Allen Auto Repair

At Craig's Car Care Inc we've had a lot of LUCAS customers asking how they can make their vehicles last longer. These questions are actually a reflection of a trend that's been building for several years in TX. The median age of personal vehicles is now over nine years. And 33 percent of all vehicles on the road have over 75,000 miles (120,000 km) on them. It looks like it's going to keep heading in that direction for a while. With high fuel prices, a lot of TX folks are putting off buying a new car. So let's say you're one of the average in the LUCAS area; you've got a nine-year-old car with 80,000 miles (130,000 km) on the odometer. What can you do to make it last another year or two?Let's start with the premise that there's no reason that a modern car can't run for 200,000 miles (320,000 km) with proper care in LUCAS. The engineering and manufacturing quality is there.Of course, some parts will wear out along the way, but there's no reason for a catastroph ... read more

One might say the most challenging part of being an automotive service technician at Craig's Car Care Inc is diagnosing a problem before it can be fixed.Cars are made up of a bunch of complex systems. There usually could be a number of reasons for any given symptom. So, it's challenging to track down the actual cause of the problem. And it can be frustrating for the vehicle owner because it can take time and money to get to the bottom of a problem. If it's not something obvious, it's easy for the customer to focus on the fixing and not the diagnosing.Let us at Craig's Car Care Inc introduce you to something we'll call 'Customer Detective Work' –  helping your technician find clues to what's wrong.We start with the detective basics: What, Where and When. Play along with me; You come in to Craig's Car Care Inc and your car is making a funny sound... Q: Where's the sound? A: Around the right front wheel. Q: What kind of sound? A: Kind of a clunk, clunk sou ... read more

Here at AutoNetTV, we have national viewers, like your neighbors in LUCAS, 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 Craig's Car Care Inc service advisor that your differential needs serviced, or it's seen it as an option up on the service menu. Differential service at Craig's Car Care Inc 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 corners, or lose traction in dirt or snow on LUCAS ar ... read more

Let's talk about something critical for all LUCAS drivers: your brakes. Your vehicle is heavy, and it takes a lot of muscle to bring it and your passengers to a safe stop – so everything needs to be in good working order. Here's an explanation on how your disc brakes work: The wheel hub keeps your wheel attached to your vehicle. The brake disc – or rotor – is attached to the hub and rotates with the wheel as you drive around LUCAS. Your brake pads clamp onto the rotor to slow the wheel.The brake caliper straddles the rotor and squeezes the rotor to slow it down. The calipers contain brake pads which press on the rotor when you put your foot on the brake. The brake piston causes the calipers to squeeze and release as you use your vehicle brakes.Your brake pads start to wear the first time you step on the brakes. Eventually the pads ... read more