Memphis Auto Repair

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 Memphis. There's hilly terrain as you get to the lake. Some dirt roads – and it's going to be pretty hot in Tennessee 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 loc ... read more

The biggest issue for Memphis area drivers is always safety. When your vehicle wheels are out of alignment, the vehicle will pull to one side, which could lead to an accident. When you're vehicle is out of alignment, you should have it taken care of right away at Allen's Automotive Center in Memphis. When undergoing an alignment service at Allen's Automotive Center, your vehicle is put on an alignment rack where the tires, steering and suspension parts are checked for damage. Then the alignment is charted and checked against the factory settings.Precision adjustments are made to bring the wheels back into alignment. This gets all four wheels going in exactly the same direction.Memphis drivers should be aware of the signs of alignment problems. These include the car pulling to one side. Also, the steering wheel may not be centered when you're going straight. If you see the edges of one or more tires ... read more

Hello, welcome to Allen's Automotive Center. Today's focus is batteries. It seems like everything in Memphis runs on batteries. Of course, the batteries we're most concerned with here at Allen's Automotive Center 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 Tennessee, specifically how cold it is. (Many Memphis 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 temperatu ... read more

Recalls are pretty serious for Memphis residents and don't happen all that often. But sometimes cars have less serious problems that Memphis residents still might want to know about. For these less serious cases, the vehicle manufacturer issues what is known as a Technical Service Bulletin – or TSB. These bulletins tell Memphis service centers (including Allen's Automotive Center) how to repair a problem that occurs frequently or is especially difficult.Your Memphis service center receives updated information through subscription plans, which are sometimes available in consumer versions too.Whatever your source, pay attention to Memphis vehicle recalls to keep you and your passengers safe. No matter how well they're made, vehicles are bound to have problems with their design or manufacturing. Think of all the moving parts. When the government thinks a problem is really serious, they require the vehicle manufacturer to issue recall notices to Memphi ... read more

Having trouble with your fuel system? Bring your vehicle into Allen's Automotive Center for a check up.In today's Allen's Automotive Center auto post,we're talking about fuel system cleaning. The first thing to know is how important it is to have a clean fuel system. Memphis residents need fuel to go, and the cleaner the fuel system, the more efficiently the fuel will burn. That means more power and better mileage .A clean fuel system saves money for Memphis drivers at Tennessee gas stations. We guess you could say it all starts and ends at the pump. One of the most important things Memphis residents can do to keep their vehicle fuel system clean is to buy good quality gas. Major brands have detergents that keep gum and varnish from rapidly building up in the fuel system.So buying cheaper gas in Tennessee can actually be more expensive for Memphis drivers in the long run. Now, most cars on Tennessee roads are more than five or six years old. That means they've had ... read more

Myths passed around our Memphis, Tennessee community start with a grain of evidence and are then built up with a lot of imagination and very elastic logic. And the internet is a breeding ground for automotive myths. Some bloggers recall the vehicles of yesteryear and declare their modern decedents to be virtually maintenance free and that anyone who says otherwise is out to rip you off. To get the truth about auto myths you hear around the Memphis area, come over to Allen's Automotive Center. Let's examine a couple of the more popular rants and look at the truth behind them.The first one is that the chassis no longer needs lubrication for suspension, steering and the driveline. They declare that anyone who has charged you for lubrication is a charlatan.The truth on which this myth is based is that many new vehicles come from the factory with sealed joints and cannot be greased. However, there are still some grease ... read more