Automotive News & Information - Midway Diesel LLC

Getting into the habit of saving on fuel now will mean you’ll be ready when prices start rising again. You don’t have to buy a new, fuel-efficient car, either. No one wants to trade a fuel bill for a car payment, so take a look at our top 5 ways to save on fuel and you may just be able to pocket a little extra money at the end of the month.

When a vehicle has trouble starting, many people initially blame the starter. What is the starter, and how do you know if yours has called it quits? At Midway Diesel LLC in Eloy, AZ, we want to keep you informed, and telling you what to look for will prevent further damage when issues arise. The starter is essentially just an electric motor; a gear at the end of that electric motor engages the flywheel, which turns the engine over, allowing it to start. How do you know if yours is failing?

At Midway Diesel LLC in Eloy, AZ, we know buying a used car, truck, or SUV can be a gamble. While there are no guarantees, there are key points of inspection that tell us a lot about the condition of a vehicle and how it has been maintained. There are some important points of the inspection we verify when checking out a used vehicle.

In the diesel world, "blow-by" is a term you're bound to run across at some point if your line of work involves diesel-powered vehicles of any kind. What is blow-by, what causes it, and how concerned should you be? At Midway Diesel LLC in Eloy, AZ, our fleet maintenance and diesel technicians see it on a regular basis. Here we'll take a quick look at blow-by, correcting it, and preventing it.

What is Blow-By? - Diesel blow-by is a term that describes an event of lost compression into the crankcase. Blow-by occurs whenever a burnt or unburnt fuel and air mixture escape from the cylinder and past the piston rings and into the crankcase. In a perfect world, the piston would be sealed tightly in the cylinder, able to move up and down but keeping all the air and fuel and exhaust that enters or exits the cylinder during the combustion process out of the crankcase. As you'll see, this perfect world doesn't exist, but it is important to minimize the amount of blow-by in a diesel engine.

Car enthusiasts would argue that "those were the days". Everything you drove was built like a tank and had the chrome on it so you enjoyed washing it but NO power steering. For most of us, it is hard to remember life without power steering – cranking those great big steering wheels? It was a pretty good workout. Now power steering is standard. The heart of any power steering system is its pump. The pump pressurizes the power steering fluid that provides assistance 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. Here at Midway Diesel LLC in Eloy, AZ we know that you depend on that power steering and check your fluid & hoses religiously!

Unless you are confident in your abilities as an automotive mechanic, there is really only one rule when purchasing a flood-damaged vehicle: don’t do it. Unfortunately, sometimes sellers aren’t particularly straight-forward with their used cars. Many will try to hide the fact that it’s been damaged by floodwaters at all or try to convince potential buyers that the car is in fact fine. “It has gone months with no issues” or “technically it is flood-damaged but” are two red flags, and while it isn’t impossible for a flood car to be fine, it’s altogether a good idea to stay away.

Fuel Systems are particularly important on diesel trucks, whether you drive a Ford, Chevrolet, or Dodge pickup. At Midway Diesel LLC in Eloy, AZ, fuel system maintenance and repair is a service we prioritize, since we know how essential a reliable fuel system is.

Exhaust issues are extremely common, no matter what type of car, truck, or SUV you drive. At Midway Diesel LLC in Eloy, AZ, we can get your exhaust back in shape in no time. Exhaust issues tend to be neglected, and we get that; there are just other parts of your vehicle that you'd rather focus on. Besides a clogged catalytic converter, there isn’t much risk of damage from a bad exhaust system - it negatively affects your gas mileage, and the sound is annoying but other than that, it’s an issue many people learn to live with.