Many auto repair fixes in a bottle products have a reputation of being snake oil and simply being wastes of money. Over the years and countless cars we have repaired at Tolima’s Auto Center we have found 4 of the best auto repair products that actually work. Not all of them will simply repair your car, but they will allow your car to drive a bit longer and allow our customers time to save up for the actual repair. Buying time can be priceless when it comes time to have a costly repair performed on your car.
Lucas Transmission Slip Fix
This products is meant to prolong the life of a high mileage transmission with slipping clutches. Automatic transmissions have a limited service life. If you perform regular transmission fluid flushes, your automatic transmission ca last over 200,000 miles, but there will come a point where the internal clutch discs inside your transmission will wear enough that they will start to slip. When they slip, your transmission will not be able to transfer power from your engine to your wheel and you engine will rev up and your wheels will barely move. This is called transmission slip because your engine will rev but your wheels will barely move or not at all. This product is a transmission fluid that is very thick and has a consistency similar to honey. You pour it into your transmission careful not to overfill it and idle your car for a little while to let it mix in with the regular transmission fluid. This can be enough to allow the worn clutches to grab and buy you more time before you inevitably have to have the transmission replaced. This product doesn’t work all the time, but when it does it can buy you time to continue driving your car while you save up to replace the transmission or replace the car.
Fuel Injector Cleaner
As gas prices are astronomical in this year 2022, we try to find any way we can to save on gas here is a tip. On 10 years or older port fuel injected cars the fuel injectors can get clogged with debris and not atomize fuel correctly, which will cost you in a decrease in fuel economy. There are fuel injector cleaner products that you can pour into your gas tank to help clean out your fuel injectors and get them to spray correctly. This can also help your engine run smoother as each of your cylinders will get an even amount of fuel. There are many fuel injector cleaner products on the market. We have had great experiences with Berryman B-12 Chemtool Fuel Injector cleaner.
Sometimes fuel injectors get damaged beyond what a fuel injector cleaner can help. For this we have a professional fuel injector cleaning service where your injectors are moved cleaned in an ultra sonic bath and then bench tested for spray performance and flow. This service can greatly help your fuel economy! Always feel free to contact us if you have questions.
Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer
Certain engines are prone to bearing wear when they are run low on oil, oil isn’t changed frequently enough, or the engine is simply worn out. When this happens you’ll get a low oil pressure warning light on the dash board. This will mean that you are in a high probability to spin an engine bearing or wear out another mechanical component due to not enough oil pressure. We have seen that this can be helped with thicker weight oils along with Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer. This product works like the transmission fluid by making the oil thicker and bumping up the pressure that way. This can actually make the engine last a lot longer than it would have otherwise with low oil pressure. This product can buy a lot of time for a worn or improperly maintained engine.
High Zinc Oil Additive
There are various products that are sold as oil performance additives. We have had great experiences with Marvel Mystery Oil, but other additives can accomplish the same thing. The main ingredient in these additives is Zinc. These products can be used to help quiet down noise from a worn valve train. Pretty much as engines wear they can develop ticking noises from worn components. Increasing the zinc content in the engine oil can help quiet these noises down. Aside from quieting the noises down it can help extend the time you have before you have to bring the car into the shop to replace the worn engine components. We recommend you look at the product information and confirm the components of the additive package and confirm it has a high volume of Zinc.
If your engine is running perfectly fine and your car is under 100k miles then most of these products shouldn’t be necessary unless your cars has been badly abused, is highly modified, or hasn’t been maintained. All these products can help you buy time if your transmission or engine are worn and on their way out. None of these products will permanently fix your car, but for a couple of extra bucks they can help buy you time. As usual if there is an issue you should have it professionally diagnosed and repaired. If you have any questions or would like automotive advice feel free to Contact Us.
