Popular Car Myths

Hello and welcome to our website. My name is Bill Rimmer, Jr., and on this page I will try to dispel some of the most common myths drivers have about their cars.

My father has been in the automotive repair business since 1968, and when I was 15 years old I started learning the trade thanks to his guidance. In addition to having over 23 years of automobile repair experience. I have completed countless courses in automotive repair and stay as up to date as possible with continued training. This location opened over 15 years ago, and continues to expand to accommodate our growing clientele. This shop is still run by the principles and rules that have made my father and us successful for over 40 years.

Myth = My car has a vibration when I am driving it over 40 M.P.H., so I must need an alignment.
Truth: The most likely cause of this type of vibration is that your tires are out of balance, not that your car needs an alignment. An alignment means exactly what it says: it aligns the angles of your suspension components (which in effect aligns your tires) in order to meet the manufacturer’s engineered specifications. Proper alignment ensures that your car will handle safely and that your tires will wear evenly and correctly. Alignment has little to do with vehicle vibration. In addition to wheel imbalance, vibration can also be caused by a bent wheel, a damaged tire, a U-joint that is bad, or a CV axle problem on a front wheel drive car.

Myth = I only put highway miles on my car, or my commute is very short, and therefore my car does not fall under the severe service schedule of my owner’s manual.
Truth: If you live in or around the Atlanta area then your car is often under the most severe conditions possible for an automobile. Situations that involve sitting still, creeping through stop-and-go traffic, or repeatedly accelerating and then stopping are all very hard on your entire automobile. Stop-and-go traffic makes your engine and transmission run warmer than if you were cruising at highway speed. Stopping very frequently or suddenly (because it seems no one in this town knows how to drive) can cause your brakes to run hot (making them less effective) and to wear faster. Frequent short trips which don’t allow your car to warm up fully can cause greater internal engine wear than longer trips at operating temperature. In our opinion, for longer engine life and for safety, every car we service fails under the severe service schedule and should be maintained that way.

Myth = Brakes are brakes they are all the same. It makes no difference which brand or type of brake pads are used.
Truth: Brake pad material and workmanship make a HUGE difference in how they perform, how much noise they make, the amount of dust they put on your wheels, and how long they last.

The main problem with brake pads is that there are very few industry standards or regulations for brake parts. There are many different designs for braking systems and parts, different types of steel for brake rotors, and different compounds for brake pads. Therefore, it’s very difficult to have consistent testing of brake parts. Basically this means that anybody can make brake parts, even if they are made out of inferior materials. These cut-rate bake parts do not perform like original equipment quality parts. Personally, I find it strange how people are often more concerned with the price of a brake job than with the type of pad used or even if the guy installing them knows what he is doing. OF all the things on your car, brakes are the most important. I would like to think that if an accident were occurring in front of you on the highway, you would be much more concerned about stopping before YOU are involved in the accident rather than saving 50 bucks on a cheap brake job!

We use the best brake pads we can buy. Are there cheaper ones? Yes. Do they stop as well as the ones we use? Not even close. Will we install sub-par brake pads if you supply them? Absolutely not. I would rather not have your business than install parts that I would not send my own family on the expressway with! Of all the places in the world to save money, I do not believe that your brakes are the wisest place to try to trim corners especially compared to what it could cost you in the insurance sots, body work, hospital bills, or worse.