Gilbert Auto Repair

Chances are you've had the power go out in your neighborhood  at some time, and you know how helpless you feel.  No lights, no microwave oven, no cold refrigerator: Yikes, it's like living in another century.  Well, your vehicle is also highly dependent on having power for it to run properly.  When your battery cables are failing, that power is not transferred as it should be. Battery cables are essentially the wires that connect your vehicle to its battery.  The positive cable supplies the power to various components that use them and the negative grounds the system to the vehicle chassis.  This setup allows you to have power throughout your vehicle. When a battery cable fails, your vehicle may not start, your starter may turn over very slowly, or you may hear a clicking noise.  And you may see your battery warning light go on. Just like a house with no power, a vehicle with no power needs to get it back for things to work the way they sho ... read more

For those of us who came from the colder part of the country, it wasn’t unusual to have a car battery that lasted 5 to 8 years. But here in the desert you may have noticed that it’s a different story. The official average car battery life in southern AZ is about 30 months according to this site and according to what we see at the shop it might be more like 24 months! The worst part is that you never know when a battery will fail in this extreme hot climate like my daughter found out last Saturday morning at the mall. Odds are the only thing that you’ll hear are clicking sounds. At least in the cold winter up north you would feel the battery struggling for a while before failing. Still not a good enough reason to move back there… Here are a couple of useful battery tips: Batteries “dehydrate” just like us, fill them up if you can (some batterie are sealed) with distilled water. Here’s more info on maintaining your battery. Make sure that the ... read more