Your serpentine belt drives essential engine accessories like your alternator, air conditioning compressor, and power steering. In some cars it may also power the power brakes or water pump. The serpentine belt is powered by the engine and winds around pulleys and the accessories. Some automobiles have two serpentine belts.
The serpentine belt, the belt tensioner (which maintains the appropriate tension on the belt) and the idler pulleys are together known as the accessory drive system.
Now your serpentine belt and the belt tensioner will just wear out over time – that’s why your automobile manufacturer has a scheduled belt replacement interval. The team at Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee in Pewaukee can inspect your serpentine belt for wear and get it replaced if it’s time.
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Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee 262-691-7113 N49W22900 Commerce Center Dr Pewaukee, WI 53072
Wiper blades are critically important to Pewaukee drivers for good driving visibility and safety. When it’s time to replace your wiper blades, there are a number of different wiper blade designs and grades. Pewaukee motorists should always use at least the design or grade that came with their vehicle.
If you live in WI where there is a lot of wet weather, flying insects, or do a lot of highway driving, you may want to upgrade to a more advanced design or premium quality wiper blade. Your Friendly and professional Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee service professional can share the options available for your car and help you decide which wiper blades are ideal for you.
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Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee 262-691-7113 N49W22900 Commerce Center Dr Pewaukee, WI 53072
Repair or Replace? That’s a question Pewaukee car owners ask when they have tire damage. Some punctures cannot be repaired because of their size or location. Punctures larger than a quarter of an inch are considered too large to be safely fixed. Punctures in the sidewall or near the shoulders may not be able to be repaired. And sometimes there is internal damage revealed on inspection that indicates the tire should not be repaired.
Run flat tires should not be corrected. Repairing high performance tires may make them unsuitable for motorsports. Your Friendly and professional Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee service specialist can check your damaged tire and tell you if it can be safely fixed or if it should be replaced – and then help you get back on the road.
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Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee 262-691-7113 N49W22900 Commerce Center Dr Pewaukee, WI 53072
The primary job of the serpentine belt is to provide critical traction to spin the accessories. As the belt wears it loses some of its grip and the accessories may not spin at optimal speeds. For example, if your alternator doesn’t spin fast enough, the battery will not completely recharge while you’re driving and you could end up stranded with a dead battery.
In short, a worn serpentine belt will stress all of the accessories it powers leading to premature wear and possible early replacement. When as little as 5% of belt material is lost, the serpentine belt cannot provide the proper traction for the accessories. Your Friendly and professional Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee service professional can check your belt for excessive wear and replace your serpentine belt system if it’s excessively worn.
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Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee 262-691-7113 N49W22900 Commerce Center Dr Pewaukee, WI 53072
One thing all Pewaukee drivers can do to extend the life of their battery is to keep it clean. A greasy, dirty battery holds in damaging heat. Same goes for removing corrosion from the terminals. Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee can help maintain your battery.
Allowing your battery to be deeply depleted – like from using your headlights when the engine is off – is very harmful to your battery. Most automotive batteries can only take that about 10 times before they are ruined.
Your brake pads are the critical parts that rub against the rotor (or disc) to slow and stop your auto. They eventually wear down.
When your pads are worn too much, they won’t stop your vehicle as well. When the friction material is worn away, metal parts of the pad are exposed and you’ll hear a squeal or grinding sound.
That’s when Pewaukee motorists should replace their brake pads. Not only will new pads restore your stopping power, but replacing them on time will prevent damage to the rotor.
If your brakes are making noise, ask your Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee service specialist to review your brakes. Addressing troubles early will restore your safety and prevent costly brake damage.
Give us a call Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee 262-691-7113 N49W22900 Commerce Center Dr Pewaukee, WI 53072
Tires are a significant purchase so knowing when tires should be replaced is important for Pewaukee motorists. Tires will just wear out with normal use. The depth of the tread on your tire determines how well it will stop, start and steer – especially in wet conditions. 4/32th of an inch of tire tread is considered a safe amount of tread.
Uneven tread wear can be a symptom of other problems and simply replacing your tires will not prevent the same uneven wear from happening to the new tires. We can inspect your tires for excessive or uneven wear. Unusual wear may lead to further inspection of steering, suspension or alignment troubles. We can help with necessary repairs and with getting you the right tires for your needs.
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Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee 262-691-7113 N49W22900 Commerce Center Dr Pewaukee, WI 53072
Air quality has certainly become a hot issue in our modern Pewaukee world. We install air filters on our ventilation systems and in our vacuum cleaners. There’s a filter that cleans the air going into our Sedan’s engine — so why not one for the air in the passenger compartment?
Foreign and domestic vehicle manufacturers haven’t been ignoring the issue. Cabin air filters are becoming a standard feature on newer vehicles. These filters can clean particles out of the air down to three microns, which accounts for pollen, dust and most pollutants. Waukesha car owners who suffer from allergies or have a respiratory disorder should be a lot more comfortable. And even if you don’t have a medical need for the filter, the cleaner air in your car just might help you breathe better, figuratively as well as literally.
Cabin air filters are still fairly new in Brookfield, so you’ll have to check your Sedan owner’s manual to see if you have one. If you do, your routine car care will have to include changing the filter as part of your important preventive maintenance. The owner’s manual will give recommendations on how often the filter has to be changed, but if the air where you live in WI is particularly dirty or if you’re prone to hay fever, you may want to change it more often.
Your Friendly and professional Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee service professional can also offer suggestions on how often to change your cabin air filter in your Brookfield area. They’re the ones who actually see the dirty filters, after all.
There is no standardized location for cabin air filters. Pewaukee drivers can usually find them in the Sedan engine compartment or under the dashboard, but they might be somewhere else. So the ease of changing the filter will depend on its location. Some are readily accessible, but others make you wonder how they got installed in the first place. Bring your car into Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee and we will locate your cabin air filter for you.
However, if you have a newer Sedan, it’s good auto advice to find out if it has a cabin air filter. If it does, you should change the filter regularly. A sure sign that a filter needs to be changed is that the interior of your Sedan will start to smell bad. That smell is exactly how some Brookfield auto owners discovered that they had cabin air filters in the first place!
Cabin air filters are just one more way we have to stay safe, stay healthy, and stay on the road in Pewaukee.
A generation ago, Pewaukee drivers seemed to be more inclined to keep their vehicle’s preventive maintenance on schedule. One reason for this may be that vehicles back then were a lot less reliable than they are today. Having your Sedan in to your Pewaukee shop every year or two for repairs seemed to be a good reminder to keep the oil changed.
For example, almost everyone in Pewaukee used to take their vehicles in for regular tune-ups. Vehicles had mechanical ignition systems, which meant ignition points, spark plugs and coils had to be replaced and the timing adjusted every few years. As long as the Sedan was in for a tune-up at Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee, the vehicle was inspected and you took care of any needed repairs at the same time.
Today’s engines have electronic ignition systems and engine control computers. Spark plugs can last for up to 100,000 miles. Vehicle reliability has vastly improved in the last few decades, and surveys report fewer problems with new vehicles than ever before. That also means that our Sedans don’t experience a huge performance drop when they’re ready for some car care. But it doesn’t mean that they don’t need it.
Modern Pewaukee car owners need to rely on calendars and mileage intervals to know when to schedule maintenance. Owner’s manuals contain recommendations on when different types of maintenance should be performed. Also, your Pewaukee service center can provide advice about auto maintenance schedules. At Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee in Pewaukee, we know that benefits of staying on top of preventive maintenance are substantial. First, you’ll get better engine performance and gas mileage. Those two things alone return the cost of preventive maintenance: in fuel savings and safety. Also, routine maintenance has been proven to prevent major car repairs later on. Again, the cost savings can be significant. As the old saying goes, “Spend a penny, save a dime.”
Modern Sedan engines may be more durable and reliable than their predecessors, but they’re more sophisticated and complex as well. For this reason, preventive maintenance today is even more critical than the old tune-up. Modern engine systems have a lot of critical parts that have to stay lubricated. These parts can be made of aluminum, plastic or steel. Special additives in lubricants are required to keep each of these materials from breaking down or corroding. Over time, these additives are depleted, even if the Sedan isn’t driven. This makes fluid changes a critical part of scheduled maintenance if you want to keep your car on the road.
As an example, coolant fluid in your engine is a sophisticated mix that not only keeps your Sedan engine cool but also protects and maintains its components. However, this fluid gradually gets contaminated and anti-corrosion additives are depleted. It can become corrosive and actually damage the Sedan engine parts it was designed to protect. It can actually eat holes in your radiator and other engine parts. Changing the coolant could have prevented this costly damage, and it’s a whole lot easier and cheaper than replacing a radiator.
Timely oil changes are more critical for Pewaukee auto owners than they used to be. Skipping just one oil change can start the build-up of oil sludge in your engine. Sludge can clog small engine passages, which cuts off the supply of lubricant to essential engine parts. Just this small bit of sludge can reduce the life expectancy of your engine. If the build-up continues, it could lead to engine failure within two or three years.
One word of warning to anyone in Brookfield who purchases used automobiles: take care when buying a leased vehicle. Pewaukee folks who lease vehicles only intend to drive them for two or three years, generally the years when the vehicle is least likely to experience any problems. One of the reasons people lease vehicles is that they don’t want to be bothered with maintenance or car care. Before buying a pre-leased vehicle, be sure to inspect it for signs of damage that result from lack of proper care.
Pewaukee car owners can all be grateful for the improved reliability of our modern vehicles. With proper maintenance and care, we can expect them to last longer, perform better, get better fuel economy, and require fewer repairs than ever before. We just have to be more conscientious about scheduling time for their care.
Service to a vehicle’s power steering system is an important part of preventive maintenance for wise Pewaukee car owners. This system provides power to the steering wheel so you can turn it with ease. Without power steering, all of the power to turn your Sedan’s wheels would have to come from you.
The central element of most power steering systems is a pump. The pump pressurizes the power steering fluid, and it is this pressure that provides auxiliary steering power. A belt connected to the engine usually powers the pump, although some systems use an electric pump. Some newer Sedans have an electric motor that directly provides the power steering boost.
Pressurized fluid moves from the pump to the steering gear through a high-pressure hose. A low-pressure hose returns fluid to the pump. Power steering fluid cleans, cools and lubricates the system.
Pewaukee motorists should remember that fluid levels in the power steering system should be checked at every oil change. Low fluid levels can damage the pump, which can be expensive to repair. Low fluid levels may also indicate a leaky hose in the power steering system, so it is a good idea to inspect the hoses, especially if your fluid levels are low.
Power steering fluid breaks down over time, losing its effectiveness. It also gradually collects moisture, which can lead to corrosion in the steering system. So the fluid needs to be replaced occasionally. You should check with your owner’s manual or ask your Friendly and professional Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee technician to learn how often this fluid should be replaced.
When your fluid is replaced, your Friendly and professional Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee service professional will remove the old fluid and replace it with new. Power steering fluids are not all created equal; the fluid has to be compatible with your hoses and seals. Your Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee service professional can ensure that you get the right fluid for your vehicle, or you can consult your owner’s manual.
Signs that your power steering system is in trouble can include the following: a steering wheel that is hard to turn, auxiliary steering power that cuts in and out, or a whining sound coming from the pump. Also, Pewaukee auto owners who are not topping off the power steering fluid on schedule may hear squealing coming from the engine belts.
To protect your steering system should never hold the steering wheel in the far right or far left position for more than a few seconds at a time. This can wear out your pump in a hurry.
Preventive maintenance for your steering system primarily involves the power steering components, but your steering system has other parts that can wear out or be damaged by rough WI driving conditions. Such parts include the ball-joint, idler arm, steering gear, steering-knuckle and tie rod. Signs that they are in need of attention include play in the steering wheel, a vehicle that wanders, uneven tire wear and a steering wheel that is off-center. Pewaukee motorists should have their alignment checked annually. This check-up can reveal bent or damaged steering components.
For answers to other questions about your steering system, or for auto advice on any type of vehicle maintenance, check with the team at Nelsons Automotive of Pewaukee. We can steer you in the right direction when it comes to quality car care.
