Seasonal Recommendations

You call around. “Sorry, we don't work on those.” Call the next place. Same answer, maybe with an apology this time. Call a third and you might get a yes, if you can wait three weeks and don't mind driving forty-five minutes each way. If you've got a diesel, you already know this. I've had guys roll into my lot annoyed before we've even popped the hood, and it's never at us. It's at the four shops before us who…

Have you ever walked out to your car on a Tuesday morning, turned the key, and heard nothing? Not a cough. Not a sputter. Maybe one sad little click. Then you stand there in the driveway, half a cup of coffee in your hand, staring at your car like it personally betrayed you. When a car won't start, most people blame the battery. Sometimes they're right. Sometimes the problem is the starter, alternator, wiring, or a loose connection. I'd guess…

Ask ten drivers how often they change their oil and you'll get ten different answers, and half of them will argue with you about it. Some are still running on the “every 3,000 miles” rule their dad drilled into them. Others read somewhere that modern oil goes 10,000 miles and figure that means they can forget about it. Neither one is crazy. They're just working off information that's out of date, or too general for their actual car. I've had…

The lazy part of summer is just about over. In a little over a week, the buses are back on the roads, the drop-off line is backed up to the stop sign, and your morning suddenly has three more stops in it than it did in July. Whether you’re running kids to school in Sycamore, DeKalb, or anywhere across DeKalb County, a car you can count on matters more once the school year starts. All summer it might have handled…

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…