Engine Performance, Katy TX

Is your vehicle lacking power, fuel economy, or overall performance? Is your check engine light on? It irritates us too. Whether your check engine light is on or you just want to be sure that your vehicle is operating smoothly, our comprehensive engine performance check gets to the heart of the issue in no time.

Here at Southwest Car Care Center in Katy, our expert mechanic staff has years of experience working on various makes and models. Whatever the issue, we display our expertise to diagnose and repair your vehicle in a timely manner. Give us a call today and let’s get your car back on the road, operating at its best.

Engine Check in Katy TX

If your check engine light comes on, your car is letting you know that it has a problem. The issue may be fairly easy to fix or involve an intricate amount of work. There are many reasons that your check engine light may come on varying of:

• If it’s time to replace your oxygen sensor
• If your fuel cap needs to be tightened or replaced
• If the ignition coil and/or spark plugs need to be replaced
• If the vehicle does not have the correct fuel mixture
• If the catalytic converter needs to be replaced
• If it’s time to replace the thermostat

And anything else related to the performance and emission features on your particular vehicle. It’s stressful to ride around with a check engine light on. It’s a constant reminder that whatever is going on underneath your hood could end up forcing you to pause your normal day-to-day life and wait for a resolution to the problem before you can get your vehicle back on the road.

Gasoline Direct Injection, Turbochargers and Variable Valve Timing

While many things remain the same in how today’s gasoline engines work and perform, automotive manufacturers are continuing to find new ways to increase horsepower but still maintain the fuel economy standards that are placed on them by the federal government. While these new technological advancements are great for horsepower and overall fuel economy they each pose their own inherent issues, that without proper maintenance could potentially lead to major repairs in the future.

Variable Valve Timing - Variable Valve Timing, or also known as VVT, is the vehicle’s ability to change the timing of the opening and closing of the valves to increase horsepower and also increase fuel economy. While this technology has been out for many years, we are seeing many issues arising from this system.

Many issues and failures that are occurring with this system are due to low oil levels and dirty oil itself. While manufacturers are touting longer oil change intervals (i.e. Toyota 10,000 mile oil change interval) we are seeing that the smaller oil passageways that are in the variable valve timing system are getting clogged/slugged with oil.

Doing routine oil changes at a much shorter oil change interval (3,000 for conventional and 5,000 for semi-synthetic and full synthetic oil) is the best way to avoid most of the issues with variable valve timing systems.

Turbocharger - Turbocharger systems are becoming more and more common on today's gasoline engines.

With engines getting smaller, manufacturers need a way to increase horsepower in situations where it may be needed. These systems, much like the variable valve timing (VVT), are failing for the same reasons. Your turbochargers are lubricated by engine oil and are cooled with engine antifreeze (coolant). Just like with the VVT system improper oil level and oil that is contaminated with debris will shorten the life of the turbocharger on your engine.

Also, you should keep your engine antifreeze (coolant) clean by servicing it regularly (every 50,000 miles) to help maintain and keep your turbocharger working properly.

Gasoline Direct Injection - Gasoline Direct Injection or more commonly known as GDI is just the latest technological advancement that automotive manufacturers have made to the vehicles we drive today. While this piece of technology has been out for a few years we are just now seeing the issues that are caused by this system.

On an older port injection gasoline engine, we had gasoline spraying onto the intake valve, which would help wash away any carbon deposits that would collect on top of the valve. On a gasoline direct injection (GDI), we no longer have that injector spraying onto the valve, instead, it is spraying directly into the combustion chamber. What we have found is we now have extreme carbon deposits build up on the intake valves, which are causing loss of horsepower, loss of fuel economy and in some extreme cases oil consumption issues. If the carbon deposit build-up is too excessive, drastic repair measures will have to be taken to remove the deposits from inside the engine.

Through much research and development, there is now an easier way to maintain your vehicle and keep the carbon build up at a minimum. Here at Southwest Car Care Center, we use BG Product's GDI Intake Valve Cleaner. This product has been proven to remove carbon deposits from the intake valves and help restore fuel mileage, horsepower, and lower oil consumption.

Engine Repair, Katy TX

Here at Southwest Car Care Center in Katy, we want your car repaired correctly the first time and back out of the road in a timely cost-effective manner. We strive for the correct diagnosis the first time, nobody likes an educated guess and neither do we. Give us a call to learn more about our engine performance and diagnostic check in Katy TX today!