High gas prices have hit most of our budgets in the Louisville area. If increased fuel costs are consuming a bigger portion of your budget, you may be tempted to skimp in some other areas – like scheduled maintenance at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville.

According to news reports and industry studies, you’re not alone. Nine out of ten personal vehicles on the road have at least one maintenance or repair item that hasn’t been done. Some of these items are serious safety concerns. Others are just more likely to affect the cost of operating your vehicle in Louisville.

In this area, we can take a lesson from professional vehicle owners: fleet owners and operators like trucking companies and delivery services. Because their livelihood depends on it, they have gotten scheduled maintenance down to a science. And the last thing they skimp on is regular maintenance.

Why is that? Well, for one thing they know that routine maintenance prevents expensive repairs and costly breakdowns. They also know that a well-maintained vehicle uses less fuel.  For them, even a small decrease in fuel economy may mean not being profitable.

Here are some Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center services that could potentially save you some gas in Louisville: Fuel system cleaning, transmission service, differential service, wheel alignment, oil change, tune-up.

Ring any bells? Is there at least one thing on the list that hasn’t been done for your truck?

Let’s suppose you chose to spend one hundred and fifty dollars and get caught up on some of these services and that they combine to improve your fuel economy by fifteen percent. What would that mean to your pocketbook?

Well, the average personal vehicle is driven about twelve thousand miles a year. If you get twenty miles per gallon in your truck, over the course of one year you would pay for the hundred and fifty dollars’ worth of service and save an additional hundred and sixty five dollars if gas is at three dollars and fifty cents. If gas is four fifty, you would save two hundred and fifty-five dollars. And you’d rack up savings of three hundred and forty five dollars with gas at five and a half bucks.

Gas Price   $3.50   $4.50   $5.50

20 MPG        165      265       345

From this you can see that the more fuel costs, the more it pays to take care of your truck. Some of us drive trucks for work or recreation – or want a large SUV for family needs. A fifteen percent improvement in fuel economy can generate huge savings – six hundred and sixty dollars a year if gas is four fifty a gallon. Take a look at this table to see where your savings could lie.

Gas Price   $3.50   $4.50    $5.50

10 MPG       480       660        840
20 MPG       165       255        345
30 MPG         60       120        180

So catch up on those services you’ve been neglecting. Talk with your Honest Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center advisor about your truck’s needs. Get a couple done now and a couple next time. Chances are you’ll save a lot of money on fuel this year – and a lot more on repairs in years to come.

Give Phillip Kavanaugh a call at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville.

Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center
502.459.7302
1376 Belmar Dr
Louisville, KY 40213

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

Most Louisville drivers know that braking means slowing or stopping a vehicle. The mechanical aspects of the brakes themselves are just one issue. There’s also the power brake system and brake fluid. And then there are the tires, which are critical to the effectiveness of the brakes.

Let’s step back. A car or truck rolls brand new off the showroom floor at a local Louisville dealer. It has brand new brakes with brand new brake pads. The brake lines and the power assist are filled with fresh fluid and are completely clean inside. And the truck tires are brand new, with full tread. Naturally, braking power is at its peak performance.
 
Now, as your drive from Louisville to Louisville and back, the miles start to add up. Most Louisville car owners tend to focus on the brake pads. In the Louisville automotive service community, the pads, and shoes on drum brakes, are called the friction material. That’s because they provide the friction used to stop the truck. The pads are designed to be effective throughout their useful life – it’s not until they are worn so thin as to be out of spec that they lose stopping effectiveness.

The mechanical parts of the brakes have pistons and springs that get quite a workout while stopping the truck. Over many miles, these wear and get gummed up. They start to lose effectiveness gradually and could even fail. That’s why a regular brake inspection is important. At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center, we can test the operation of the brakes and see if any parts need cleaning or replacing.

That leads us to brake fluid service at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center. Some of the critical additives in the fluid that lubricate and clean the truck fluid system are depleted over time. That and moisture building up in the system deteriorate the performance of the brake fluid. Brake fluid replacement at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center includes flushing the brake system to clean out deposits, water and dirt. Then the system is filled up with fresh fluid.

The tires are what connect the truck to the road. The stopping force is ultimately dependent on the traction provided by the tires. The better they grip the road, the quicker you’ll stop as you drive around Louisville.

For questions about brakes, brake pads, air conditioning service, alternators, or tires, talk to Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center  manager Phillip Kavanaugh.

Give us a call

Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center
502.459.7302
1376 Belmar Dr
Louisville, KY 40213

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

Car batteries wear out just like any other battery and need to be replaced. There are a couple of things Louisville truck owners should know when looking for a new car battery: one is cold cranking amps and the other is reserve capacity.

Let’s start with cold cranking amps. This can be thought of as the power output used to start a cold truck engine. The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on your vehicle and where you live around Louisville, specifically how cold it is where you live. The two factors are that the colder an engine is, the more power it takes to turn the truck 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 in the cold.

So the colder it gets in Louisville, more power is needed, but the available power drops.

If you live where it’s cold, you need a battery with more cold cranking amps than you do where it’s moderate or hot. You should always get at least as many cold cranking amps as the manufacturer recommends, but may want to upgrade at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center if you live where it gets real cold.

An important note: Batteries may also list the Cranking Amps – CA – number. It is the Cold Cranking Amps – or CCA – that is the important number here. CCA is the number to use in your comparisons.

Now with all this talk of cold temperatures in Louisville, it’s important to note that heat is the real enemy of long battery life. In other words, the damage that’s done over the hot summer months in Louisville shows up with the increased demands on the truck battery when the weather turns cold.

Now on to reserve capacity: It’s a measurement of the number of minutes of reserve power the battery has at a given load. The number is more important these days because of parasitic drain. Parasitic drain is the battery energy that’s used when the key is off. So the power drawn by the truck security system, the remote start system, even the power the truck computers require to maintain their memory.

Reserves are also needed when you make very short trips around Louisville. You’re not driving long enough for the battery to recover the energy it used to start the truck engine.

So go with the minimum recommended by your manufacturer and upgrade if you need more. Talk with your Honest Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center service advisor about options. If you need more from your battery, a larger capacity battery may be called for.

Batteries are a big ticket item for most Louisville motorists, so the warranty gives peace of mind. Be sure to ask about the car battery warranty at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center so you know what you’re getting. At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center, we have been providing quality auto service in Louisville for 37 years.

Give us a call

Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center
1376 Belmar Dr
Louisville, KY 40213

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

When all of a vehicle’s wheels are lined up exactly with each other, your wheels are in alignment. Hitting a road hazard in Louisville or even just the normal bumps and bounces of everyday KY driving can cause your truck wheels to be out of alignment. This can lead to expensive premature tire and suspension wear.

Here are some alignment basics from Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center:
The first angle is called toe: do the wheels point in towards each other or away from each other at the front of the tire.
The next angle is called camber: do the wheels tip in or out at the top.
And finally, there is castor. Castor measures the angle where the front axles attach to the vehicle.

The ideal alignment for your truck was designed by its engineers. Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center alignment service starts with an inspection of the steering and suspension – so see if anything’s bent, broken or worn out. Then the Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center technician will look at tire condition. From there, the truck is put on an alignment rack and an initial alignment reading is taken. The wheels are then aligned to manufacturer’s specifications.

Your owner’s manual probably has a recommendation for how often your truck alignment should be checked – usually every couple of years. If you suspect an alignment problem with your truck, get it checked at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center before you suffer expensive tire or suspension damage.

Give us a call

Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center
502.459.7302
1376 Belmar Dr
Louisville, KY 40213

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

Your truck cooling system’s job is to keep your engine cool. Coolant (also called antifreeze) mixed with water flows through your engine and absorbs heat. The mixture then flows out to the radiator where it’s cooled by air flowing over the radiator. From there the cooled mix circulates back through the truck engine to absorb more heat.

Coolant, or antifreeze, is specially formulated to keep your engine safe in a wide range of environmental and operating temperatures in Louisville.

Without coolant, the truck’s metal engine parts would expand so much that the engine would seize up and stop running.  Expensive parts could be broken or warp so badly they would have to be replaced at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville. It could even be so bad that the whole engine is ruined and has to be replaced.

Also, if it’s freezing outside in Louisville, the water in your engine could freeze while your vehicle is sitting out in the KY cold. This is why you check coolant levels frequently and have your cooling system inspected for leaks. Also your manufacturer has a maintenance requirement for draining and replacing your coolant. These recommendations can vary widely, so check your Louisville owner’s manual or ask your service advisor at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville.

The reason you need to change the coolant is that it has additives in it to protect the cooling system. As you can imagine, with all the heat, the cooling system’s a pretty harsh environment. The additives keep the fluid from becoming corrosive and damaging the radiator and other Louisville cooling system components. Over time, the additives are depleted and the coolant just has to be replaced. A simple pH test can measure the coolant’s acidity.

You may have noticed that there are different colors of antifreeze at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center: it is very important that you use the correct type.  The different coolant types are different colors so you don’t mix them up.  Manufacturers use different materials to make the cooling system, and they require different types of antifreeze to protect them.

So check with your Honest Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center service advisor or owner’s manual for the right kind because using the wrong coolant can void the warranty for your truck cooling system.

Ask us about fuel system cleaning, alternators and collision repair.

Give us a call

Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center
502.459.7302
1376 Belmar Dr
Louisville, KY 40213

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

There are plenty of people in Louisville whose vehicles are running after 150,000 or 200,000 miles. We can learn from what they’re doing to keep our own cars on the road.

A common denominator is that they never skip an oil change. That may sound a bit unsophisticated, but it’s really not. First off, oil is the life blood of your engine and it needs to be clean to properly lubricate. Skipping oil changes leads to clogged oil filters and sludge that can damage your engine. Enough said.

There’s another reason why the scheduled oil change is so important. It’s simple – a Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center professional is going to be looking at your car. All of your fluid levels will be inspected and topped off so they won’t get so low that damage can be done. If there is a significant fluid loss, let’s use brake fluid as an example, your Louisville technician can look for the cause of the loss and find the problem before it leads to an accident or costly repair.

Your Louisville service technician will also visually inspect the vehicle for worn belts and hoses, uneven tire wear, leaking shock absorbers and more. Problems get addressed before they lead to repairs that cost more than the car’s worth. And your Louisville service advisor will be able to remind you of other services that the factory recommends you get done.

Just think of that oil change the same way as you do about going to the dentist for your six month cleaning and checkup. Don’t skip it.

Of course, good maintenance costs money, but it’s far cheaper than new car payments.

Give us a call to schedule your next oil change today. You can find us online at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center, or you can find us in Louisville, KY 40213 at 1376 Belmar Dr. Or simply give us a call at 502.459.7302.

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

First, the serpentine belt drives your air conditioning system. Next, the belt powers the alternator.

The serpentine belt may also run the pumps for both the power steering and power brakes. In some trucks, power steering may have an electric drive and power brakes can be vacuum driven.

And, on many vehicles, the serpentine belt powers the water pump (on some cars, the water pump is powered by the timing belt).

Your Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center service technician can perform a visual inspection of the belt to see if it has any cracks that signal the belt could fail soon and will measure the amount of belt material to make sure there is enough.

Louisville drivers should be aware that there’s a special, spring loaded pulley attached to the engine called the tensioner pulley and sometimes an extra pulley call the idler pulley. Their job is to make sure there’s a constant tension on the serpentine belt so that it doesn’t slip. The spring can become worn and no longer provide the necessary pressure to keep the belt tight. That’s why it’s often recommended that the tensioner, and the idler pulley if so equipped, be replaced at the same time as the serpentine belt.

All in all, the serpentine belt’s an important part for the function of your truck. And it’s not that expensive to replace at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center – so it’s good to do so before it fails.

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

Let’s focus on stopping in wet Louisville conditions. In order for a tire to have good contact with the road, it has to move the water out of the way. If it can’t move the water, the tire will actually ride on top of a thin film of water.

That’s called hydroplaning. At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center we want our customers to know that if it’s really bad, you can actually spin out of control. At best, you won’t stop as fast.

So how does a tire move water? It has channels for water to flow through. Look at a tire and you’ll see channels: channels that run around the tire and channels that flow across the tire. They’re designed to direct water away from the tire so it can contact the road better.

And the deeper the channel, the more water it can move. A brand new tire has very deep channels and can easily move a lot of water. As the tire wears down, the channels become shallower and can move less water. When it wears down enough, it can seriously affect your ability to stop on wet Louisville roads.

So that’s why it’s so important for Louisville drivers to replace the tires on their trucks when they get worn. Consumer Reports and other advocate groups call for a standard of 3/32 of an inch and they have the studies to prove it.

By comparison, you’ve probably seen the wear indicator that’s molded into tires. When tires are worn 3/32 of an inch, the tread wear bar is visible. So the recommended standard has twice the tread depth as a completely worn out tire.

And that little bit of additional tread makes a big difference. Stopping distances are cut dramatically on wet roads. A safe stop from KY freeway speeds with 4/32 of an inch of tread would result in a crash with worn out tires.

There’s an easy way to tell when a tire’s worn to 4/32 of an inch. Just insert a quarter into the tread. Put it in upside down. If the tread doesn’t cover George Washington’s hairline, it’s time to replace your tires. With a Canadian quarter, the tread should cover the numbers in the year stamp.

You’ve probably heard of this technique using a penny and Abe Lincoln’s head. That measure gives you 2/32 of an inch – half the suggested amount.

Of course, tires are a big ticket item for Louisville car owners. Most of us want to get as many miles out of them as we can. But there’s a real safety trade-off. It’s your choice.

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

Too often, Louisville police and rescue workers must sift through pockets, glove compartments, wallets, purses and cell phone directories for clues – often wasting precious time.

A brilliantly simple solution is now spreading around the globe: ICE. ICE – standing for ‘In Case of Emergency’, is a way of identifying emergency contacts in your cell phone directory.

Simply put ‘ICE’ before a contact name, like ‘ICE – Dad’, ‘ICE – Nancy’, or ‘ICE – Doctor Roberts’. Rescuers will be able to quickly identify your emergency contacts, saving valuable time.

It’s easy and just takes a few minutes to designate some ICE contacts in your cell phone. Remember to keep the listings current.

From your friends at Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY, we’d like you to be as safe as possible while out on the road. Give us a call any time for great automotive advice.

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

The average American commuter spends two and a half hours daily in their car.

The government says a hundred thousand auto accidents yearly are caused by drivers who fall asleep at the wheel. Aggressive driving is the number-one traffic safety concern.

So what does this have to do with how your KY car smells?

Well, which scent did you think makes drivers more alert?

Is it:

A. Strawberry
B. New Car
C. Pine
D. Warm Vanilla Breeze

It’s C. Drivers in Louisville are more alert and have less fatigue with pine scent in the car, according to AroMetrics.

And, KY drivers were less angry with overall improved driving performance with strawberry and pine scents.

And you thought they just smelled nice.

At Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center in Louisville KY (40213) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 502.459.7302. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.