Cary Auto Repair

You need to be aware of these four things when deciding if you need new tires: tread wear, exposure to the elements, tire age and visual inspection. Tread Wear Use the penny test. With this easy test, a penny can buy you peace of mind when it comes to your tires and safety. Place a penny head first into several tread grooves across the tire. Looking across the tread surface of your tire, if your tread is touching Lincoln’s head the it means you have at least 2/32 of an inch of tread depth which is good enough to be safe. If your tread does not touch Lincoln’s head your tire tread is shallow and worn, and your tires need to be replaced.   Why Worry About Tread Wear? The most important reason to worry about tread wear is safety. When your tire tread is worn, your car may respond poorly in adverse weather conditions like rain and snow. The tires ability to displace water or slush from between the tire and the road is diminished from w ... read more

Your brakes are one of the most important systems for accident prevention. Brakes are your first line of defense when it comes to avoiding collisions. This is why it’s so important to take good care of your vehicle’s brakes by consistently performing scheduled maintenance. August is Brake Safety Awareness Month, so we at Milex Complete Auto Care / Mr. Transmission want to make sure you’re informed about the best way to monitor the condition of your brakes. Your braking system is made up of generally six components: pads (shoes), rotors (drums), calipers, lines, master cylinder and ABS controller. Luckily, most of these parts last a long time. The parts of your brakes that need the most routine maintenance are your pads and rotors. Pads and rotors are the wear parts of the braking system. So, having regular inspections is necessary to assure you have adequate braking material on both. Also, routinely check yo ... read more

We all have bad habits, and some of them are worse than others. Sometimes our bad habits can really hurt us, literally and financially. We see this sometimes at Milex Complete Auto Care / Mr. Transmission. That’s why we thought we’d spotlight some bad car habits that a lot of people do that might result in extra visits to the auto care center. What sort of bad habits are we talking about? Well, see if you ever do any of these. You ignore a potentially troubling sound coming from your car. Maybe it’s the brakes making a screeching sound. Perhaps it’s a banging noise while driving down the road. Neither of those sounds are good, but maybe you would downplay their significance if your car is still running without a problem. If you’re hearing screeching when you’re braking, you need to have the brakes inspected.  You probably need brake pads, and if you’re not careful, and the s ... read more

If you’re not a car care expert, it can be hard to ignore that little voice inside your head that can’t help but wonder if you’re about to get ripped off every time you pull into an auto repair shop. A survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center found that only about 50 percent of people completely trust their local shop to fix their cars. That means that there is another 50% of the respondents that don’t trust the people who repair their cars! If you don’t know a lot about cars, you can at least know the right questions to ask and things to look for that can help you feel better about going in for your next auto service. Here are eight things that will help you choose a shop you can trust. Get referrals from friends. These folks have already done the hard w ... read more

So, you’ve just paid off your car. It seemed like it took a million years, but finally, you can relax and not worry about monthly payments. You may be thinking that you need to buy a new car. After all, while it didn’t really take a million years to pay it off, it did take a while, and your odometer shows that you’ve been driving it for well over 100,000 miles now. Isn’t it time to get a new car? Not necessarily. If you could drive your car for another 100,000 miles how much money could it save? It’s financially smart to keep your car running for as long as you safely can. According to Consumer Reports, motorists who have a car that hits 200,000 miles, which generally takes around 15 years, end up saving $30,000 or more over purchasing a new car. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be difficult to reach 200,000 (or more) miles, esp ... read more