Automotive Industry News & Information - Lake Ridge Automotive

Are your fleet vehicles equipped with four-wheel or all-wheel drive? More and more, companies are moving towards vehicles equipped with one or the other - they’re safer and more useful, particularly in inclement weather or less than ideal conditions. If your fleet is powered by all four wheels, Lake Ridge Automotive has you covered.

When you are having trouble with your car or truck starting and you open the hood up to take a peek to see this....you'll see what an overly corroded battery looks like. This happens naturally over time on vehicle battery terminals. If you are like 99% of normal Woodbridge drivers, you don't check your oil or your battery so you don't keep an eye on the amount of corrosion that's building up on your car or truck battery. Here at Lake Ridge Automotive, we do and there are solvents that we can use here in the shop during a battery maintenance service that will help slow the corrosion process but nothing that can prevent it 100%. Way before it gets to this point, we will be suggesting you consider replacing the battery.

Failed engine mounts are an irritating issue to live with causing your car or truck to vibrate and you don't know why. At Lake Ridge Automotive in Woodbridge, VA, we can help, no matter what type of car, truck, or SUV you drive and it is an easy issue to detect on a test drive.

There are a few indicators your engine mounts need to be replaced. For one, you can do a visual inspection, if they’re accessible enough - if they looked cracked, smashed, or dry-rotted, it’s probably time for new ones. If the engine visibly shakes while it’s running, engine mounts are also likely the culprit. However, if you are like most drivers you simply get in and drive on down the road until something is different or a light comes on! Then you call our shop for help!

It doesn't matter if you are driving a car or truck, jeep or SUV, a diesel 4x4 or a classic when those dash warning lights go off the first thing you do is think "how bad is it?" and "how much will it cost me?" followed quickly by "when was my last service visit?"!! Driving your vehicle longer safely is all about getting it serviced based on what your vehicle manual recommends and these warning lights are alerting you to a situation that requires your attention.

While not all warning lights are a sign that disaster is imminent, no warning indicator light should ever be ignored!

Repairs are costly and we all want to avoid them including our team here at Lake Ridge Automotive! It's our job and we take it seriously. Here, it is all about keeping your car or truck serviced and looking for problems "before" they happen to avoid those high repair costs and ensuring you avoid any breakdowns when it's hot outside or cold outside as either is a problem for our Woodbridge drivers! Nobody can forsee a flat tire or blowout due to running over a nail, but we can avoid some of the regular issues we see all the time such as....

Very friendly and fair service! I was nervous about the plastic lining above my tire coming out, but they drilled it back in for me at no cost. Would definitely go back. - Amberly M. (4 star review on Yelp)

Transmission Cut to show you the inside of it

Nothing works if your transmission doesn't work! Simply put you are going nowhere without it and it is the one thing that both car and truck drivers alike never think twice about until it really acts up or they have no power or simply don't move forward. Most of us have a newer car or truck with an automatic transmission in it vs. a standard transmission so do not notice that it is slipping gears until the problem is really serious so the question is how do you get the most out of your transmission? The obvious answer is to take care of your transmission with scheduled service per your owner's manual recommendation but we have put together a simple checklist for our Woodbridge drivers to help them become "transmission aware" as it were.

Here at Lake Ridge Automotive in Woodbridge we often do diagnostics and sometimes the problem is obvious after hooking the car up to the computer and reading the codes. However, sometimes it isn't obvious during a test drive or after hooking it up to all those computer programs! You know there is a problem and a Check Engine Light is on with the fleet customer telling you the car has been having issues starting and the light has been going off and on depending on several factors. No pattern, no simple answer but the problem becomes obvious when you start following the "threads of the issue" thanks to all that ASE Technician training.