Automotive News & Information - South Mountain Collision & Auto Center

For obvious reasons, air brakes are an essential part of your rig. They also add a level of complication to the braking system that a conventional vehicle doesn’t have. At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, our mechanics have the knowledge, equipment, and ability necessary to keep your air brakes in top shape.

Exhaust pipes, catalytic converters, and mufflers are exposed to heat, emissions, and road damage. While your exhaust system is fairly simple and straightforward, these conditions mean it is inherently prone to rust and damage. As a result, this system is often one of the first systems you will have trouble with inside your car. The exhaust system is complex and completely necessary for your vehicle to run efficiently.

Mechanic taking apart of an engine out from under the hood

An engine can last anywhere from 50 to 500,000 miles depending mostly on how well you maintain it. While some engines are certainly more reliable than others, all of them depend on maintenance to fulfill their greatest potential. South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD has provided for you some of the determining factors of engine lifespan, to help you make sure your engine lasts as long as it possibly can.

Does your fleet have vehicles equipped with four-wheel or all-wheel drive? More and more, companies are moving towards vehicles equipped with one or the other - they’re safer and more useful, particularly in inclement weather or less than ideal conditions. If your fleet is powered by all four wheels, South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD has you covered.

Your vehicle's engine needs clean air to burn the fuel – and it needs a lot of clean air. In fact, a typical vehicle needs about 216,000 gallons of air for every tank of gas. All that air passes through a filter that catches the dust and dirt. Eventually, the filter gets completely full, and because the filter can only hold so much, dirt starts getting through. At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, we ensure you get the best air quality in your vehicle and explain the process of where this dirty air is going to our area drivers.

At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD, we service all types of transmissions, on any car, truck, or SUV. This includes both All-Wheel Drive and Four-Wheel Drive vehicles, but you may be wondering...what’s the difference? Both types of vehicle supply power to all four wheels, so why use two different terms? Due to the increasing demand for AWD and 4WD vehicles over the last decade, equipped on everything from sports cars to pickup trucks, more and more people are asking these same questions.

At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, we see a lot of dirty filters. Oil filters typically get replaced with each oil change, but air, fuel, and cabin filters last a long time. As such, they are often neglected until well after they’ve run their course. Here’s why you should care:

Trucks aren’t like cars...your average personal vehicle usually holds about 5 quarts of oil, and you are supposed to change it every 3-5k miles. However, the same logic doesn’t apply to large trucks. At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD, we know how important proper oil changes and diagnostics are to keep your truck on the road, for hundreds of thousands of miles. Here’s what you need to know: