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Yearly Archives: 2014

Air Conditioning Service In North Kansas City

Hey Kansas City! Let’s talk about one of our Missouri summertime must-haves: your car A/C. It’s real easy for North Kansas City car owners to take their car’s air conditioner for granted. Just push the right buttons and out comes cool, dry, clean air. But your air conditioning system needs attention from time to time to help it keep its cool. Do you hear loud noises under the hood when you turn on your air conditioner? Do you only get cool air sporadically? If so, it is time to get your air conditioner checked at Northtown Auto Clinic in North Kansas City. When most Kansas City folks hear the words “air conditioning problems“, it sends a shiver up their spine. That is because the air conditioning system is fairly complex. It has a lot of parts and when it’s broken, it’s expensive to repair. What things can North Kansas City and We service the Northland area motorists do ... read more

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Air Conditioning

Trip Inspection at Northtown Auto Clinic in North Kansas City

Kansas City drivers love their cars. And one of the most enjoyable things about them is taking a road trip. Freedom from daily schedules, new sights and the open road – it’s great! But there’s nothing like car trouble to bring the fun to a grinding halt. Now North Kansas City drivers can’t always avoid problems, but you can take steps to reduce the probability of getting sidelined on your trip. The first step is to look at your trip plan from your vehicle’s perspective. What kind of roads will you be traveling – winding Missouri byways or freeways? Purple mountain majesties or fruited plains? What weather conditions are you likely to encounter? How many miles will you travel each day? How much weight will you be hauling – passengers and luggage. Pulling a trailer, roof top carrier, or ATVs? Will it be dusty? Prepared with answers to these questions, you can schedule a trip inspection at Northt ... read more

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Alignment

Braking News: Keep Your Stopping Power

Richard Petty once told AutoNetTV, “You’ve gotta have good brakes. If you’ve got good brakes you can keep yourself out of a lotta trouble.” That’s why a regular brake inspection is on every North Kansas City driver’s maintenance schedule. An inspection at Northtown Auto Clinic will check your brake system and let you know if there are any problems. Of course, if you’re having trouble with your brakes, get your car into Northtown Auto Clinic inNorth Kansas Cityright away. Here are someessentialsymptoms forNorth Kansas City driversto watch for: If you are experiencing any of these, it’s time to get your brakes checked. To to your friendly Northtown Auto Clinic technician. There are two types of brakes: disc and drum. Disc brakes have a rotor that’s attached to the axle. Calipers straddle the rotor, kind of like the brakes on a bicycle. Drum brakes are most common on back wheels. Both types have pads or shoes that press a ... read more

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Brakes

Cabin Air Filter From Northtown Auto Clinic

Here is a questions for wise North Kansas City auto owners What is a cabin air filter? Is it: A filter for a house in the middle of the woods? A fresh, piney scent? A filter for the passenger compartment of your car? Clever you, it’s 3. A cabin air filter cleans the outside air before it comes into the passenger compartment. It filters out dust, pollen, spores, bacteria, pollutants, sparrows, detrimental exhaust gas and odors. These high tech filters can block particles larger than 3 microns. By contrast, a grain of sand is about 200 microns. Now not all vehicles in the Kansas City area have cabin filters. They are fairly new on the scene in Missouri. About forty percent of new vehicles come with cabin air filters, but the number is growing every year. Cabin air filters can make for a very nice driving environment for North Kansas City auto owners. Your ... read more

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Cabin Air Filter

Northtown Auto Clinic Radiator Service

The coolant system is a vital part of your vehicle. It is also the second most common cause for vehicle failures. Even though coolant system failure is fairly common in North Kansas City, it is easy to prevent. Northtown Auto Clinic 2235 Taney Street North Kansas City, Missouri 64116 The most recognizable part of the coolant system to Kansas City motorists is the radiator. It is connected to the engine with hoses and is filled with coolant. The coolant draws heat off the engine and then passes into the radiator. Air passes through cooling fins to reduce the temperature of the coolant and then it’s back to the engine again. There are several ways for the cooling system failure. Most common is with the coolant itself. Coolant is comprised of water and antifreeze. The proper ratio keeps the coolant from either boiling away or freezing. Understandably, either can lead to ... read more

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Cooling System

Differential Service At Northtown Auto Clinic

Here at AutoNetTV, we have national viewers, like your neighbors in North Kansas City, who write to us with questions or feedback. One common question we’re asked is: “What is a differential and what does it do?” You may have been told by your Northtown Auto Clinic service specialist that your differential needs service, or seen it as an option up on the service menu. Differential service at Northtown Auto Clinic covers a lot of things, so let’s first talk about what a differential does. As you drive through a turn, your outside wheels and inside wheels turn at different speeds. Kind of like the cars going around a race track – the ones driving in the outside lanes have a greater distance to travel than the cars in the inside lanes. The differential is what allows the outside and inside drive wheels to rotate at slightly different speeds so that the tires don’t hop or skip while taking c ... read more

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Drive Train

Exhaust Service At Northtown Auto Clinic In North Kansas City

Whenever they hear the term “exhaust service,” most North Kansas City car owners think about exhaust pipes and mufflers. Well, actually, exhaust service at Northtown Auto Clinic is a lot more comprehensive these days. For example, catalytic converters were mandated in 1976 and on-board emission control computers in 1990. Governmental emissions requirements have forced auto manufacturers to come up with much more sophisticated ways to comply with environmental regulations. Exhaust service has really become exhaust and emissions service. High-tech computer controlled emissions devices are now a big part of exhaust service. Because it is so sophisticated, your car maker recommends you have your emission system checked out by a qualified North Kansas City exhaust technician regularly to make sure everything is working right – usually every 6 months or 10,000 miles/16,000 kilometers. If your "Check Engine light" comes on, especially if it’s flashing, get yo ... read more

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Exhaust

Fuel Injectors

The last new American cars sold in North Kansas City with a carburetor rolled out of the Missouri dealerships in 1990. Since then, all new vehicles here in North Kansas City and nationally have had fuel injectors. In very simple terms, a fuel injector is a valve that squirts fuel into your engine. Your engine control computer tells the fuel injector how much gas to deliver as well as the precise time it should be delivered. Of course this happens thousands of times a minute. Fuel injectors deliver fuel far more precisely than carburetors. That translates into better gas mileage and more power for North Kansas City drivers. Virtually all fuel injectors for gas engines are known as port fuel injectors because they deliver the fuel to a port just outside the cylinder. Port fuel injectors operate at about 40 to 80 pounds per square inch of pressure. A few manufacturers have introduced gas direct injection systems on some engines rec ... read more

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Fuel System

Severe Service Requirements

A lot of Kansas City car owners have asked whether or not they should use their severe service maintenance schedule, which is listed in their car owners’ manual. It can be somewhat confusing, so we decided to consult an expert. Cricket Killingsworth is from QMI/Heartland, a manufacturer of automotive products and fluids. She’s been in the automotive business for 24 years and is a speaker, a trainer, and a writer. Cricket says there’s so much confusion on this topic because, “Most owners’ manuals actually have two maintenance schedules. Sometimes these are called ‘regular service’ and ‘severe service’. Sometimes they’re simply called Schedule 1 and Schedule 2. A severe service schedule recommends that things like an oil change, air filter replacement, and transmission service be done more often: either in fewer miles or in less time.” Foreign and domestic vehicle manufacturers create a specific schedule for each vehicle they manufacture ... read more

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Maintenance

What To Do After You Buy a Used Vehicle in North Kansas City

So you’ve bought a used car in the North Kansas City area. Do you know what you’re getting? It is hard to know what you’re getting because people in the North Kansas City area sell cars for different reasons. Think about why you’ve sold cars. Did you just want something new or were there problems that you wanted to run away from. Maybe it was a little of both. Used cars in Missouri with 25,000 to 35,000 miles on them are often lease returns, Kansas City corporate program cars or rental fleet vehicles. Most North Kansas City buyers feel pretty confident about these because they’re newer and may still be under warranty. But how well have they been maintained? North Kansas City drivers who are planning to own a car for a long time will keep up on auto maintenance so that they can avoid pricey repairs down the road. But, if you know you’re only going to have the car for two or three years, you may not be so committed to maintenance. It wou ... read more

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Older Vehicles