Automotive Industry News & Information - South Mountain Collision & Auto Center

a car with lines and details over it like a computer screen

Your Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN, is essentially your car’s fingerprint. In its entirety, it is specific only to your car. Each car has its own unique VIN number and can be decoded to provide manufacturing and identification information on any vehicle on the road. Date of manufacture, manufacturer, vehicle type, where it was made, and options such as engine and transmission type, whether a car is a two or four-door, and a multitude of other specifications can be gleaned from a VIN number. Essentially, a VIN number will tell you exactly what a car is and where it came from, without even having to see the car.

Your drive belts run everything - your AC, power steering, alternator, and water pump are all dependent on the belts that turn them. At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, our goal is to keep your truck maintained, so you’re never stuck out on the road. Drive belts are a critical part of that goal.

You’ve probably heard the term “transmission flush” before at some point in your automotive experience. But what exactly does it mean to have your transmission flushed, and why does it matter? South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD has the answers.

Your radiator hoses are under a lot of pressure, in both the figurative and literal sense. From South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD, here’s what you need to know about the radiator hoses on your car, truck, or SUV.

Whether it’s a result of maintenance, mileage, or some other factor, it seems that every fleet or commercial diesel leaks a little bit of something. Oil, transmission fluid, gear oil, or coolant seem to find a way to pool overnight on the ground after a long day on the road. At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD, we can take care of that for you.

At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, we’re not only here to fix your car when something goes wrong...we’re here to help you understand your car, truck, or SUV a little better, too. Here are some tips concerning your thermostat - how it works, what to watch out for, and what to do about it when one fails.

If your car has climate control, then it also has a cabin filter. Cabin filters are simply air filters for the interior of your car, truck, or SUV. All air entering circulation through the climate control system first passes through this filter, to prevent your AC or heat systems from accumulating debris or blowing them out of your vents. The result is cleaner, quieter, and longer-lasting climate control systems, which keep the inside of your car as comfortable as possible.

At South Mountain Collision & Auto Center in Middletown, MD, we know how annoying a faulty fuel gauge can be. Never knowing how much gas you have in your car, truck, or SUV, and constantly running the risk of stranding yourself on the road somewhere, takes its toll after a while. Luckily, we can fix that.