a lot more than it needed to. Here’s the thing,…

Let's talk about your car. Specifically, let's talk about that noise your car has been making. You know the one. The squeak, the clunk, the mysterious grinding sound that you've been turning the radio up to drown out for the last three months. You've named it, haven't you? Named the whole car. "Oh, that's just my car Gerald." Gerald is not fine. Gerald is trying to tell you something. Here's the thing about car noises: they don't go away on…