Van Nuys Auto Repair & Service Center

Your sedan engine really needs clean air to operate efficiently. Let’s go egghead for a minute. For every gallon of gas we burn driving around Sherman Oaks, twenty pounds of carbon dioxide comes out the tailpipe. Question: how can a gallon of gas that weighs a little over six pounds produce twenty pounds of carbon dioxide? The answer is that the carbon comes from the gasoline, but the oxygen comes from the air. You see, it takes about twelve thousand gallons of air to burn a gallon of gas in your engine. Clearly, your sedan needs a lot of air to keep going in Sherman Oaks. A lot of clean air is better. You’ve seen the pictrues of the crowds in Asia wearing face masks. They want some kind of filter to keep unwanted pollution and germs out of their lungs. Well, your sedan also works better when its internals are clean. When your sedan air filter’s d ... read more

There’s a segment of the Sherman Oaks population that’s not committed to proper vehicle maintenance. Mistaken perceptions have crept into the CA area over time. Many Sherman Oaks motorists think the root lies in the fact that modern cars are so reliable. Reliability has improved dramatically in recent years. Quality surveys report fewer problems with new cars than ever before. Back when cars spent more time in the repair shop, Sherman Oaks drivers were more mindful of routine service. Now, it’s much easier to put it off. Take tune-ups for example. In the days of mechanical ignition systems, an engine needed to be tuned-up every couple of years. The ignition points had to be replaced, spark plugs and coils replaced and the timing adjusted. If your engine was out of tune, you knew it. It ran poorly and got bad fuel economy ... read more

The push for fuel economy has two benefits: using less gas, and fewer emissions. Tarzana cars and trucks run cleaner than ever. Tarzana people may not realize that the first federally mandated pollution control device came out almost fifty years ago. Tarzana folks that were around in the early 60's may remember that the PCV valve came out on 1964 model cars. PCV stand for Positive Crankcase Ventilation. The crankcase is the lower part of the engine where the crankshaft is housed and where the engine oil lives. The crankshaft is connected to the pistons that power the engine. When fuel is burned in the sedan engine, it pushes the pistons down and the crankshaft rotates and sends power to the transmission. Some of the explosive gases from combustion squeeze past the pistons and down into the crankcase. Now this gas is a ... read more