Auto Maintenance

Personalized Auto Maintenance

Automotive manufacturers are producing more reliable vehicles than ever before. However, even reliable vehicles will require routine maintenance.

A recent survey by Care Care Council discovered: 89% of vehicles were in need of a least one service or repair.

  • 25% of cars had low or dirty engine oil.
  • 13% had low or contaminated brake fluid.
  • 18% had dirty air filters.
  • 17% had inadequate cooling protection or low coolant levels.
  • 16% needed new windshield wiper and 27% had low or contaminated washer fluid.
  • 18% needed new belts

Auto Maintenance Plan
Auto Maintenance Plan

Routine Maintenance

Routine maintenance expenses include:

  • Oil changes
  • Tune-ups (tire rotations, Wheel alignments)
  • Brake service
  • Replacing the tires
  • Battery
  • Windshield wipers
  • Timing belt
  • Drive belts

These service will vary in cost depending on your vehicle. Your owners manual will have a maintenance section that identifies when to perform routine maintenance.

If routine maintenance is ignored, it usually costs more money to maintain your vehicle. An unexpected repair is much more likely to occur or become needed when routine maintenance is skipped. You may even need to have your vehicle towed.

Routine auto maintenance is likely to generate the single biggest return on your vehicle. We recommend changing your oil and filter as often as the manufacturer recommends. This will help protect crucial components of your vehicle from failing in the future.

Recommended Major Services

Besides routine maintenance, most automakers recommend major services at 30,000-mile intervals. We will gladly discuss your vehicle needs. Remember, today’s cars will last 200,000 miles or more if properly maintained. Dollar for dollar maintenance is far cheaper than no maintenance at all. At Dupont’s, we strive to make it as easy as possible to maintain your automobile without the breakdowns and towing headaches.

Dupont’s is a dealer alternative to performing your vehicles factory recommended scheduled maintenance. Don’t feel like you have to take your car to the dealership to keep your warranty, we can stamp your service booklet for you.

To ensure long vehicle life and vehicle reliability, we feel the most important things you can do to maintain your vehicle are:

  • Change the oil every 3000 miles.
  • Follow the manufacturer’s scheduled car maintenance.
  • Have high wear items inspected.
  • Perform seasonal auto maintenance.

Our automobile service program includes an exclusive car care check up for free. We inspect all major systems of your car every visit.

At Dupont’s all our services are performed by ASE certified auto professionals, assuring that someone with extensive auto repair experience is performing the service on your car every time.

Unexpected Repairs

Unexpected repairs are more likely to occur if you prolong having your routine maintenance performed. Your likelihood of having to perform an unexpected repair will significantly decrease if you stick to your manufacturers recommended maintenance plan. Even with scheduled routine maintenance there is a chance you could have one of these problems after putting a significant amount of miles on the vehicle.

Unexpected repairs may include:

  • Electrical problems
  • Internal engine damage
  • Transmission Issues
  • Replacing Suspension/Steering Parts
  • Alternator problems
  • The Starter
  • Belts or hoses

New vehicles will often come with a standard 3-year/36,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. Some manufacturers have a much longer warranty on specific items. Warranties will apply as long as scheduled maintenance is performed.

Motor Oil 101

Oil circulates through the engine:

  • lubricates moving parts – almost no metal to metal contact – everything is riding on a thin film of oil
  • cleans the inside of the motor
  • stops corrosion
  • improves sealing
  • cools the engine

Regular Motor Oil

Refining oil removes as much wax, paraffin and tar molecules as possible. This is what
can help causes build up inside the motor. There are 5 groups of oil.

Synthetic Motor Oil

Synthetic oil is chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil.

  • Used in aviation and aerospace industries since the 1950s.
  • 1st synthetic oil developed for automobiles by the AMSOIL in 1972.
  • Synthetic oil was not marketed to the general public until 1993.

Benefits of Synthetic Oils:

  • Can Increase performance & better gas mileage
  • Nearly ZERO friction inside the motor
  • Sludge combating formulas – keeps engines clean
  • High-temperature protection & low-temperature start-up protection

Semi-synthetic oil

Semi-synthetic oils or ‘synthetic blends’ are blends of mineral oil with no more than
30% synthetic oil. Designed to have many of the benefits of synthetic oil without matching the cost of pure
synthetic oil. Motul introduced the first semi-synthetic motor oil in 1966.