Wilmot Auto Repair

Every Wilmot car owner who has taken their car in for an oil change has been told that their engine air filter's dirty. Here's what goes into the determination of when to change the filter: First, your vehicle owner's manual will have a recommendation of when the filter should be replaced. Now, most air filters purchased in Wilmot don't cost a lot to replace. It's just that NH people hate getting caught with an unexpected expense. On the plus side, though, changing a dirty air filter at Walker Automotive can often save enough on gas to pay for itself before your next oil change in Wilmot. Think about a dirty furnace filter in your Wilmot home. When it's all clogged up, enough clean air can't get through. In your vehicle, that means that your engine can't get as much air as it needs to burn the fuel efficiently. So it makes do with less air and has to use more gas to move your vehicle around Wilmot roads. Your vehicle actually needs about 12,000 times more air than fu ... read more

The median age for cars in the Wilmot, NH area was over nine years. And two-thirds had over 75,000 miles. At Walker Automotive we hear reports that those numbers continue to rise. If you have a high-mileage vehicle in the Wilmot area, bring it into Walker Automotive for high-mileage maintenance.3 Deerwood DriveWilmot, NH 03287603.526.4848 Many people in NH are keeping their vehicles longer. The economy has influenced that, but the fact that modern vehicles are more durable and reliable means that owning a high mileage vehicle doesn't have to be a painful experience.Local car owners in Wilmot with over 100,000 miles on their vehicles often ask which service intervals they should follow. Let's start with the special needs of the older vehicle...The reality is that time and mileage will take its toll. The engine and transmission will have more sludge. The fuel, steering and brake systems will have gum and varnish built up. There'll be more dirt and contam ... read more

Most Wilmot folks occasionally have days when they've got a bunch of errands to run. Yesterday was my day off and I needed to fill the gas tank, pick up some groceries at my Wilmot market, swing by the ATM and get the kids from school. I could have made four trips . . . but that would have been totally inefficient. Instead I got unusually organized and planned my stops. I hit the ATM first and got gas next. Then I went to the supermarket and picked up the kids on the way home. I was proud of my wise use of time and money.What does this have to do with your car? Well, back in the day, each of your engine's accessories, like the alternator and air conditioner, were powered by separate belts. A vehicle might have five or six belts. These days, vehicles have a single belt to run all the accessories. It's called the serpentine belt. A pulley attached to the vehicle engine's crank provides the power to turn the serpentine belt. On the engine in the video, the first accessory in line is the ... read more

Wilmot consumers are demanding. We want a safe, reliable vehicle that handles well and is comfortable to ride in. Oh, and we want good fuel economy, too. We also want vehicle repairs that are cheap, fast and easy. Unfortunately, one usually comes at the cost of the other.Today's vehicles have made significant improvements in reliability and performance over the last few decades. They also deliver more power to Wilmot drivers more efficiently than ever before. For example, some of today's 4-cylinder engines are equal to yesterday's V-8's. Our vehicles also offer an amazing range of features that make them more comfortable and convenient than ever before.But all of that improvement has come at a price for Wilmot vehicle owners. Our vehicles are more complicated and difficult to repair than ever before. They have numerous mechanical and electrical systems. Fuel systems are so complex they have to be run by a computer. Our vehicles are covered with sensors and high-tech electronic equ ... read more

Sometimes busy Wilmot residents dream about going back to the “simpler” days of our grandparents. But if you could travel back in time and take a road trip around NH in a Model T, you might change your mind. The improved designs and quality of today's automobiles have significantly reduced the amount of time Wilmot residents spend at the side of the road during breakdowns. With proper maintenance, today's vehicles can stay on the road longer than ever before.Some of those improvements, however, have led to higher repair costs. For example, older cars often broke down from vapor lock. Gas vaporized while traveling from the gas tank to the fuel pump. No gas, no power. The car quits going. The solution was simple — you just sat by the road until the car would start up again. Today's Wilmot drivers would hardly tolerate that kind of inconvenience, and it's likely that yesterday's Wilmot drivers didn't care much for it, either. So on today's vehicles, the fuel pump is ... read more

When your vehicle breaks down in the Wilmot, NH, area, or just needs some routine service, it can make you a little nervous. Because your vehicle's so important to your life, you need to be back on the road as soon as possible — with the problem fixed right the first time.We've been checking into some of the training our Wilmot, NH, technicians receive, and we're very impressed. It's amazing how much knowledge and skill goes into diagnosing and repairing a modern vehicle. So it's not like when your uncle worked on his hot rod over the weekend.Today there are four-cylinder engines around Wilmot that make more power than the V-8's in luxury cars did 20 years ago. A new V-6 Toyota Camry could beat Sonny Crocket's Ferrari in a race to 60 mph/97 kph.Our engines are more and more powerful. And they're so reliable. This is all due to engineering. But the benefits come to Wilmot drivers at the price of simplicity. Modern cars are so much more complex from a mechanica ... read more

In our auto video today we'll be talking with Alan Peterson about myths surrounding automotive maintenance. You can lump these myths into the statement that "modern vehicles are so reliable, they are virtually maintenance free."Any good myth has some elements of truth. No offense to Wilmot Bigfoot fans, but this maintenance-free myth has more evidence than most. If we look at some isolated areas of auto maintenance, we could conclude that maintenance isn't so important. But other areas would just as easily lead you to believe that maintenance is more important than ever.Here are some examples for our friends in Wilmot. Some vehicles in Wilmot no longer require chassis lubrication. They're made with self-lubricating materials and have sealed joints. There's literally no way to grease those joints. -Chalk one up for the myth.On the other side, some vehicles come with sophisticated variable valve timing. A lot of complicated parts are up in the valv ... read more

When it comes to their vehicles, some Wilmotresidents don't have amaintenance mindset. They know they need to take care of their cars, but it just seems really hard to get them to remember to do it. Wilmot drivers generally accept that many things in life require regular maintenance but just may not have applied it to their vehicles.Here's something that will help: The key to good vehicle maintenance starts with the oil change. Think about it – when you go in for a full-service oil change, your friendly and knowledgeable Walker Automotive service advisor will check all your fluids. If one of them is low, he can look for the reason. If your serpentine belt is cracked, he'll see it and let you know. Corroded battery cable – they've got you covered. And at Walker Automotive, we check to see if your vehicle manufacturer ... read more

When I was a kid, my dad always made sure he took the cars in for Spring and Fall checkups. I was telling a friend that it's about time to get into Walker Automotive for a checkup and he said that he read on the internet that modern cars don't need seasonal service.My friend is (technically) right about some things, but from a practical standpoint, a seasonal check up still makes sense.Back when my dad was teaching me about how to take care of the family vehicle, most of them used a different weight of oil in the winter and in the summer. But most of today's modern engines run the same oil year round. High-tech engines and high-tech motor oils are better able to handle the seasonal changes.Your owner's manual or Wilmot service advisor at Walker Automotive can tell you the right oil to use.Of course, you're concerned about the coolant or antifreeze. You don't want to overheat in the NH summer or freeze up in the wi ... read more

A generation ago, Wilmot drivers seemed to be more inclined to keep their vehicle's preventive maintenance on schedule. One reason for this may be that vehicles back then were a lot less reliable than they are today. Taking your vehicle in to your Wilmot shop every year or two for repairs seemed to be a good reminder to keep the oil changed.For example, almost everyone in Wilmot used to take their vehicles in for regular tune-ups. Vehicles had mechanical ignition systems, which meant ignition points, spark plugs and coils had to be replaced and the timing adjusted every few years. As long as the vehicle was in for a tune-up at Walker Automotive, the vehicle was inspected and you took care of any needed repairs at the same time.Today's engines have electronic ignition systems and engine control computers. Spark plugs can last for up to 100,000 miles/160,000 km. Vehicle reliability has vastly improved in the last few decades, and surveys report fewer problems ... read more