Automotive News & Information - South Mountain Collision & Auto Center

Our fleet truck customers do not need to spend valuable time in the shop with transmission issues due that could have been avoided by servicing their fleet vehicles based on their owner's manual recommendations! Especially if it is simply changing a clogged filter, changing fluids or clutch issues! Our transmission technicians here at South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown believe that service = saving high repair bills! Therefore, we believe in a proactive approach!

hand on the manual gearbox of a stick shift

Manual transmissions aren’t necessarily simple, but they’re much easier to understand in concept than their automatic counterparts. You’re probably aware there are gears in manual transmissions - but there’s a little more to it than that. Here are some of the major components you’ll find in a manual transmission.

Just because manual transmissions aren’t as common these days as they used to be, there are still many out there, and at South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD, our certified technicians know how to keep them running at their best.

Transmission Cut to show you the inside of it

Nothing works if your transmission doesn't work! Simply put you are going nowhere without it and it is the one thing that both car and truck drivers alike never think twice about until it really acts up or they have no power or simply don't move forward. Most of us have a newer car or truck with an automatic transmission in it vs. a standard transmission so do not notice that it is slipping gears until the problem is really serious so the question is how do you get the most out of your transmission? The obvious answer is to take care of your transmission with scheduled service per your owner's manual recommendation but we have put together a simple checklist for our Middletown drivers to help them become "transmission aware" as it were.

There is a reason we check your brake fluid when you come in for a service check. Maintenance pays big dividends and we want to avoid high repair costs for our Middletown drivers. Did you know that brake service isn't just all about the brake pads, drums & rotors? That we have found low brake fluid to be the cause of a large percentage of brake issues here at South Mountain Collision & Auto Center? Seriously, brake fluid is an important part of your braking system and with your service intervals being less frequent on the newer vehicles 5,000-10,000 more miles this has become an issue! Why?...

Here at South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown we often do diagnostics and sometimes the problem is obvious after hooking the car up to the computer and reading the codes. However, sometimes it isn't obvious during a test drive or after hooking it up to all those computer programs! You know there is a problem and a Check Engine Light is on with the fleet customer telling you the car has been having issues starting and the light has been going off and on depending on several factors. No pattern, no simple answer but the problem becomes obvious when you start following the "threads of the issue" thanks to all that ASE Technician training.

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 Middletown 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 South Mountain Collision & Auto Center, 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.

Repairs are costly and we all want to avoid them including our team here at South Mountain Collision & Auto Center! It's our job and we take it seriously. Here, it is all about keeping your car or truck serviced and looking for problems "before" they happen to avoid those high repair costs and ensuring you avoid any breakdowns when it's hot outside or cold outside as either is a problem for our Middletown drivers! Nobody can forsee a flat tire or blowout due to running over a nail, but we can avoid some of the regular issues we see all the time such as....