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Your car's alternator plays an important role in feeding the vehicle's electrical system and charging the battery. What exactly is an alternator and how does it do its job? Let's take a look.

The battery in your vehicle gives the starter the power it needs to start the engine. However, to keep the battery fully charged, you need the alternator. This vital engine part is actually a generator. As the engine runs, it turns wheels which, in turn, crank a wheel on the alternator. This helps the alternator generate energy, which powers the vehicle's electronics and…

Tire rotations are part of the routine service you should give your vehicle every so often to keep it running smoothly. When you rotate your tires, they experience more even wear, perform better and last longer. Here's why.

The Wisdom of Tire Rotations

Different tires on your vehicle experience different and unequal amounts of wear based on your drivetrain: 4x4, all-wheel, rear or front. Without rotation, the same tires receive the same wear in the same spots repeatedly, causing them to break down more quickly than your other tires. 

April showers may bring May flowers, but they also bring wet slippery road conditions, which require more than just windshield wipers. Driving in the rain or on wet roads can be very dangerous if you’re not prepared, and our professionals have some helpful tips for you. Stop at Perkins Motor Plex for advice on driving in wet conditions or to check out our automotive supplies.
 

Air filters are designed to trap dust, pollen and other particles that enter your vehicle's engine or cabin area. When they are working properly, air filters ensure that you have clean air to breathe while going to work or school. They also ensure that debris doesn't clog vital engine parts or cause damage to exterior surfaces.

Generally speaking, a clean air filter will be white or beige while a dirty air filter will be a dark black or brown. In most cases, you can expect an air filter to last for about a year depending on the conditions…

There's nothing worse than driving down the road one second, and the next second your vehicle has smoke coming out from under the hood. Your temperature gauge on your dashboard shows that your vehicle is overheating. A few seconds ago everything was fine. What could possible have gone wrong? There are a number of reasons why a vehicle might overheat.

If you have a leak in your cooling system, this will result in air being able to work itself into the system. An airlock occurs when the air rises to the top of the cooling system...

Brake pads are an important part of the braking system and the part that needs to be replaced most frequently.

What Are Brake Pads?

Brake pads are a metallic piece located on each side of the spinning brake discs. When the driver presses down on the brake pedal the brake pads are pressed into the discs by the brake calipers causing the vehicle to come to a complete stop.

 

Problems with a car's starter bring about several annoying hassles. Don't think the problem can't be fixed, though. Addressing starter issues won't begin until you realize there's a problem. Here are some of the common signs of a troubled ignition system that you may want to consider:

• Oil drips
• Smoke
• Grinding/whining noise
• ...and more 

Oil leaks present frightening problems by themselves. The dripping fluid can cause further woes if it pours onto the starter. That's one of the less obvious ignition system issues you might experience.  

When dealing with tires, there are actually many different types of tires that you can buy and that come standard with your vehicle. The type of tire that you have provides a lot of influence on many different factors of your car's maintenance schedule, such as how - and how often - you need to rotate your tires to preserve tread life.

For directional and high performance tires, you are going to have to use a special type of rotation to optimize tread wear. This rotational strategy is known as the side-to-side rotation.  

You often hear automotive terms mentioned, but most drivers don't really know what they are. An alternator is the real power behind the things you use in your car, like your radio, climate control system, or interior lights. When it fails, your car may not start at all.

Often confused with your battery, the alternator is actually what charges your battery. As your engine runs, spinning wheels generate electricity in your alternator, which can be used for a variety of things.  

There are imperfections in the driving systems of vehicles which can result in oversteering or understeering. While every vehicle is vulnerable to both, there are certain vehicles that are a little less vulnerable to one than the other. Knowing which vehicle is which will help you avoid these issues.

Oversteer is something that happens more often with rear-wheel drive vehicles. One of the factors to this type of steer is the amount of weight that is put into the vehicle. With rear-wheel drive, more of the weight is put on the back of the vehicle.