If you’ve owned a vehicle long, particularly one with a few miles on it, you have probably encountered a peculiar smell that grabbed your attention. Scents that you encounter while driving (emanating from your vehicle, not the horse farm down the road) are indicators of your vehicle's health and often the first warning that something may be wrong. Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa has assembled this list to prepare for you for the next time you smell something odd, so you’ll know what’s going on next time you notice a funny smell.

Your fleet or commercial vehicles are heavy duty machines that see a lot of wear and tear. When your engine mounts begin to fail, sometimes it feels like the whole vehicle is falling apart. Get your vehicle back into shape with the professional technicians at Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, CA.

Your brakes have a lot to do with how your car drives. Brakes are a frequently neglected item on a lot of people’s checklist, and many drivers on the road have subpar brakes and don’t even know it. A car that brakes well and brakes correctly are just as important as acceleration, handling, or any other aspect of a vehicle’s drivability. A car with brake issues has the potential to be a far more enjoyable ride when fixed.

Obviously, your brakes are essential. However, it’s easy to neglect or ignore brake issues, and even miss them altogether; as long as the car, truck, or SUV still stops, many people don’t see the need to have their brakes serviced. From Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, here are some common brake issues, and why you should fix them.

If you drive a performance or luxury vehicle made by manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, Subaru, Land Rover, Porsche, etc., you’re probably no stranger to state of the art electronics, sensors, and control systems. At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair, our technicians have the right knowledge, ability, and equipment necessary to keep your car or SUV in top-notch condition.

At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, CA, we enjoy providing you with useful knowledge that pertains to the ownership and maintenance of your car, truck, or SUV. You may have noticed more and more electric cars hitting our roadways over the past few years. With that in mind, here’s a brief, but interesting look at the history of electric cars.

Exhaust issues are extremely common, no matter what type of car, truck, or SUV you drive. At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, CA, we can get your exhaust back in shape in no time.

Exhaust issues tend to be neglected, and we get that; there are just other parts of your vehicle that you'd rather focus on. Besides a clogged catalytic converter, there isn’t much risk of damage from a bad exhaust system - it negatively affects your gas mileage, and the sound is annoying, but other than that, it’s an issue many people learn to live with. 

The exhaust on your truck is an important series of components, that work together to insure smooth, reliable operation. At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, CA, we also know that exhaust systems are especially susceptible to damage and rust; pipes, mufflers, and other parts are exposed to hazards on the road, and to the environment. This situation, combined with caustic emissions and extreme heat, create a perfect opportunity for problems to arise.

At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, we know how irritating an issue with your car, truck, or SUV can be, even if it doesn’t immediately affect your vehicle’s performance. One such problematic issue, the excessively loud radiator cooling fan, is a common plague many automobile owners will experience.

There are many parts and systems outside of the car’s transmission that is equally as important as the parts and systems inside the transmission. Without them, the transmission won’t do much. There’s no way to transfer power from the engine to the shafts, disengage it to shift the gears, or power the differential without them. Just in case you need us, at Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, CA, we can help keep your transmission in top shape, but here’s what you need to know.

Your transmission suddenly isn’t shifting right. So what’s wrong with it? Do you need your transmission rebuilt? To find out what’s causing your transmission problem, one of our technicians here at Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair is going to have to perform a series of tests. Basically, these tests are designed to answer the simple question: “Is it inside or outside?” That is, is the problem inside the transmission, or in one of the many control systems that operate the transmission?

Who created the world’s first car is actually a matter of debate; since the invention of the engine, people had been installing them on horse carriages to make them self-propelled. Even when automobiles specifically designed for engines came around, they were hardly recognizable as a car by today’s standards. However, the first patented automobile, a vehicle specifically designed to be propelled by an engine, was built by Karl Benz and completed in 1885.

At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, we know that some of the most elusive issues with any car, truck, or SUV are often caused by the simplest of malfunctions. While you might consider a gas cap fairly innocuous, it can actually malfunction too, prompting a check engine light on your dashboard.

Good gas mileage is something we all want. In fact, many drivers purchase certain cars solely for gas mileage, and almost all of us at least take it into consideration when purchasing a vehicle. While it is true that gas mileage is by and large determined simply by the type of car, there are actually a variety of things you can do to increase the gas mileage of any automobile. The tips Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa want to provide you here are simple and effective steps you can take to increase your gas mileage, often more considerably than you think.

What condition are your tires in? At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, CA, we want to make sure you can tell. A simple visual inspection is all you need - it’s easy if you know what to look for.

Tires are what keeps your vehicle rolling, literally. Many people have found that shopping for tires is overwhelming because there are just so many choices. At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair, we want to break it down for you so that it's easier to understand. There are four main categories of tires, and the right ones for you will depend on the kind of driving you do. Let's talk more about that! 

If your car, truck or SUV is experiencing engine issues and you are concerned about having to purchase a new vehicle, our technicians at Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa have an answer that will save you money and help you maintain the value of your vehicle. Today's vehicles cost more than they ever did and you typically have a loan for a much longer time period - yet the warranty it seems stays relatively short!

Here, we believe in treating your vehicle as if it were ours and if your engine is not reliable we can replace it with a JASPER replacement engine with a nationwide parts and labor warranty! It is what we would do with our car, truck or SUV instead of trading it for a higher payment or a vehicle we didn't like as much as what we had!

Automotive windows are one of those things that you take for granted, until something goes wrong. One of the more irritating issues a window can develop, is dislocating from its track while attempting to roll it up or down. Why does this happen, and how do you fix it? At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, CA, we’ve got answers to your questions and solutions to your problems.

When you are having trouble with your car or truck starting and you open the hood up to take a peek to see this....you'll see what an overly corroded battery looks like. This happens naturally over time on vehicle battery terminals.  If you are like 99% of normal Santa Rosa drivers, you don't check your oil or your battery so you don't keep an eye on the amount of corrosion that's building up on your car or truck battery.  Here at Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair, we do and there are solvents that we can use here in the shop during a battery maintenance service that will help slow the corrosion process but nothing that can prevent it 100%. Way before it gets to this point, we will be suggesting you consider replacing the battery. 

At Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair in Santa Rosa, CA, we know that transmissions are witchcraft to most people. More often than not, if major damage has occurred, it’s a lot more time and cost-effective to just replace the entire unit and get a fresh start. Our trained technicians at Wayne & Sons Automotive Repair want to keep you informed so you are aware of what to look out for.