Everyone knows that the engine is the heart of your vehicle. Engines
have come a long way in the past few years. They run smoother, cleaner
than ever before and they burn less fuel. they are also much more
dependable than ever before. Bay Town Tire Center has the tools and the
expertise to repair virtually any engine malfunction you may have.
Some of the more common problems cause poor performance and/or poor fuel
economy.
The most critical, and often time
most expensive failure is caused by a common service item which often
gets overlooked. That item is your engines timing belt. Today most 4
cylinder and v-6 model engines are either single or double overhead cam.
In the past the drive arrangement was called overhead valve or push rod,
and the camshaft was run directly off of the crankshaft. The picture
below is an example of this type of arrangement.
To the right is an example of the
internal workings of an inline DOHC (Double OverHead Camshaft) 4 or 6
cylinder engine. With this arrangement the camshafts are driven by a
belt. Over time these belts degrade and become likely to break. The best
case scenario is your engine stalls and and you will need to get your
car towed and then repaired. However, most engines of this design are
referred to a "Interference Engines." This means that if the belt breaks
it will most likely cause severe engine damage resulting in a very
costly repair. Many manufacturers recommend replacement of the timing
belt every 60,000 miles. So it is important to know if you have one of
these types of engines and if so, you may need to determine if you
should have this kind of maintenance performed.
With the cost of gasoline these days,
people should be more concerned about how well their car is running. Not
to mention that better fuel mileage means less emissions which is better
for the environment. But given the current economic situation, we'd like
to throw some numbers out there to help you understand the importance of
a well maintained engine:
Lets say you drive 20 miles each way
to work every day for a total of 40 miles. Your vehicle gets 22mpg
burning 2 gallons of fuel each day costing you $5.80 per day (at the
current $2.79 per gallon price). So to go to work every average work day
(5 days per week) would cost $1,508.00 per year. Now if you do a tune up
on your vehicle and you can manage to get 22mpg, that drops your daily
fuel consumption to 1.8 gallons per day dropping your daily fuel cost to
$4.46 per day. By the end of the year your fuel cost would drop to
$1,159.60. That is a savings of $348.40 for the year.
The average tune up will last
for at least 50,000 miles. Assuming that you only drove to work at your
40 miles per day, that would mean that you would get 4.8 years out of
your tune up which equates to $1,672.32 saved over the life of the tune
up. Keep in mind that this is only figuring a 2mpg increase, which is
easy to achieve with a tune up, and also figuring 50,000 miles on a tune
up which is figuring conservatively.
Bay Town Tire Center provides
complete engine repairs, tune
ups, diagnostics, coolant and oil leak repairs, replacement and even
overhauls if needed. We are also a registered dealer of Jasper
remanufactured engines and transmissions which provide the best warranty
and customer service in the industry.
