Archive for the ‘car repair’ Category

Your car has broken down on the road. Check out what you can do

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Imagine you are going on a trip with your family and your car has a breakdown on the road. Everybody wants to avoid this situation. This is always recommended to have your car properly checked from car service station when you go for any trip. Not only trip, but regular check up at service station saves you from any problem on the road.

There are following possible options available to get out of on-road breakdown situations.

1. Enroll with Car Breakdown Helpline company

There are many companies which help customers for on-road emergency service. They charge for one year membership. Their 24×7 call center receive calls for these enquires. For non-members, they agree to help in case of their Emergency Van is just nearby. They avoid serving to non-members who can manage other mechanics without informing them and they had to waste their time reaching to them.

2. Keep Your Mechanic’s Number

Small garages owners are aggressive to serve customer at anytime. If you trust some mechanics who serve you on regular basis. You can keep their contact number. Sometime your mechanic may be busy and he cannot see your car, so you must have alternatives.

3. Calling Workshops at Night

Mostly car workshops are closed after working hours but some good workshops have car mechanics at night for serving their existing customer. You can find those workshops and keep their owners contacts.

4. Manufacturer’s 24×7 Call Centres.

All new cars come along with 24×7 helpline service access from Manufacturer. Mostly these companies are the same who enroll their own memberships, but work on Manufacturer’s behalf. You can look for stickers when you buy new car and keep them handy.

For any on-road emergency in New Delhi and NCR, you can call PROMPT SERVICE. And can enroll for membership at: http://www.mericar.com/car_breakdown_services.php

Source: Image: theleader.info

Are you over charged at car workshop? Compare Cost.

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Visit to any car repair service centre, look around, there is a possibility you will find a customer who would be having problem with his bill. The problem is wrong cost estimation or few items are overly charged. In other countries car owners still find some data from website to compare charges, but there is no such system in India. Even car manufacturer has listed down fixed charges for warranty servicing but if car needs any repair done, you can not guess what would be the bill.

Targets for selling spare parts at dealer and other workshop is another major reason for “wrong” recommendation of replacing parts even that is not required. Read story at link:-why do car mechanics suggest for extra parts.

As per experts start shopping for a repair facility before you need one; you can make better decisions when you are not rushed or in a panic. Once you have chosen a repair shop, start off with a minor job; if you are pleased, trust them with more complicated repairs later.

In India, mostly car owners start finding car service centre when their car has problem or somebody remind about servicing.

MeriCAR.com is helping car owners to SEARCH for car service centers in your nearest area and sends automatic Service Reminder once you are registered members.

Source:
5PointsAutomotive

Starting a car in the winter is a problem. Check out

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

You get up in the morning and your car won’t start. Its common. Check out what things you need to take care to avoid having this situation.

Check Your Battery

In Winter car battery gets discharged easily and it is common problem. Battery produces fewer electrons during cold weather, hence less energy to work with when it tries to start the engine, and this causes the engine to crank slowly.

Get your car better checked from your car mechanic if this is producing energy properly. Old batteries are to be replaced.

Use synthetic motor oils

In winter, oil gets a lot thicker. So, when you try to start a cold engine, the engine has to push around the cold oil and that makes it harder for the engine to spin. In really cold places people must use synthetic motor oils because these oils stay liquid in cold temperatures.

Check ignition switch
Faulty ignition system leads to starting problem. Try jiggling ignition key whilst turning it.

For free check up, you can search for nearest car service center

Search for car battery shops and buy cheaper one.
http://mericar.com/batteries.php

Source: http://auto.howstuffworks.com
- Car won’t start

Car Servicing & Repair Cost

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

What is the price of car servicing? Commonly asked question. Works managers are very conscious to reply the same because people confuse with “parts” and “consumable” items . Repair cost differs from normal car servicing.

Car Repair

Dealer charges 50% more labour than small workshop because of their costly labours. During warranty period, labour cost is free and customers just need to pay for lubricants and small liquid top ups. 45% cars owners even do not know or they do not take chances to get their car servicing at car workshops other than dealer service centre.

In india, cost estimation is still not exact and dealers try to be accurate during car check up. Customers are different and trusting dealer for cost estimation remains doubtful until he gets his car with satisfactory delivery. Small workshops run on referrals. That is the only way they can build trust or car owners consider them cheater.

The new trends are authorized multi brand workshops. To build trust, branding is important and corporate are coming up with good processes to give cost estimation accurate. Bosch has opened more than 500 authorized Bosch Car Service center in India and more corporate are coming up with same business model. Even corporate are trying to give small workshops technical training but making transparent cost of car servicing is still a problem for car owners. Maruti and Hyundai are opening more authorized workshops (non-OEM dealer) .

Puncture on the Road. Check Out Your Tools

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Yesterday when i left for the office, my car was punctured on the road. This time, I decided to change stepney tyre myself. I never did it myself earlier and called mechanic many times in similar situations. Here are some interesting things to learn from my mistakes. Just a basic stuff.

car breakdown

Flashing Lights
I put my car’s light in flashing state. It is important to make everybody know that my car has a problem on the road to avoid any traffic jam. I take car at the side of road.

Check Stepney Tyre
Firstly i checked if my stepney tyre is ok and have proper air pressure. There was less air but that was ok to make car reach to petrol pump.

Check out jack and tools
I found jack and one tool to screw jack. I put jack under the left tyre car body and started making car tyre free from surface. After 5 minutes, car was little up and tyre was free.

To my surprise, i could not find tool to un-screw nuts bolt and did mistake to make car tyre free without unscrew nuts and bolts of car tyre. My car was park near to Mandir and one driver was looking at me. I asked him about that unscrew tool. His car tool could not fit into my car’s nuts and bolt. Somebody told me that there is a car mechanic nearby. I walked to him and he given me that unscrew tool. It was a great help.

Next time i would keep all tools checked on a regular basis and will prepare myself for the same condition.

To find next car workshop nearby, you just need to logon http://www.mericar.com

To buy car breakdown services (if you do not want Do-It-Yourself), please buy car breakdown membership at http://www.mericar.com/hot_deals.php