Wilmington Auto Repair

Most Wilmington auto owners want to save on gas and seek our advice on improving economy. At PONTE'S AUTOCARE, we are frequently asked, however, if it is really worth the extra effort. Just how much money can Wilmington drivers actually save?In today's PONTE'S AUTOCARE article, we're focusing on the things you can do to improve your vehicle’s economydriving around Delaware. We'll tell you the potential savings per gallon of gas at $3.50, and we'll show a chart that also shows the savings at $3.00 and $4.00.   DOLLARS PER GALLON $3.00 / $3.50 / $4.00 TUNE UP 4%.12.14.16 The next item is replacing a clogged engine air filter. Your engine needs enough air to burn fuel efficiently for the best mileage. A clean air filter means you get plenty of air. The fact that the air's clean protects your engine. That can save you up to 10 percent or 35 cents a gallon.   DOLLARS PER GALLON$3 ... read more

There are a number of factors that contribute to the high nighttime accident rate in the Wilmington area, things like drowsy driving and a higher rate of impaired driving. Without a doubt, visibility is a major contributor. Let's focus on visibility…It's said that 90 percent of our driving decisions are based on what we see. Nighttime driving has the effect of reducing 20/20 vision to the equivalent of 20/50 vision. What you could clearly see at 50 feet in daylight can't be seen until you are just 20 feet away at night.Too make sure your headlights are giving you the greatest visibility, visit us at PONTE'S AUTOCARE, located at 2401 Concord Pike, Wilmington, Delaware 19803. Please give us a call to make an appointment: 302-478-9786.Accident avoidance is dependent on reaction time. Reaction time deteriorates measurably in low light conditions. One thing we can do to improve visibility is to make sure our headlights are as bright as they can ... read more

So you have some exciting plans for the weekend. You're going to take some of your friends out on the boat for some water skiing. Of course, you've gotten the boat all ready. And you haven't forgotten about your tow vehicle. You've gassed it up and even vacuumed it out. However, there is something even more important than the cleanliness of the interior: you want to make sure that your vehicle maintenance is up to date. Think about it – heavy traffic on the way out of Wilmington. There's hilly terrain as you get to the lake. Some dirt roads – and it's going to be pretty hot in Delaware this weekend. And all the time you'll be towing around a lot of extra weight. That all adds up a lot of severe strain on your engine, brakes and transmission. Let's just consider the transmission. It's going to be working overtime, spending more time in lower gears. The internal transmission temperature is going to be much higher than normal. A fun little blast to the l ... read more

Hello, welcome to PONTE'S AUTOCARE. Today's focus is batteries. It seems like everything in Wilmington runs on batteries. Of course, the batteries we're most concerned with here at PONTE'S AUTOCARE are those in our customer's vehicles. Just like the batteries in our smoke detectors or TV remote, they wear out and need to be replaced . This can be thought of as the power output used to start a cold vehicle engine. The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on your vehicle and where you live in Delaware, specifically how cold it is. (Many Wilmington drivers have first-hand experience trying to start their car on a cold winter morning.) The two factors are that the colder your vehicle's engine is, the more power it takes to turn the engine over to get it started. It has all that cold, sluggish oil to contend with.The other factor is that the chemical reaction in the battery that creates electrical energy is less efficient when the temperature dips. Let ... read more

  Hello Wilmington, let's talk about brakes. But the mechanical aspects of the brakes themselves are just one issue. There's also the power brake pump and brake fluid. And then there are the tires, which are critical to the effectiveness of the brakes.

Let's step back. A new vehicle or truck rolls off a local Wilmington showroom floor. It has brand new brakes with brand new brake pads. The brake lines and pump are filled with fresh fluid and are completely clean inside. And the tires are brand new, with full tread. It is ready to go.

Naturally, braking power is at its peak performance. Now the miles/kilometers start to add up on the vehicle. Wilmington drivers tend to focus on the brake pads. In the automotive business, the pads and shoes on drum brakes are called the friction material. That's because they provide the friction used to stop the vehicle. The pads are designed to be effective throughout their useful life – it's not until they are worn so thin as



... read more

When all of your vehicle's wheels are lined up exactly with each other, your wheels are in alignment. Hitting a road hazard or even just the normal bumps and bounces of everyday driving in Wilmington can cause your vehicle's wheels to be out of alignment.Driving for an extended time around Wilmington when your wheels are out of alignment results in uneven tire wear. This is dangerous … and expensive. Worst case scenario, you have a blowout on a crowded Delaware highway. It can also cause premature wear to your suspension system, which can be really expensive to repair. At the very least, you may have to replace your tires years too early. The ideal alignment for your vehicle was designed by its engineers. Alignment service at PONTE'S AUTOCARE starts with an inspection of the steering and suspension – to see if anything's bent or broken. Then your friendly and knowledgeable PONTE'S AUTOCARE technician will look at tire condition.From there ... read more

Today's PONTE'S AUTOCARE post focuses on using coolant. If you pour in the wrong kind, it won't protect the cooling system and may even void the warranty. Check your vehicle owner's manual. Of course, your PONTE'S AUTOCARE service advisor will know the proper coolant for your vehicle.Brake fluid is confusing for some Wilmington drivers. Back when we opened PONTE'S AUTOCARE, most vehicles used Dot 3 brake fluid. Now we have Dot 4 and Dot 5. Some Wilmington residents mistakenly think the higher numbers are an upgrade. You know, if 3 is good then 4 must be better. That's not how it works. They are different formulations to meet the demands of differences in brake systems. Only one of them is designed for your vehicle.Ditto for transmission fluid. For decades there were two basic types of tranny fluid used at PONTE'S AUTOCARE: friction modified or not. With the tremendous engineering advances in vehicle automatic transmissions, there have been several new types of fluids developed t ... read more

Wilmington drivers know that underinflated tires wear out more quickly. Underinflation is also a major cause of tire failure for Delaware auto owners. More flats, blow outs, skids and longer stopping distances are all results of underinflated tires.It's hard for many Wilmington drivers to tell when a radial tire is underinflated. If your owner’s manual recommends 35 pounds of pressure, your tire is considered significantly under-inflated at 26 pounds. The tire may not look low until it gets below 20 pounds.Uncle Sam to the rescue! A recent U.S. federal law required vehicle manufacturer’s to include a Tire Pressure Monitoring System - or TPMS system - in all vehicles. Many Canadian vehicles have them as well.  The system is a dashboard mounted warning light that goes off if one or more of the tires falls 25% below its pressure recommendations.Obviously, all of this doesn't come free for Wilmington car owner ... read more

Imagine you've left Wilmington and you're up in the arctic on a dog sled.Your dog team is pulling straight and true. You can cover a lot of ground quickly. Now imagine what would happen if one or two of the dogs wanted to go their own way and were pulling off to the side.That would slow you down. You would have to work harder to keep the sled going where you want it. The dogs are all working as hard as before, but you're covering less ground for the same effort.You're wasting kibble.The same is true of your vehicle when the wheels are out of alignment. That wheel that's pulling to the side is dragging down the rest of the vehicle; so you push a little harder on the gas pedal to keep up your speed. You're wasting gas.So have your wheel alignment checked at least once a year. It is important to get it checked right away if you feel the vehicle pulling to one side.Sometimes we Wilmington residents bump a curb or hit a pothole and knock our wheels out of alignment. An accident can tak ... read more

Have you ever had an experience like this in Wilmington, Delaware? You drive through the one of those automatic car washes. When you get to the end, where the dryer is blowing, your Check Engine light starts flashing!You fear the worst, but within a block or two, the light stops flashing, but stays on. By the next day, the light is off.You wonder; "What was going on?" Well, it's actually a good lesson in how the Check Engine light works.Your air intake system has a sensor that measures how much air is coming through it. When you went under the high-speed dryer, all that air was blasting past the sensor. Your engine computer was saying, there shouldn't be that much air when the engine is just idling. Something's wrong. Whatever's wrong could cause some serious engine damage.Warning, warning! It flashes the Check Engine light to alert you to take immediate action.It stopped flashing because once you were out from under the dryer, the airflow returned to normal. Now ... read more