Hanover Park Auto Repair

So what is the most distracting food to have in the car while driving around Hanover Park?Is it: A Hamburger; Coffee; A Soft Drink, or Gummy Bears? Well, you may be surprised to learn that all but the gummy bears are in the top ten most distracting foods when you are driving, but if you chose ‘coffee', then give yourself an extra two points; coffee is the number one food distraction for drivers in Hanover Park and around the country. Food distractions cause 25 percent of all car accidents; over a million and a half each year! You'll notice that all of the top ten distracting food items are messy. Messy foods are the type of food you might spill (very distracting!), then try to clean up (a safe-driving impossibility!). If you gotta eat on the run, take five-then drive. You'll thank yourself later for two reasons, one being that you can actually relax for just a moment in our fast-paced ... read more

Just as our bodies need clean air to function properly, your pickup engine needs clean air to operate efficiently. Let's go egghead for a minute. For every gallon of gas we burn driving on IL interstates, twenty pounds of carbon dioxide comes out the tailpipe. Question: how can a gallon of gas that weighs a little over six pounds produce twenty pounds of carbon dioxide?The answer is that the carbon comes from the gasoline, but the oxygen comes from the air. You see, it takes about twelve thousand gallons of air to burn a gallon of gas in your engine. Clearly, your pickup needs a lot of air to keep going in Palatine. A lot of clean air is best. You've seen the pictures of people in Japan wearing face masks. They want some kind of filter to keep unwanted pollution and germs out of their lungs. Well, your pickup also works better when its internals are clean. When your pickup air filter's dirty, it simply can't tr ... read more

Engines get hot when they run. This heat can build up and damage vital engine parts, so engines need a cooling system to keep them running. Cooling system failure is the most common mechanical failure in vehicles. This is unfortunate, because these failures are usually easy for Hanover Park motorists to prevent. The radiator is the best-known and most recognizable part of the cooling system. Hoses filled with coolant (also known as antifreeze) connect the radiator to the engine. The coolant draws heat from the engine, and then flows to the radiator. Air passing through cooling fins on the radiator cools the coolant. The coolant then cycles back into the engine to start the process over again. The most critical component of the cooling system, however, is the coolant itself. A mixture of water and coolant/antifreeze helps keep it both from freezing and from boiling away. Either can result in serious engine damage. Different engines require different types of coolant/a ... read more

There are so many tire choices in the Hanover Park, Addison, and Bartlett area, selecting the right one can be a bit overwhelming for Elk Grove Village car owners. And even though it's kind of fun to have new tires on your pickup, they're a significant investment for most Elk Grove Village folks so you want do it right. Tip: talk with your understanding Kamphaus AutoCare and Emission tire professional. He'll help you sort through the choices. Here are some of the essential issues you'll talk about: One is size – you know, all those numbers on the side of the tire. The right size is important. 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 Hanover Park tire professional can help stay within vehicle manufacturers' specifications or program a different tire size into your pickup's computer. And you'll want to discuss how a ... read more

Tires do a lot of essential work for Hanover Park car owners. They transfer engine power and braking forces to the road; they handle steering control; and they cushion all those bumps and jolts while driving around Hanover Park. They also support the entire weight of the vehicle, including you and your passengers. With such critical work to do, you want your tires to do their job well. And since replacing tires is fairly costly, you want them to last as long as possible. There are three keys to long, even tire wear for Hanover Park drivers: The front tires on a car take the brunt of the steering forces. As they push through turns, the shoulders of the front tires wear down more quickly than the rear tires. Rotating front and rear tires allows them to all wear at about the same rate. That's especially true of front wheel drive vehicles whose front tires steer, and put the power to the road. SUVs and pick-ups, especially four wheel drives, also te ... read more

One Hanover Park automotive service issue that doesn't get much attention is driveline service. Drivelines don't get talked about very much around Elk Grove Village, but they're very critical. First let's define what the driveline is: Taking a small step back, the power plant is comprised of the engine and transmission. The driveline starts there and includes all of the components that transfer power from the transmission to the wheels. That's not really a lot of components, but they handle the full force of the engine. Without the driveline you're not moving. So Hanover Park car owners need to take good care of it. The driveline components differ depending on whether your vehicle has front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, all wheel drive or four wheel drive. For purposes of our discussion, we're going to have to oversimplify a bit. Let's start with front wheel drive. The point where the transmission stops and the driveline begins is a litt ... read more

At Kamphaus AutoCare and Emission we've had a lot of Hanover Park, Palatine, and Bartlett clients asking how they can make their vehicles last longer. These questions are actually a reflection of a trend that's been building for several years in IL. The median age of personal vehicles is now over nine years. And 33 percent of all vehicles on the road have over 75,000 miles on them. It looks like it's going to keep heading in that direction for a while. With high fuel prices, a lot of Elk Grove Village folks are putting off buying a new car. Thanks to AutoNetTV, we can provide you with a video answer to this important question. So let's say you're one of the average motorists in the Elk Grove Village area; you've got a nine year old car with 80,000 miles on the odometer. What can you to do make it last another year or two? Let's start with the premise that there's no reason that a modern car can't run for 200,000 miles with proper care in Hanover Park. The engineering a ... read more

We live such busy lives nowadays: work, social events, running the kids all over Hanover Park. Some days it's all we can do to keep track of everywhere we need to be. That's why you've gotta be organized. Smartphones, calendar apps – we have to keep track of it all. So let's talk about schedules. Specifically, automotive service schedules. And particularly, the critical scheduled services that are sometimes forgotten. Here is a list of 10 service items that are often overlooked by Hanover Park auto owners. They're all very important and need appropriate attention. So here we go, in no particular order. 1. Power Steering ServiceBe honest; have you ever thought of this on your own? Your power steering fluidgets dirty and builds-up moisture over time. Cleaning out your power steering system means that dirt and gum are removed and your critical power steering parts are protected from dangerous corrosion. Next time you're in fo ... read more

Let's talk about air quality in Hanover Park. It's a global issue, but affects us wherever we are. Many decades ago, Hanover Park motorists began to become aware of how air pollution negatively affects health. But what about the air inside your vehicle? Cabin air filters are now coming on most new pickups in Hanover Park. These filters clean the air in the passenger compartment. They can filter particles down to three microns, so that's good enough to clean out dust, pollen and most pollutants. If you suffer from allergies in Hanover Park, this is very good news. Your car can be a haven during your Hanover Park commute. Now, it's only been in the last few years that cabin air filters have become common in Hanover Park. You can look in your owner's manual to see if you have one. If you do, there'll be a recommendation for replacing it when it gets dirty. If you live in an area of Hanover Park where there's a lot of d ... read more

Hey Hanover Park car owners – this is something really amazing: For every gallon of gas your pickup burns, it uses 12,000 gallons of air. All of that air has to be filtered to keep your engine clean. That's like a hundred gallons of air every block! The engine air filter is just another example of a very important but inexpensive part that has to do a tremendous amount of work. And when it works, everything goes well. But, when it doesn't, well, it can lead to costly problems. Of course, your auto maker recommends how often to change your air filter. But like most service intervals, where and how you drive your car in IL affects when your filter needs to be changed. Dusty conditions around Elk Grove Village or polluted city driving means you'll need to change your filter more often. Your understanding Kamphaus AutoCare and Emission service professional can check your filter for you. In fact, it's often a routine part of an oil ... read more