Evaporative Emissions Control

When you turn on the air conditioning in your vehicle, you expect cool air to come out of the vents. You depend on it, especially in hot weather, but it can also be important in humid weather when you need it to help defrost your windows and windshield. The air conditioning system has a lot of parts to it. It has fans and blowers to move the air through the vents into the cabin. It has parts that take hot air and cool it off. An electrical problem can be as simple as a broken switch or a broken blower motor. The air may not be getting cool because a hose in the system is broken or the refrigerant has leaked out. Two major components are the compressor and the condenser. The compressor pressurizes the refrigerant, one step in the air conditioning process. The condenser takes that hot refrigerant and cools it down. It also reduces the pressure. Because the climate control system in your vehicle is so complex, it’s best to leave the diagnosis to a trained, experienced technician. You can help the technician zero in on the problem by noting what is happening and being able to show them where you notice the issues. Note what’s going on and write it down. When you bring your vehicle in to us to look at, a technician will inspect the system, conduct tests to make sure there’s enough refrigerant, and check to make sure there are no leaks anywhere. Air conditioning is now included in most vehicles. We all have grown used to being able to keep the cabin comfortable no matter what it’s like outside. Let us make sure your system is working the way it was designed to. That’s definitely the cool thing to do. Contact us today. Read the original article on the NAPA website.

When talking about stopping power, we tend to focus on our brakes. But our tires are where the rubber meets the road. So having good brakes isn't enough: we have to have tires with enough traction to translate braking power into stopping power. Let's focus on stopping in wet conditions. In order for a tire to have good contact with the road, it has to move the water out of the way. If it can't move the water, the tire will actually ride on top of a thin film of water. To move water out of the way, the tire has channels for water to flow through. Look at a tire and you'll see channels that run around and across the tire. They're designed to direct water away from the tire so it can contact the road better. The deeper the channel, the more water it can move. A brand new tire has very deep channels and can easily move a lot of water. As the tire wears down, the channels become shallower and can move less water. When it wears down enough, it can seriously affect your ability to stop on wet roads. Consumer Reports and other advocate groups think that a good standard of replacing tires when the tread is worn down to 4/32 of an inch. That's 3.2 millimeters. When tires are worn to 2/32 of an inch, or 1.6 millimeters, the tread wear bar is visible. So the recommended standard has twice the tread depth as a completely worn out tire - and that little bit of additional tread makes a big difference. Stopping distances are cut dramatically on wet roads. A safe stop from freeway speeds with 4/32 of an inch of tread could result in a crash with worn out tires. There's an easy way to tell when a tire's worn to 4/32 of an inch. Just insert an American quarter into the tread. Put it in upside down. If the tread doesn't cover George Washington's hairline; it's time to replace your tires. With a Canadian quarter, the tread should cover the numbers in the year stamp. Contact Us Today. Read the original article on the NAPA website.

Your vehicle engine really needs clean air to operate efficiently. It takes about twelve thousand gallons of air to burn a gallon of gas in your vehicle engine. And clean air is much better than dirty. When your air filter's dirty, it simply can't trap any more dirt, so the dirt just passes through into your air intake system. From there it can get into the vehicle engine combustion chamber. And burning dust and pollen in your engine as you drive around JEFFERSON CITY does you no good. The verdict: When your engine air filter needs to be replaced, it needs to be replaced. How often depends entirely on how dirty the air is in MO where you drive. A simple visual inspection by a friendly and knowledgeable Frosty Auto Clinic technician will tell you when you need a new engine air filter in your vehicle. When you look at the air filter on your furnace in your home and see it's all clogged up with dust and dirt, you don't hesitate to replace it. But don't wait until your air filter (furnace or automobile) is totally plugged; by that time you've been running inefficiently for a long distance. When your Frosty Auto Clinic service technician brings out your nasty engine air filter, you now know why you should go ahead and change it out. Give us a call. Read the original article on the NAPA website.

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Your vehicle's engine is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a power plant. But it has another power source that is vital as well: the alternator. The alternator is what puts out the electricity that powers such things as your lights, power windows, sound system, and navigation. Maybe you've started seeing those electrical components behaving in strange ways. Maybe your power windows are going up and down a little bit more slowly than they used to. Or perhaps your engine doesn't start as easily or is misfiring. Other signs of a failing alternator are headlights that are either brighter or dimmer than usual. If your battery keeps going dead, it could be that the alternator isn't recharging it. The alternator has to get its power from somewhere, and in vehicles with internal combustion engines, that power comes from a drive belt powered by the engine. Sometimes that belt can fail. If you hear a whining sound, it could mean bearings in the alternator aren't turning as freely as they used to. You could even notice a burning smell. Oh, and when you see your battery light illuminated on your dash (it looks like a rectangle with a - and + inside), it may be warning you that your alternator is not healthy. Bring your vehicle in to us for a diagnosis if you notice any of these symptoms. If your alternator is bad, we can recommend a new or remanufactured one to replace it. Some new alternators are warranted for life and remanufactured units usually are guaranteed as well. It's important to your vehicle's health to have its alternator putting out the right power consistently. It may not be as well known as the other power plant under the hood, but it's a vital part of helping your vehicle run the way it is designed to. Contact Frosty's Today! Read the original article on the NAPA website.

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When the weather gets hot, some of the components of your vehicle are pushed to the limit. Here are a few things to watch out for as the mercury climbs higher: