Rockville Auto Repair

Well Greg… sounds pretty obvious… the timing of a valve varies?… Yep, it’s true but why? Many car companies today are utilizing some type of V.V.T. systems. The reason they do is to squeeze better performance from a smaller engine over a wider variation of conditions. Think of it sort of like the way your body increases blood flow and respiration when you are exercising. Your body adjusts to varying demands on it.  The camshaft can be considered “brain” of an internal combustion engine. It determines when a intake or exhaust valve opens in the combustion cycle (timing), how far open it will go (called lift), how long it will stay open (called duration). The cam is important to control how much air and exhaust can pass through the engine at a given speed. And, with every machine design, there are compromises. When the cam is made for maximum power (high lift and long duration), the engine suffers at low sp ... read more

Takata Bankruptcy Notice UPDATE (10/31/17): In the past few days, we’ve received numerous calls from our clients reporting they’ve received what looks like a “recall notice”, but is in actuality a legal notice related to Takata Corp’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Proceeding. We received several of these notices here as well (for our loaner car fleet). Just because you received this notice does not mean that your vehicle is subject to recall. The owner of any vehicle with a Takata airbag inflator, not just the ones that have been recalled, received this notice. Of course, we’re not going to give you legal advice on how to proceed, but we can tell you that we will not be filing any claims. As we’ve mentioned before, we check your vehicle against ... read more

More and more, newer cars are moving to more complicated dashboards and instrument clusters. But there’s a lot you may not know about what your car is trying to tell you. CNET’s Brian Cooley has a quick look at how to decode your dashboard

MOTOR WORKS, INC. RECOGNIZED BY A.S.E. AS THE ONLY “BLUE SEAL OF EXCELLENCE” AUTO SERVICE BUSINESS IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY. Rockville, Maryland  – Motor Works, Inc. has earned the prestigious “Blue Seal of Excellence” recognition awarded by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of vehicle repair and service by means of voluntary testing and certification for automotive repair and service professionals. More information about ASE can be found online at www.ase.com. To be eligible for this recognition, a company must have no less than 75% of its automotive professionals ASE certified. In addition, the facility must have a certified technician in each area of services offered. To remain in the program, a business must confirm their p ... read more

Some people wonder how Motor Works can operate so efficiently. Greg takes us behind the scenes and Aaron talks about why knowing the right parts for your vehicle is so important

Note: This is the part of a series of articles explaining some of the technical features of newer Honda and Toyota vehicles. We will explain, in plain English, how these highly complex systems work. Feel free to email us at [email protected] if you have any suggestions for things you’d like to learn about! The components of the anti-lock braking system. Image courtesy of Honda of America. The Anti-Lock Braking System, or ABS, has become the cornerstone of modern vehicle safety systems. Unless you’ve just started driving recently, you’ll remember the days when we were taught to “pump the brakes” during a panic stop. But why is that? In older vehicles without ABS, stomping on the brake pedal and holding it down almost always causes the wheels to “lock up” and begin skidding. Of course, when the car is skidding you have very little st ... read more

Note: This is the first in a series of articles explaining some of the technical features of newer Honda and Toyota vehicles. We will explain, in plain English, how these highly complex systems work. Feel free to email us at [email protected] if you have any suggestions for things you’d like to learn about! The Lane Departure Warning system alerts you when you drift over a lane line without signaling. Graphic courtesy of Honda. What is it? Lane Departure Warning, or LDW, is part of Honda’s “Sensing Package” (Toyota calls it “Lane Departure Alert“) available on most newer vehicles. The goal of this safety system is to keep you from drifting into another lane. How it works ... read more

Not an actual picture of Greg, but it accurately captures the moment when the fridge bought the farm. The other morning, I was sitting in the office of my home, eating breakfast at around 5:15 while viewing a documentary on People’s Car vehicle design when a strange sound pulled my attention away. Sounds have always piqued my attention creating an instant need to identify what the cause is (just part of my brain wiring). At first I thought it was part of the soundtrack of the ancient Kübelwagen that was on the screen but it just didn’t fit. I paused the computer and went to investigate. My office is adjacent to our kitchen and the sound increased as I opened my office door. I went to the refrigerator as the noise was clearly emanating from it. The sound started to lessen and then faded away similarly to the way a tire exhales its last bit of air as it goes totally f ... read more

There’s a nationwide long-term business health problem that has been growing for decades. There are fewer and fewer qualified technicians coming into any trades industry, including automotive. It has always been hard to find and keep qualified people; it’s only become harder and harder in recent years. I have observed that our middle and high school counselors have systemically steered young people away from vocational training. There is an assumption that the kids are going to go to college. This is great for some and not so great for others. Not every young person is going to excel in a college environment. To make matters worse, they will leave a four-year college with a degree in say, computer technology with a debt of (conservatively) $30,000-$50,000 and be in a situation where they are battling for a $35,000 a year position. Trouble is, without trained people to be electricians, plumbers, carpenters and auto technicians, we’re all going to be in a world of ... read more

372 Miles Down… 120 to Go…. That works out to a whopping 38 MPG! We all know gas isn’t cheap, so squeezing out a few extra MPG can make a huge difference in your wallet. We recently took a road trip from our home in Silver Spring, Maryland to Asheville, North Carolina for a family reunion of sorts. I checked the tires and fluids on our 2013 CR-V, loaded the back up and hit the road. About eight hours later we arrived, no problems albeit a little tired. We ended up with an average fuel mileage of 32 mpg showing on the information screen. “Not bad”, I thought to myself. I attributed the higher than usual number to my particular “relaxed” driving style and to highway driving. Given my background, I’m very easy on my equipment. The difficult part for this particular trip was the 350 miles traveled down Interstate 81. Not that the road is particularly bad, it’s just the concentrati ... read more