Longview Auto Repair

It's a hot day outside and you must get out of the house. You're eager to get out in the car and get the air conditioner (A/C) blowing so you don't melt in the sun. You jump in, and you feel the cold air; you quickly notice an unpleasant smell along with the cold air and have no clue what's happening! Unbeknown to some, there are smells that can creep in your cars A/C. Here's what you need to know and what it can mean for your car. There's a chance that you're smelling something that's in the air around your car that's just filtering through you're A/C. In this case, driving away will resolve the problem. If you happen to smell gas, mold/mildew, vinegar, or burning you should be concerned. Gasoline Smell: Your car has a cabin air filter… it will do a good job filtering out a lot of harmful materials, but stronger smells like gas it may not get. If your car is leaking gas, there is a chance that gas will get sucked into y ... read more

When you press your brake pedal, what happens? Either your car glides to a nice, smooth stop, or you jitter, vibrate, and squeak along to a halt, accompanied by the acrid smell of burning rubber. It can feel pretty catastrophic but is actually a fairly common scenario and usually indicates warped brake rotors. So what exactly is a brake rotor, and how does it become warped? Using the word "warped" is a bit misleading since uneven wear on the rotor is the actual culprit behind these problems. The rotor is an iron disc connected to the hub of your car's tire. When you press the brake pedal, brake pads clamp down onto the large surface area of the rotor and create friction, which resists the spin of the wheel and enables your car to slow down or stop. As you can imagine, this braking process creates a large amount of heat. This heat causes uneven wearing in two different ways. In one situation, the brake pads overheat. The grippy material comprising the pads becomes too so ... read more