Chesapeake Auto Repair

Why Wheel Balancing and Tire Rotation Save You Money On Tires   Chesapeake motorists want their tires to last as long as possible. Two ways to extend tire life are wheel balancing and tire rotation. When wheels are out of balance, they wobble and vibrate. That makes the tires wear in a cupping pattern. If a front wheel is out of balance you’ll feel it in the steering wheel. If it’s a rear wheel you’ll feel it through your seat. To fix this, your service advisor at West Service Center, Inc. puts weights on your wheels to balance them out. That brings us to tire rotation. The front tires on a van wear out faster than the rear tires. As they push through turns from Chesapeake to Suffolk, the shoulders of the front tires wear down. So rotating front and rear tires allows them to all wear at about the same rate over the life of the tire. Proper tire inflation will also help Chesapeake folks’ tires last longer ... read more

      Fuel Injection Basics For Chesapeake   All modern Chesapeake vehicles come with fuel injection systems, so it’s a topic Chesapeake motorists need to know something about. The mighty fuel injector is a valve that delivers the gas or diesel fuel to the right place, in the right amount, at the right time; to be mixed with air and burned in the engine. So how many fuel injectors does your car have? There’s one for each cylinder. So four, six or eight for most folks in Chesapeake, Virginia. Some vehicles have 10 or 12 cylinders. The engine control computer makes adjustments to the fuel injector as it monitors the engine and other sensors. Fuel injectors are a pretty high-tech. West Service Center, Inc. can help Chesapeake car owners with a fuel injector cleaning service. What’s the benefit? In order to work right, the fuel injectors have to deliver the fuel at a precise pressure at a very precise time. The fuel needs to b ... read more

Getting New Tires In Chesapeake?   There are so many tire choices in the Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Suffolk area, selecting the right one can be a bit overwhelming for Chesapeake car owners. And even though it’s kind of fun to have new tires on your van, they’re a significant investment for most Chesapeake folks so you want do it right. Tip: talk with your honest West Service Center, Inc. tire professional. He’ll help you sort through the choices. Here are some of the issues you’ll talk about: One is size – you know, all those numbers on the side of the tire. The right size is critical. All new vehicles are required to have stability control which, along with other important safety systems, is calibrated to work with specific tire sizes. Your Chesapeake tire professional can help stay within auto manufacturers’ specifications or program a different tire size into your van’s computer ... read more

Fuel Injector Cleaning At West Service Center, Inc.   In very simple terms, a fuel injector is a valve that squirts fuel into your van engine. Your engine control computer tells the fuel injector how much fuel to deliver as well as the precise time it should be delivered. Of course this happens thousands of times a minute in every single fuel-injected car driving down Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Suffolk freeways. Most fuel injectors for gas engines are known in the Chesapeake automotive community as port fuel injectors because they deliver the fuel to a port just outside the cylinder. The fuel pump provides pressure needed to squirt the right amount of fuel into the engine. Although more complicated, direct injection technology promises greater power with improved gas mileage for gas-poor Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Suffolk drivers. Virginia motorists can expect to se ... read more

Clean Air for Your Engine: Engine Air Filters In Chesapeake   Every Chesapeake car owner who has taken their car in for an oil change has been told that their engine air filter’s dirty. Here’s what goes into the determination of when to change the filter: First, your van owner’s manual will have a recommendation of when to change the filter. Second, a visual inspection by your Chesapeake technician may determine that your filter it is visibly dirty and needs to be changed.   Now, most air filters purchased in Portsmouth, Norfolk, or Suffolk don’t cost a lot to replace. It’s just that Virginia people hate getting caught with an unexpected expense. On the plus side, though, changing a dirty air filter at West Service Center, Inc. can often save enough on gas to pay for itself before your next oil change in Chesapeake. Think about a dirty furnace filter in your Norfolk home. When it’s all clogged up, e ... read more