We cannot stress enough the importance of this service. There was a period of time where so many manufacturers referred to their automatic transmissions as "Lifetime Fill". Meaning, you never have to change the fluid. The thinking here, seemed to be that if a transmission ever needs to be replaced when a vehicle is up in the higher mileages, it should almost be expected, for an old car. Then manufacturers started to recommend fluid "changes" for automatic transmissions. This involves draining the transmission and removing the pan to replace the filter. For so many transmissions this still leaves over half of the old fluid in the torque converter, cooling lines, and cooler. Which is why we always recommend flushing the fluid with a machine. Yes, it's a little more than an old fashioned "drain and fill", which we can also do for you, if you prefer, but since this fluid does always get so incredibly "muddy", we recommend flushing it.
Many modern vehicles have fairly lengthy oil change intervals now. Usually every 10,000 miles upwards to about 20,000 miles for some vehicles. The reasoning being that today's synthetic lubricants do not break down in viscosity as soon as the conventional lubricants of the past did. But this practice leaves the lubricants in their respective units (In this case, the engine) much longer than they ever were in the "old days", and we've been finding a lot of "sludge" in these engines, as a result. We recommend changing oil, with the filter, every 5,000 miles. Why take chances with the "heart" of your car?
With changing engines comes the need for new services. Many engines are now implementing GDI, "Gasoline Direct Injection", to improve performance and fuel economy at the same time. This design has a noticeable drawback, due to federal emissions requirements, that the exhaust and crankcase gases be introduced back into the engine's combustion process to reduce emissions. Engines have been burning these gases for a long time, but in the past, the fuel was being introduced into the engine "upstream" of the intake valves, where the fuel passes over the valves as it's going into the combustion chamber. Now the fuel is being injected directly into the combustion chamber (cylinder), never passing over the valves. As a result, GDI engines tend to develop deposits on their intake valves which eventually affect the engine's performance. When these deposits have accumulated enough, the only real way of correcting this is to remove the intake manifold and clean the valves with a walnut shell blaster. This process has long been referred to as "Carbon Cleaning". "Induction Service" is the process of cleaning the intake valves by way of introducing chemicals into the intake system while the engine is running. This is more of a maintenance procedure that you would do every 30,000 miles, to help keep the valves clean before the deposits build up too much. We offer both of these services, should your vehicle require it.