Daytona Beach Auto Repair

A vehicle’s suspension system is tough. It can last for years and tens of thousands of miles for Daytona Beach car owners. But it can be damaged quickly by hitting a pothole, curb or rock, and it can wear more quickly if you frequently drive off-road or on bumpy roads. A workhorse vehicle — one that hauls heavy loads — is also going to be hard on its suspension system. Because the useful life of your suspension system contains these elements of unpredictability, it is important for Daytona Beach auto owners to have them inspected periodically. Worn, broken and missing parts can be identified during an inspection. An ineffective suspension system will reduce the driver’s control over a vehicle, so when it is damaged it frequently leads to the worst kind of vehicular damage — dangerous and costly accidents. The suspension system is composed of springs and shock absorbers (or shocks). Springs suspend the weight of the vehicle above its axles. They allow the ... read more

Everyone in Daytona Beach, FL knows we are advised to go to our Daytona Beach dentist twice a year.  Oral-conscious Daytona Beach residents have a teeth-cleaning and examination. Once a year, we get x-rays to look for problems that can’t be seen with the naked eye. When our dentist is done, he/she tells us what was found – “Everything’s fine, see you in six months.” Or “You’ve got a small cavity starting, let’s schedule an appointment to take care of it.” By the time you leave, you have a plan for addressing any necessary issues. This system works so much better than waiting for a painful problem before going into the dentist. Small problems are fixed before they turn into big costly problems. And you avoid those huge bills. If Daytona Beach folks understand the wisdom of using this system for handling dental care, why do many resist when facing the same system for our essential car maintenance? Following th ... read more

Everyone in Daytona Beach, FL knows we are advised to go to our Daytona Beach dentist twice a year.  Oral-conscious Daytona Beach residents have a teeth-cleaning and examination. Once a year, we get x-rays to look for problems that can’t be seen with the naked eye. When our dentist is done, he/she tells us what was found – “Everything’s fine, see you in six months.” Or “You’ve got a small cavity starting, let’s schedule an appointment to take care of it.” By the time you leave, you have a plan for addressing any necessary issues. This system works so much better than waiting for a painful problem before going into the dentist. Small problems are fixed before they turn into big costly problems. And you avoid those huge bills. If Daytona Beach folks understand the wisdom of using this system for handling dental care, why do many resist when facing the same system for our essential car maintenance? Hone ... read more

Here’s an interesting statistic for our drivers in Daytona Beach, FL: Only thirty percent of car batteries make it to forty-eight months. And the life expectancy varies by where you live. It ranges from fifty-one months in extremely cold areas to just thirty months in extremely hot climates. Why is that? It turns out that it’s our modern cars with all their electric accessories that are to blame. Things like, GPS, DVDs, and entertainment computers are keeping pickup batteries from maintaining a full charge. The longer a battery goes with a low charge, the sooner it’ll die. It’s clear that you Daytona Beach drivers need to recharge your batteries. This is the job of the alternator. The problem comes when the car’s demand for electricity is high and we are driving in stop and go conditions or short trips around Daytona Beach or De Leon Springs. The alternator just can’t keep up. The result is shortened battery life. So wh ... read more

Today’s vehicles are safer than they’ve ever been. Design and construction techniques provide tremendous protection in an accident. Your airbags are part of a very sophisticated system of sensors and computers called the Supplemental Restraint System – or SRS. These sensors are all over your vehicle, detecting things like where passengers are sitting, how much they weigh, as well as the speed and direction of an impact during a crash. All of this information is feed into the SRS computer that determines if and when an airbag or airbags should be deployed. An airbag has to be inflated very quickly in order to protect vehicle occupants. The inflation is basically the result of a controlled explosion: a violent event in itself. That’s why the SRS computer will only deploy an airbag in life threatening circumstances where an airbag will actually be of help. Deploying an airbag in the wrong circumstances could do more harm than good. Hard, direct side and front impacts ... read more

Let's talk about air conditioning service and repair issues for the Daytona Beach FL area. Most of us in Daytona Beach we don't give our air conditioning a second thought as long as it's making cold air. But it's a complex and expensive system that we should think about before it starts blowing hot air.

The refrigerant in the air conditioner contains a special oil that lubricates and cools the A/C parts. When enough refrigerant leaks out, your air conditioner still makes cold air, but the parts don't have enough oil to protect them and they wear out faster than they should so it's important to service the air conditioner as recommended by your Daytona Beach FL service center.

Replacing old refrigerant has another benefit: refrigerant tends to gather moisture and become corrosive. That causes leaks in the system which can be expensive to repair. Fresh refrigeran



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You've probably noticed a bunch of warning lights on your dash when you start your engine. They flash on to test the circuits and then go off if everything's OK. One of the warning lights looks like a car battery. Its job is to tell you if your battery's not charging properly.

You know that your battery stores electricity – enough to start your engine and get you moving. But that's about it – you can only get a few miles in Daytona Beach on battery power alone. You need an alternator to generate enough electricity to run your engine and power your electrical accessories like the stereo, power seats, heater fan, on-board computers, and so on. On top of that, the alternator needs to recharge your battery. So when your alternator isn't working properly, there isn't enough electricity for all of those things. When your alternator fails, you aren't going very far.



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Your axles are the last link in transferring power from the engine to your wheels. They're strong parts that last a long time – but they can run into trouble.

Axles just wear out over time and need to be replaced. And sometimes axle seals leak, causing the axle to wear out prematurely. Lubricant leaks out, and water and dirt can get in and contaminate the gears. When this happens you might hear strange noises coming from your axle.

If you have a rear-wheel drive vehicle, the sound would be at the rear end. If you have a front-wheel drive vehicle, the sound would be up front. Of course, with an all-wheel drive, the sound could come from either front or back. It might be a groaning sound or clunking when turning.

There are different kinds of axles, each with their own potential problems. Your Day





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Batteries are a huge part of modern life in Daytona Beach FL. I mean, how many battery chargers do you have?

Of course, our purpose here is to talk about your car battery. When people come into our Daytona Beach FL service center and need a new battery, they're really not that happy about having to spend the money. But the fact is that 70 percent of batteries don't make it for 4 years.

There are some things that you can do to extend the life of your battery. First, keep it clean. If you see it getting dirty or greasy, let us know at Honest 1 Auto Care - Daytona Beach and we can clean it off. A dirty battery runs hotter and that shortens its life. If your battery terminals are corroded, let us take a look at that too. We can clean them, and if the corrosion has gotten into the battery cables, we can replace them.





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When your check engine light comes on, you may be torn between utter panic and just wanting to ignore it and hope it goes away. That's perfectly understandable. That same check engine light could come on for anything from a serious engine or transmission problem all the way down to a loose gas cap.

There's a very common misconception that the trouble codes stored in your engine computer when your check engine light comes on will specifically identify a problem. It's really more like pointing to the symptoms of a problem. Think of taking your temperature. Say it's 101. Your heat sensor – the thermometer – tells you that your temperature is out of the normal range. But it doesn't tell you why you have a fever. Is it the flu or a sinus infection? You need more information; more tests.

For any given trouble code, there could be a num



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