Albany Auto Repair

Why Does My Car Shake Going Down The Road?   Have you ever started driving your car and notice its shaking or vibrating as you drive?   There are a few things it could be, but today we will talk about the most common: Tires. Tires play a vital role in your automobile. They are what connect your car to the road.  Tires are made of rubber and filled with air to cushion all the bumps and holes in the road, and to get traction in all sorts of weather and driving conditions. They also have metal wires inside of them to increase their strength and stability (called steel belts). Tires wear with daily use and also can dry out and start cracking from the sun.   Like any part of an automobile, a tire can fail as well. One of those failures can be the steel belts we just mentioned. Sometimes, those can break inside the tire and cause the tire to not be perfectly round anymore causing a serious vibration   Because of how fast a tire has to spin during normal use ... read more

Has anyone seen the fuel prices lately? We need all the help we can get with saving money! One place you could save some money is improving your vehicle's fuel economy. There are several components that contribute to your fuel economy.  Keeping up on the normal maintenance, making sure there is not a Check Engine Light on, and your car running smoothly are all factors that contribute to the fuel economy.. Also, a proper alignment is helpful so the car isn’t pulling to one side or the other driving down the road. Something as simple as tire pressure can also make a massive difference in MPG (mile per gallon). And make your tires last longer!   Maintenance on your vehicle includes oil change with an oil filter, air filter and fuel filter replacements. Also, transmission and differential fluid exchange, spark plugs and spark plug wire replacement.   Another contributor is the body of your vehicle. If you have damage that can affect airflow around the body, it ... read more

Why Does My Car Shake When I Brake? Usually that's caused by an issue in the brake system, which we discussed earlier in THIS BLOG. Warped brake rotors are usually the cause for a shake while braking. The reason a brake rotor becomes warped can be a few things. Holding your foot on the brakes for long periods of time, pushing very hard on your brakes, or even overloading your car or truck's weight rating can all cause excessive heat in your brake pads and rotors, which in turn warp your steel rotors.  What does warped mean? Normally a brake rotor is a nice flat surface that allows your brake pad to clamp down smoothly when braking. When excessive heat builds up on the rotor, the flat surface starts to form waves. Those waves are what we refer to when we say, “warped” rotors. Now when you step on the brake, the pads and rotors start to shake because the surface isn’t flat anymore.&n ... read more

What is an alignment? Well, it's getting your car or truck lined up… but what does that mean exactly.    When we talk about Alignments what we are talking about is getting all 4 wheels pointed in the same direction and rolling smoothly down the road. We talked last week about tires and tire wear. A big factor in tire wear is a bad alignment. Besides improper tire wear a bad alignment will cause your car or truck to pull to one side going down the road. It can also have poor handling in general.   There are a lot of adjustments to be made on a typical modern car, that's why we have a computer and laser system to help make these changes. Pictured is a car on our rack with the sensors on each wheel and the computer screen displaying the desired alignment numbers and current numbers so our technicians know how much adjustment is needed.   Why do alignments need to be checked? Because your alignment involves your car’s suspension, steering, whee ... read more