Best Auto Repair, Millington

1905 Long Hill Rd Millington
NJ 07946

Call Us

908-647-7984

Working Hours

CONTACT US

Long Hill Auto Service

 (35 Reviews)

AUTONET TV


Archive for September 2018

Power Steering Service in Millington

Posted September 30, 2018 8:53 AM



Most Millington drivers are too young to remember life before power steering - cranking those great big steering wheels! It was a pretty good workout. Now power steering is standard. Let's look at how it works. The heart of any power steering system is its pump. The pump pressurizes the power steering fluid that provides assist for steering. Most pumps are driven by a belt that is run by the engine; a few are electrically powered. A high-pressure hose passes fluid from the pump to the steering gear. A low pressure hose returns the fluid back to the pump.

These hoses can develop leaks, so it is a good idea for Millington drivers to have them inspected at every oil change. Low fluid can damage the power steering pump. That is why power steering fluid level is on the checklist for a full-service oil change. The fluid needs to be compatible with the hoses and seals, so check your owner's manual for the right type - or just ask your friendly and knowledgeable pros at Long Hill Auto Service in Millington.

The fluid cleans, cools and lubricates the power steering system. It breaks down as the years go by and collects unwanted moisture, so Millington drivers need to replace it from time to time. Many vehicle manufacturers specify power steering service intervals. Unfortunately, this important service is sometimes left off the car maintenance schedule for many of us. So, when in doubt, every 25,000 miles/40,000 km or two years is a good fallback. Your technician at Long Hill Auto Service will use a detergent to clean the system, flush out the old fluid and replace it with the good stuff.

Here are some  warning signs of trouble with your power steering: It's harder to turn the wheel, there's erratic power assist, you hear loud whining coming from the pump (which may be difficult to hear over the loud whining coming from the backseat), you have to top-off the fluid frequently, or you hear squealing belts. Remember to never hold the steering wheel to the far right or left for more than a few seconds at a time. That will wear out your power steering pump quickly.

Other steering components can be bent or damaged from wear or hard knocks: ball-joint, idler-arm, steering-gear, steering-knuckle and tie rod to name a few. Warning signs here are steering play, wandering, uneven tire wear and an off-center steering wheel. An annual alignment check at Long Hill Auto Service in Millington will reveal bent or damaged steering components.

Most SUV's, pick-ups and rear-wheel-drive cars need regular front-wheel-bearing service.

The bearings should be cleaned and inspected. If they are excessively worn, they need to be replaced. The bearings are then repacked in clean grease. The team at Long Hill Auto Service also recommends the wheel-seal be replaced when the bearings are serviced. Like everything else, check your owners' manual maintenance schedule. It's usually required around every two years or 40,000 miles/64,000 km. If you drive through water in the Millington area, the bearings will need service more often.

Long Hill Auto Service
1905 Long Hill Rd
Millington, NJ 07946
(908) 647-7984
http://www.longhillautonj.com

 



Millington Drivers Severe Service Maintenance Schedules

Posted September 23, 2018 4:34 AM

Since driving requirements and lifestyles differ among Millington drivers, your vehicle manufacturer publishes two auto maintenance schedules: the regular schedule and the severe service schedule. Which schedule should Millington drivers follow? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Are most of your trips less than four miles/six kilometers around Millington?
Are most of your trips less than 10 miles/16 kilometers in below-zero NJ temps?
Are most of your trips off-highway in NJ?
Do you drive often in dusty Millington areas?
Do you regularly tow a trailer or carry heavy loads around Millington?
Do you drive in very hot or very cold NJ weather?


Think about your typical week. Do you live by your nearest Millington on-ramp and enjoy a non-stop commute? Or, do you drive the neighborhood car pool in stop-and-go traffic on Millington surface streets?

Let's suppose your owner's manual says the severe service oil change recommendation is 3,000 miles/5,000 kilometers and the standard recommendation is 5,000 miles/8,000 kilometers. You know that you need to change the oil somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 miles/5,000 and 8,000 kilometers. Analyze your driving patterns and Millington weather and road conditions to determine which end of the spectrum you're closer to.

Why should Millington residents care about this? Normal condensation causes moisture accumulation in the engine oil. Short trips around Millington or winter driving means that the engine doesn't heat up enough for the moisture to evaporate. The water in the oil turns to oil sludge that clogs up your engine and doesn't let the oil protect it adequately. That's why NJ residents need to change their oil more often – to clean the sludge out before it causes problems.

Carrying heavy loads (with or without a trailer) in NJ summer weather causes your engine and transmission to run at higher temperatures and with more stress. The fluids will break down more quickly. Additives that clean and prevent corrosion will be depleted sooner. Air pollution and dust cause fluids to get dirty faster. Ditto for filters. All of these things can lead to premature wear and eventual repairs. If you want some expert advice, talk with your friendly and knowledgeable Long Hill Auto Service service advisor. We can help you restore your vehicle to good working order and help you know the best schedule to follow.

Long Hill Auto Service
(908) 647-7984
1905 Long Hill Rd
Millington, NJ 07946
http://www.longhillautonj.com



Long Hill Auto Service and the Maintenance Mindset

Posted September 16, 2018 12:51 PM

When it comes to their vehicles, some Millington residents don't have a maintenance 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. Millington 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 Long Hill Auto Service 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 Long Hill Auto Service, we check to see if your vehicle manufacturer has recommended any services at your current mileage.

The oil change becomes kind of a focal point, a way to check in to see what needs to be done. The fact is that vehicle inspection surveys consistently reveal that over 80% of vehicles have one or more unperformed repair or maintenance service. Vehicles are generally very reliable and can take a lot of abuse and neglect. But, you have to remember that vehicles are complicated machines. There are parts and fluids that are critical to their operation. Without them, the vehicle won't run at all.

So when you come in to Long Hill Auto Service for an oil change, you get advice from your friendly and knowledgeable service advisor and a reminder for recommended services so you can avoid a total failure. And remember that your friendly and knowledgeable Long Hill Auto Service service advisor can help you work out a maintenance and repair plan, prioritizing and scheduling the work to make sure you and your family are safe, and helping you avoid expensive breakdowns.

Long Hill Auto Service
1905 Long Hill Rd
Millington, NJ 07946
(908) 647-7984
http://www.longhillautonj.com



Fuel Injection: It Keeps Getting Better for Millington Drivers

Posted September 9, 2018 5:45 AM

Millington residents know that engines need to burn fuel to operate. Fuel is pumped from your fuel tank to your vehicle engine where it is squirted—or injected—into your engine's cylinders. This is the function of the fuel injectors.

There are two ways to inject fuel into an engine. Fuel needs air to burn, so in the first method, fuel is injected into a port and allowed to mix with airbefore it is drawn into the cylinders. In the second method, fuel is injected directly into the cylinders and mixes with air after it enters the vehicle engine.

Direct injection engines burn fuel more efficiently than conventional vehicle engines. Some models can deliver the power of a V8 with the economy of a V6.

For example, in one family of engines, the conventional version (a V6) delivers about 250 horsepower. The direct injection version delivers over 300 horsepower and gets about the same gas mileage. The turbocharged version delivers 350 horsepower.

Why the big difference in power? Direct injection systems allow fuel to be squirted into the vehicle engine at hundreds of times the pressure of a conventional engine. This atomizes the fuel better (breaks it down into tinier droplets), which means more of it gets burned, which translates to more power for your engine. It also results in cleaner emissions.

Fuel injectors are precision instruments. They have to deliver the right amount of fuel at exactly the time the vehicle engine needs it. They are also engineered to inject fuel with a specific spray pattern. This spray pattern allows for maximum fuel efficiency and proper atomization. Direct injection engines require a much higher degree of precision than conventional engines. For this reason, they are equipped with more sophisticated computers.

When fuel injectors get dirty, their precision drops off. The spray pattern won't be precise, and the timing of fuel delivery may be off. This decreases fuel efficiency and fuel economy as well as delivering less power to the engine.

Millington residents should understand that fuel injectors are not cheap to replace. Direct injection fuel injectors are even more . And we're talking a mortgage payment to buy a set of new fuel injectors for a diesel engine.

So keeping your fuel injectors clean is just good auto advice. The best way to do this is to change your air and fuel filters regularly and practice other habits of good vehicle care and preventive maintenance. Cleaning additives in your fuel can also help.

If you do end up with gum or varnish in your fuel system, you'll need a professional fuel system cleaning. This will clean out your whole system, including the injectors. The good news is that with proper maintenance, Millington drivers will enjoy better fuel economy and their fuel injectors will last for a long time.

Contact us for more tips to help you improve your performance and safety.

Long Hill Auto Service
1905 Long Hill Rd
Millington, NJ 07946
(908) 647-7984
http://www.longhillautonj.com



Tire Tread Depth for Millington, NJ Drivers

Posted September 2, 2018 10:27 AM

Driving on bald tires is like playing roulette. Though you may be fine today, eventually your luck is going to run out.

The Feds don't have any laws for tread depth, but 42 of the states, and all of Canada, do have regulations. They consider 2/32 of an inch to be the minimum legal tread depth. Two other states, including California, consider 1/32 to be the minimum and six states have no standards at all. Call us at Long Hill Auto Service; (just call (908) 647-7984) to find out what your requirements are in the Millington, NJ, area.

Since 1968, U.S. law has required that a raised bar be molded across all tires. When tires are worn enough that this bar becomes visible, there's just 2/32 inch/1.6 mm of tread left. But does that older standard give Millington vehicles enough safety?

Consider this: Consumer Reports recommends tire replacement when tread reaches 4/32 inch/3.2 mm. And the recommendation is backed by some very compelling studies. Now before we go into the studies, you need to know that the issue is braking on wet surfaces.

We tend to think of the brakes doing all the stopping, but Millington vehicles also need to have effective tires to actually stop the car. When it's wet or snowy in Millington, NJ, the tread of the tire is critical to stopping power.

Picture this: you're driving in Millington over a water-covered stretch of road. Your tires need to be in contact with the road in order to stop. That means the tire has to channel the water away so the tire is contacting the road and not floating on a thin film of water – a condition known as hydroplaning. When there's not enough tread depth on a tire, it can't move the water out of the way and you start to hydroplane.

This is where the studies come in. We think Millington drivers will be surprised. A section of a test track was flooded with a thin layer of water. If you laid a dime flat on the track, the water would be deep enough to surround the coin, but not enough to submerge it. 

A car and a full-sized pick-up truck were brought up to 70 mph/112 kph and then made a hard stop in the wet test area. Stopping distance and time were measured for three different tire depths. First, they tested new tires. Then tires worn to legal limits. And finally, tires with 4/32 inch/3.2 mm of tread were tested (the depth suggested by Consumer Reports.)

When the car with the legally worn tires had braked for the distance required to stop the car with new tires, it was still going 55 mph/89 kph. The stopping distance was nearly doubled. That means if you barely have room to stop with new tires, then you would hit the car in front of you at 55 mph/89 kph with the worn tires.

Now with the partially worn tires – at the depth recommended by Consumer Reports – the car was still going at 45 mph/72 kph at the point where new tires brought the car to a halt. That's a big improvement – you can see why Consumer Reports and others are calling for a new standard.

Now without going into all the details, let us tell you that stopping the truck with worn tires needed almost 1/10 of a mile (.16 km)  of clear road ahead to come to a safe stop. How many Millington drivers follow that far behind the vehicle ahead? Obviously, this is a big safety issue.

The tests were conducted with the same vehicles but with different sets of tires. The brakes were the same, so the only variable was the tires.

How do people in Millington know when their tires are at 4/32 inch/3.2 mm? Well, it's pretty easy. Just insert an American quarter into the tread. Put it in upside down. If the tread doesn't cover George Washington's hairline, it's time to replace your tires. With a Canadian quarter, the tread should cover the numbers in the year stamp.

Now you may remember doing that with pennies. But an American penny gives you 2/32 inch/1.6 mm to Abraham Lincoln's head. The quarter is the new standard – 4/32 inch/3.2 mm.

Tires are a big ticket item, and most people in Millington, NJ, want to get thousands of miles/kilometers out of them. Just remember: driving on bald tires is like playing roulette.

Have Mr. Washington look at your tires today. If he recommends a new set, come see us at Long Hill Auto Service in Millington.

Long Hill Auto Service
1905 Long Hill Rd
Millington, NJ 07946
(908) 647-7984
http://www.longhillautonj.com



Search



Archive

May 2016 (19)
June 2016 (4)
July 2016 (4)
August 2016 (5)
September 2016 (4)
October 2016 (5)
November 2016 (4)
December 2016 (4)
January 2017 (5)
February 2017 (4)
March 2017 (4)
April 2017 (4)
May 2017 (5)
June 2017 (4)
July 2017 (5)
August 2017 (3)
September 2017 (3)
October 2017 (5)
November 2017 (4)
December 2017 (3)
January 2018 (5)
February 2018 (4)
March 2018 (4)
April 2018 (4)
May 2018 (5)
June 2018 (4)
July 2018 (5)
August 2018 (4)
September 2018 (5)
October 2018 (4)
November 2018 (4)
December 2018 (5)
January 2019 (5)
February 2019 (4)
March 2019 (5)
April 2019 (4)
May 2019 (4)
June 2019 (5)
July 2019 (4)
August 2019 (4)
September 2019 (5)
October 2019 (4)
November 2019 (4)
December 2019 (5)
January 2020 (5)
February 2020 (4)
March 2020 (5)
April 2020 (4)
May 2020 (5)
June 2020 (4)
July 2020 (4)
August 2020 (5)
September 2020 (4)
October 2020 (4)
November 2020 (5)
December 2020 (4)
January 2021 (6)
February 2021 (4)
March 2021 (4)
April 2021 (4)
May 2021 (5)
June 2021 (4)
July 2021 (4)
August 2021 (5)
September 2021 (4)
October 2021 (5)
November 2021 (4)
December 2021 (4)
January 2022 (6)
February 2022 (4)
March 2022 (4)
April 2022 (4)
May 2022 (5)
June 2022 (4)
July 2022 (5)
August 2022 (4)
September 2022 (4)
October 2022 (5)
November 2022 (4)
December 2022 (4)
January 2023 (5)
February 2023 (4)
March 2023 (4)
April 2023 (5)
May 2023 (4)
June 2023 (4)
July 2023 (5)
August 2023 (4)
September 2023 (4)
October 2023 (5)
November 2023 (4)
December 2023 (5)
January 2024 (5)
February 2024 (4)
March 2024 (3)

Categories

Air Conditioning (11)Alignment (12)Alternator (5)Auto Safety (5)Automotive News (6)Battery (13)Brake Service (1)Brakes (14)Cabin Air Filter (8)Check Engine Light (5)Cooling System (18)Dashboard (2)Diagnostics (4)Differential Service (3)Drive Train (9)Emergency Items (1)Engine Air Filter (2)Exhaust (8)Fluids (10)Fuel Economy (7)Fuel Saving Tip: Slow Down (1)Fuel System (38)Headlamps (4)Inspection (6)Keys to a long lasting vehicle (1)Maintenance (41)Monitoring System (2)Oil Change (4)Older Vehicles (2)Parts (5)PCV Valve (1)Safe Driving (1)Safety (5)Serpentine Belt (5)Service Intervals (8)Service Standards (9)Shocks & Struts (7)Spark Plugs (1)Steering (10)Suspension (2)Timing Belt (5)Tire Rotation and Balancing (2)Tires (4)Tires and Wheels (39)Transfer Case Service (1)Transmission (7)Trip Inspection (4)Water Pump (1)What Customers Should Know (51)Wheel Bearings (1)Windshield Wipers (6)Winter Prep (6)

Reviews

Quote reviewicon

A few weeks back my wife was driving from PA to NYC by herself and started to have some car trouble. She called me from route 78 and I advised her to get off at the next exit and head to the closest repair shop. Thankfully it was Longhill Auto. At the end of their business day they got right on checking the car out, and were gracious with my wife who was having a very stressful experience. They were in touch with me every step of the way. Ultimately performed the necessary repairs and thoroughly test drove the car to give us peace of mind it was in good shape before making the hour plus drive out to pick it up. Would definitely recommend them and even going out of your way to work with them as it isn’t always easy to find a good shop with great people.

, 03/13/2024

Quote reviewicon

Legit

, 02/16/2024

Quote reviewicon

Long Hill Auto is the best auto service shop in the area, hands down. The staff is well trained and highly knowledgeable. Their facility is well organized and cared for, which shows how important it is for them to pay attention to details. Bob runs a great shop that can handle all of your automobile needs. They are friendly, affordable, and have a fast turnaround on their jobs. I don't think it can get much better than that.

, 01/25/2024

Partners

ACDelco
NAPA
AAA Approved Auto Repair
ASE Master Technician
Car Care Aware
TAP TO CALL NOW 908-647-7984 X