Chesapeake Auto Repair

Commitment to Make Your van Last At West Service Center, Inc.   For advice on how to make your van last longer, visit us at West Service Center, Inc. 904 Cavalier Blvd Chesapeake, Virginia 23323 757-487-4420 These days many people in the Chesapeake area are really committed to making their cars last a long time. First thing: you’ve got to start with what you’ve got. It’d be ideal if people started with a brand new car, never missed a scheduled service item, paid attention to the severe service maintenance schedule and had regular inspections. But if you’ve had the vehicle for a while, or bought it used, its maintenance history is what it is; and that’s where you start. Go through the maintenance schedule for your van and see what’s been done and when. Have your Chesapeake service advisor at West Service Center, Inc. do an inspection and come up with a list of stuff that needs to be done. Revie ... read more

Technician Training at West Service Center, Inc.   Your car is important to you and keeping it running properly is essential to your Chesapeake lifestyle. That’s why you’re smart to have it serviced regularly at West Service Center, Inc. in Chesapeake. And even though it may just be routine maintenance, you want it done right by automotive professionals. It’s also very important to your Chesapeake service center to keep you happy and on the road. You might be surprised at the amount of money our Chesapeake auto service center spends annually to make sure our honest service professionals are properly trained.   West Service Center, Inc. offers a variety of automotive services for many kinds of vehicles. We need to be current on the latest techniques and parts so that we can give you quality service. Our Chesapeake centers subscribe to data services that list the high quality parts and fluids recommended by your manufacturer. And each service has a checkl ... read more

Easy Miles Have you ever noticed that your car maker has a schedule in your owner’s manual for what is called “severe service” maintenance? Let’s define what severe driving conditions aren’t: The easiest driving a vehicle experiences is traveling on the interstate for twenty miles or more at a constant rate of 65 miles per hour in 75°F weather with only passengers on board. Change any one of those parameters and you are adding stress to your engine. Change them significantly, and you are driving under severe conditions. Let’s look at the essential parameters one a time. First, the length of the trip. Short trips around Chesapeake are harder on an engine than longer ones. As your engine cools down, water in the air condenses onto the engine. When you heat the engine again, the water evaporates off. This is healthy. But on short trips, the engine doesn’t stay hot enough long enough for all of the water to evaporate so it st ... read more

West Service Center, Inc. and the Maintenance Mindset   When it comes to their vehicles, some Chesapeake car owners don’t have a maintenance mindset. They know they need to take care of their cars, but it just seems really hard to get them to remember to do it. Chesapeake drivers generally accept that many things in life require regular maintenance, but just may have not applied it to their vans. For example: the lawn. You water it and mow it every week. And weed the flower beds and rake the leaves. There are other things that Chesapeake residents are diligent about. Going to the dentist twice a year. Clothes to the dry cleaner. Flu shots. Taking the kids to your Chesapeake doctor for a checkup before school starts. So Chesapeake auto owners really are maintenance minded. They just have to learn to apply that mindset to cars. I mean, if you never brush your teeth or g ... read more

Fuel Injection Keeps Getting Better For Chesapeake Motorists Chesapeake auto owners know that engines burn fuel to operate. Fuel is pumped from your fuel tank to your engine where it is squirted—or injected—into your engine’s cylinders. This is the function of the fuel injectors. There are two ways to inject fuel into an engine. Fuel needs air to burn, so in the first method, fuel is injected into a port and allowed to mix with air and before it is drawn into the cylinders. In the second method, fuel is injected directly into the cylinders and mixes with air after it enters the engine. Direct injection engines burn fuel more efficiently than conventional engines. Some models can deliver the power of a V8 with the economy of a V6. For example, in one family of engines, the conventional version (a V6) delivers about 250 horsepower. The direct injection version delivers over 300 horsepower and gets about the same fuel economy. The turbocharged v ... read more