Automotive News & Information - CME Smog & Auto Repair

man standing by diesel truck with tools in hand

Currently, the future of electric vehicles looks promising - though it won’t likely replace your Duramax, Powerstroke, or Cummins engine any time soon. Still, we don’t know what the immediate future holds. This battle was waged once before in the past, with combustion engines taking the throne over electric power. Here’s a brief history of electric automobiles, from CME Smog & Auto Repair in Vacaville, CA.

mechanic placing a car battery into a vehicle

Your car’s radio and headlights, plus a slew of other important functions, are powered by an electrical current generated by your vehicle’s engine. A vital part of generating electricity is having a place to store it while it’s not being used. This is where your car battery comes into play. The battery of your vehicle holds electrical energy while the car is off in order to help the engine turn over and create a spark to start internal combustion. Without a working battery, your car will not be able to start. If you allow our team here at CME Smog & Auto Repair to perform proper maintenance, an average car battery can start your car reliably for roughly four years.

For all the new drivers on the road, young and old, CME Smog & Auto Repair in Vacaville, CA would like to welcome you to the automotive community. Here are a few wise words to live by, to make your entrance into the driving world go as smoothly as possible.

At CME Smog & Auto Repair in Vacaville, CA, we know that the life of a transmission is solely dependent on the quality of repair and maintenance it receives.

If you’re ever in a situation where you must remove the battery from your vehicle, it’s important to know what you’re doing. It seems pretty straight forward, and it is. However, there are some important things to remember when disconnecting the battery in your car, truck, or SUV. Here are some tips on disconnecting a car battery, from CME Smog & Auto Repair in Vacaville, CA.

Your vehicle configuration determines how it should be properly towed to avoid transmission damage. Specifically, it matters if your vehicle is front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive and whether it’s an automatic or a manual. From the professionals at CME Smog & Auto Repair in Vacaville, CA, here’s how to tow your vehicle:

Man working under the hood of his vehicle

If you want to avoid nasty and unexpected surprise maintenance costs, sticking to a regimented schedule of preventative maintenance is something you are going to want to get used to. The reason being is simple – frequent maintenance will keep your vehicle in good health, ensuring you get the most out of all those expensive-to-replace parts. While it might sound counterintuitive, the best way to reduce maintenance costs is to stick to a prescribed maintenance schedule.

Checking the fluid level on your transmission is fairly easy, but a bit more complicated than checking your oil. Firstly, this only applies to automatic transmissions, and secondly, some modern vehicles don’t have dipsticks or dipstick tubes to check and add transmission fluid. With that in mind, here are some tips from CME Smog & Auto Repair in Vacaville, CA in regard to checking your transmission fluid.