Wilmot Auto Repair

No, ERG isn’t the sound a pirate makes.  It’s a part in your vehicle that recirculates exhaust gas to reduce certain gases and pollutants in the atmosphere.  In fact, ERG stands for “Exhaust Gas Recirculation.” One gas our vehicles may make when they burn fuel is nitric oxide, which can play a big role in creating smog and acid rain.  It’s better for our planet if our vehicles aren’t spewing that into the air.   One inventive way of reducing it is by taking the exhaust and channeling it back to the vehicle’s air intake system. When it travels through the engine again, its composition is changed, and it comes out cleaner.  It also helps the engine be more efficient. The EGR valve can fail after a while, and some signs you may notice are the engine is miss firing, it may suddenly lose power or your Check Engine light may come on.  You may also see your fuel economy decrease or hear your engine knock. A bad EGR valve ... read more

Here's a part of your vehicle you probably don't think about much: lug nuts.  They're what fasten your wheels onto your axles.  Pretty important, right? In order to take the wheels off your vehicle to service the brakes, rotate the tires, etc., the lug nuts have to be in good shape so a wrench will grip them tightly.  Because lug nuts are on your wheels, they are exposed to all the elements of the road (salt, water, grime) and really take a beating. Unfortunately, some manufacturers have made them out of two different metals.  Underneath is the working part of the lug nut, made of steel.  On top is the decorative (the "good looking") part, made out of chrome, stainless steel or aluminum.  After a while, the steel part begins to corrode and expands.  That changes the shape of the outer cap, sometimes rounding off the hexagonal edges and making it hard (if not impossible) to either loosen or tighten the lug nuts since the wrench won't fit any more.  ... read more

You may have noticed sometimes on a hot and humid day, vapor will come out of your vehicle's vents when you have the air conditioning on.  Is that something to be concerned about? Well, it depends. Sometimes that steam or vapor can be caused by water accumulating in the vent system after it has condensed.  And sometimes water can pool at the bottom of a vent.  When you turn on the blower mower, the air hits the water and may create steam or vapor that you can see in the cabin. One thing to check is if that vapor smells like anything.  If it doesn't, that's a good sign. You may be able to run the fan for a while and the issue may just go away when things dry out.  But moisture collecting in the ventilation hoses in a hot vehicle may be a breeding ground for mold, and that can have health consequences. There's another possibility. Ventilation systems often have drains to get rid of any accumulated water, and debris can sometimes clog them.  A technician can ... read more

As you know, today’s vehicles rely on a lot of computers in them to keep them running clean and efficiently.  Those computers depend on information delivered by several sensors throughout the engine and exhaust system.  And one of the most important is the oxygen sensor.   Known as the O2 sensor for short, it looks for too much unburned oxygen that has made it into the exhaust. That signals something isn’t right with the engine’s air-fuel mixture.  The sensor sends signals to the engine’s computers, which can then make adjustments to make sure the engine is running as it was designed to. Some vehicles can have several O2 sensors, and since they can measure oxygen at various points in the combustion/exhaust process, the computers can pinpoint where the problems lie.  For example, an O2 sensor can detect how much oxygen is coming out of the engine’s combustion chamber, and another one can measure oxygen coming out of the catalytic co ... read more