Caring for car electrics
Looking after your car isn’t what it used to be. The weekend tinkerer fiddling with the carburettor is all but gone as advances in engineering and design make mechanical failures less and less common.
Today, faults tend to be concentrated in a vehicle’s electrical system.
State-of-the-art computers are at the heart of modern cars, with their network of sensors and wires forming a nervous system of sorts, relaying information and influencing everything from the air conditioning to handling on corners.
Amazing Auto Electric owner Greg has seen the change first-hand over more than 40 years in the industry.
His advice for drivers nowadays is not to tinker – unless you’re a specialist, modern vehicles are just too complex. Instead, get in touch with an automotive electrician as soon as a light comes on the dash. That way, he says, minor faults can be resolved before they become more serious and expensive problems.
‘‘Even if your car’s just running rough, that can often be due to an issue with the electrics or computer. The vehicle’s computer will keep a log of faults and we can access that quite quickly to work out what’s gone wrong and correct it. We’ve got a variety of quite fancy diagnostic scanners to do that.’’
Tune-ups these days should also involve a look at the electrical system, Greg says, noting that it is one of the surest ways to improve fuel efficiency, saving money from day one as well as cutting unnecessary pollution.
Amazing Auto Electric has a long-standing team located in Sydenham who work on cars of all kinds, as well as motorbikes, caravans, motorhomes, boats and commercial machinery.
Greg says as the weather starts to cool, batteries are often the first part to suffer. To head off any trouble this autumn, Amazing Auto Electric has a variety of highquality, value-for-money batteries in stock.
Expert staff will make sure each vehicle is fitted with exactly the right size battery it needs.
Amazing Auto Electric is located at 65 Coleridge St, Sydenham. To find out more, call 03 379 4250 or visit amazingautoelectric.co.nz.