Every Eagle Lake vehicle owner has to purchase tires at some time or another, so it’s a good idea to understand what the choices are. The best seasonal performance is achieved by purchasing tires to match the season you are driving in. Summer tires are designed for hot temperatures. The tread is engineered for good traction on dry or rainy MN roads. But the rubber compound in summer tires gets stiff when temperatures drop below 45°F, and snow and mud can pack into the tread, reducing the traction of the tire.

Winter tires are designed for good traction on snowy surfaces. The tread actually throws snow off of the tire as the wheel turns. The rubber compound in a winter tire is soft so that it will remain flexible at Mankato temperatures below 45°F. At higher temperatures, however, the softer rubber wears down rapidly.

All-season tires sacrifice some of the extreme performance of summer or winter tires, but they maintain adequate traction in either type of Eagle Lake weather.

So your first consideration when buying a tire is where you live in MN and where you usually drive. If you require maximum summer and winter performance you can go with dedicated summer and winter tires; you would just need to change out your tires each spring and fall.

For serious winter driving in MN, look for tires with a severe snow rating. These tires are labeled with a mountain-and-snowflake logo.

Your second important consideration is the quality of tire to purchase. Summer, winter and all-season tires come in a variety of grades and styles at MN tire stores. Eagle Lake auto owners will want to purchase a tire that will give them good wear and that will handle their driving style and road conditions. Your Hughes Automotive Inc tire professional can give you auto advice as to which type of tire will best fit your needs.

Eagle Lake auto owners who drive off-road around MN may want to look at a high-grade tire that is designed for off-road use. These tires are designed to handle the extra wear of off-roading while still giving good performance on Eagle Lake streets and highways. There are a number of options to choose from so that you can find the right tire whether you are only an occasional off-road explorer or a serious rock climber.

New wheels can be purchased in Eagle Lake as a statement of style or to add personality to your sedan. There are almost unlimited options. If you change the size of the wheels on your sedan, however, you will need to get some professional help to make your vehicle compatible with its new wheels. Talk to your Hughes Automotive Inc service specialist for more information about tires.

When your sedan has a problem, or just needs some routine service, you might get a little nervous. Your car’s so important to your life in Eagle Lake, you need to back on the road as soon as possible – with the problem fixed right the first time.

If you’ve ever checked into some of the technician training Hughes Automotive Inc professionals receive, you may be surprised at how much specialized knowledge and skill goes into diagnosing and repairing a modern car. For example: Today there are four cylinder engines that generate more power than the 1980s-era V-8’s. I mean a new V-6 Toyota Camry could beat Sonny Crocket’s Ferrari in a race to sixty.

Our engines are more and more powerful and at the same time their fuel economy keeps inching up – even with steep Mankato gas prices. They are also amazingly reliable: Kudos to the automotive engineers at the leading manufacturers. But the advances come at the price of simplicity. The modern cars Mankato motorists drive around MN expressways are so much more complex from a mechanical standpoint that it makes your head spin – not to mention the electronics.

Some sedans have several networked computers controlling most of the engine functions and many other vehicle operations as well. Mankato motorists take all of this sophistication for granted – but somebody has to fix it when it breaks. It’s a real challenge for Eagle Lake Hughes Automotive Inc technicians to keep up, but we work hard to stay ahead of the technology. It requires a high level of commitment on the part of the technicians and the Mankato service centers as well.

Hughes Automotive Inc technicians receive training through a combination of formal classroom training, training provided at Hughes Automotive Inc by parts and equipment manufacturers, on-line courses and home study courses.

In addition to the expensive training, there’s the financial commitment for Hughes Automotive Inc to purchase the diagnostic and repair tools.

There are many independent certifications available at Hughes Automotive Inc all the way up to Master Technician. The ability to repair your sedan requires a strong combination of training and resources. No one can know everything, so Mankato auto service centers subscribe to data services, technical libraries and even on-line communities that can help them when they run into a difficult problem.

It’s like those medical diagnosis shows on TV. Here are the symptoms – what’s the diagnosis and treatment? Diagnosis is every bit as much an art as a science. At Hughes Automotive Inc, we want everything to be simple, straightforward and inexpensive – but sometimes it just isn’t.

The next time you bring us your sedan, don’t worry. You’re in good hands at Hughes Automotive Inc.

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Today in our Hughes Automotive Inc blog, we’re going to talk about following recommended service intervals. Your sedan isn’t the only aspect of your life in Eagle Lake with recommended intervals: Let’s start with twice yearly dental check-ups and regular physical exams. How about laundry, watering the lawn and paying the bills?

Now, what would happen if you didn’t follow these intervals? Well, you’d get more cavities. You’d may not discover health conditions that could be more effectively treated with early detection. And you’d have to wear dirty clothes, be embarrassed by your brown lawn and have your utilities shut off.

Clearly, there are some things in life that we have to take care of regularly. If we don’t, there are negative consequences. Our quality of life in Eagle Lake takes a hit and it inevitably costs more money.

So why is it so hard to remember to follow regular preventive maintenance on our sedans? Probably a couple of reasons. One is that automotive maintenance items just don’t seem that urgent. All our Eagle Lake neighbors can see our dead lawn, but no one knows how dirty our transmission fluid is. It’s easy to put off. The other reason is that we’re just not as familiar with automotive maintenance, so it’s a bit intimidating.

From a practical standpoint, Eagle Lake people don’t need to memorize their sedan owner’s manuals. You can let your Hughes Automotive Inc advisor remind you of the guidelines established by vehicle manufacturers: he has checklists of what the manufacturer recommends and can find potential problems when he inspects your sedan. You really can rely on Hughes Automotive Inc professionals to help you make good automotive decisions.

For Eagle Lake drivers who want to be more proactive with their sedan care, here are some simple ways for Eagle Lake auto owners to remember what has a maintenance interval.

First: Fluids. If it’s liquid, it’s got a replacement schedule. Oil, transmission fluid, coolant, power steering fluid, brake fluid, differential fluid, etc.

Then think tires. They need air, rotation, balancing, and alignment. And while you’re thinking tires, don’t forget brakes and shock absorbers.

And what makes your sedan go? Air and fuel. Air filter replacement, fuel filters and fuel system cleaning. Of course there are more items, but if Eagle Lake car owners remember to take their car or truck in to Hughes Automotive Inc for these things, their service advisor will help them with the rest.

And if you don’t follow recommended service intervals? You get lousy fuel economy, your sedan doesn’t run as well, your safety is compromised and you’ll spend more money in the long run. So it’s the same as everything else: The quality of your motoring life takes a hit and it ends up costing you more.

Reason enough for me to follow recommended service intervals.

Here’s an interesting statistic for our auto owners in Eagle Lake, MN: Only thirty percent of car batteries make it to forty-eight months. And the life expectancy varies by where you live. It ranges from fifty-one months in extremely cold areas to just thirty months in extremely hot climates.

Why is that? It turns out that it’s our modern cars with all their electric accessories that are to blame. Things like, GPS, DVDs, and entertainment computers are keeping sedan batteries from maintaining a full charge. The longer a battery goes with a low charge, the sooner it’ll die.

It’s clear that you Eagle Lake auto owners need to recharge your batteries. This is the job of the alternator. The problem comes when the car’s demand for electricity is high and we are driving in stop and go conditions or short trips around Eagle Lake or Mankato. The alternator just can’t keep up.

The result is shortened battery life. So what can we Eagle Lake auto owners do to improve our battery’s health?

We need to keep the battery as close to a full charge as possible. That can be hard because sitting for just twenty-four hours in hot weather between charges can be too long. When the weather’s cold in Eagle Lake, sitting for several days will cause discharge.

So some highway driving between Eagle Lake or Mankato will help keep a full charge if the battery has not been deeply depleted. Car batteries are not designed to be run down really low, or deep cycled, as it’s called. So using your headlights or other power accessories when the car is off can deeply deplete your battery. Using the alternator to recharge from a deeply depleted state is also very detrimental to your battery because it charges too fast. In fact, on average, your battery would only last for ten recharges like that.

If you do find yourself with a dead battery or very low battery, use a good quality battery charger to slowly bring the battery up to full charge. Follow the instructions on the charger or talk to your honest Hughes Automotive Inc service professional.

Because our batteries are so often at less than a full charge, the experts at Hughes Automotive Inc suggest that we use a battery charger from time to time to keep the charge up. They recommend once a month during hot weather and once every three months during colder times.

Now, an important word on safety for Eagle Lake car owners. Batteries contain sulfuric acid that can severely burn your skin and could blind you. If you find yourself with a dead battery, carefully inspect it before you jump start it. If the case is bulging, cracked or leaking, do not jump start it. Damaged batteries can explode or catch fire. Deeply discharged batteries can freeze. Do not jump start a frozen battery.

At Hughes Automotive Inc, we provide quality automotive service including alternator, alignment and body work.

Today we want to talk to Eagle Lake auto owners about timing belts. They’re something that many Eagle Lake drivers don’t know much about and yet your vehicle won’t run if it’s broken – and it could cause many thousands of dollars damage if it does break. A broken timing belt is usually a tale of woe. Even though timing belt replacement is scheduled in the owner’s manual, it’s not the kind of thing that most Mankato drivers remember because it’s not well understood.

Let’s review what a timing belt does. As most Eagle Lake car owners know, the engine’s power is generated in the cylinders. A piston rides up and down in the cylinder. During the first down stroke, an intake valve at the top of the cylinder opens and air and fuel is drawn into the cylinder. Then the piston returns to the top, compressing the fuel and air mix. At the top, the spark plug fires, igniting the fuel pushing the piston down in the power stroke. As the piston once again returns up in the final stroke of the cycle, an exhaust valve opens at the top of the cylinder and the exhaust is pushed out. The timing belt is what coordinates the opening and closing of the intake and exhaust valves. It’s called a timing belt because the valves have to open and close at just the right time.

Now, not all Eagle Lake and Mankato vehicles have timing belts. Some have timing chains. Like the name implies, they use a chain rather than a belt to perform the function. It used to be that most engines used timing chains, which are extremely durable. The leading manufacturers started using belts rather than chains to save money in the manufacturing process. So now Eagle Lake car owners and Hughes Automotive Inc service specialists are left with a component that can break. They sort of shifted the problem to us. There are two broad categories of auto manufacturer engine design: interference and non-interference. If the timing belt on a non-interference engine breaks, the engine simply stops running. That could be very dangerous for car owners depending on where they are at the time, but it causes no internal engine damage.

Interference sedan engines, on the other hand, will get real messed up when the timing belt breaks, because the valves will actually fall down into the path of the pistons. Things get chewed up when that happens and it’ll cost a chunk of cash to repair the sedan engine.

So, what are the warning signs? Unfortunately, there really aren’t any. There aren’t tell-tale sounds. In some vehicles, a technician from Hughes Automotive Inc may be able to see part of the belt for a visual inspection, but many have a cover that’s in the way. The reality is that if the belt slips even one notch, it might as well be broken for all the pricey damage it’ll cause. There’s no middle ground.

So how can we avoid these problems? Simply replace the timing belt when your owner’s manual calls for it. It can be 60,000 miles; it might be 90,000 or 100,000 miles. The point is, if you have 60,000 or more miles, ask your Hughes Automotive Inc service advisor right away if your car maker requires a timing belt replacement.

Contact Hughes Automotive Inc to learn more about your car’s Timing Belt
You can find us at:
109 E LeRay Ave
Eagle Lake, MN 56024
Or call us at 507.257.3730

Sometimes Eagle Lake auto owners can go quite a while without a failure, but we’ve seen them happen within a couple of oil changes of being due. It’s not worth the risk.

What does it cost to replace a timing belt in Eagle Lake or Janesville? Well, that really depends on what kind of car you have. I can tell you that it’s usually not very easy to get to the timing belt – you often have to remove some accessories to get at it. It isn’t a cheap procedure, but it’s a fraction of what it could cost to repair the costly damage caused by a failure.

At Hughes Automotive Inc in Eagle Lake we’re all about trying to prevent pricey repairs, keeping you and your passengers safe and increasing your driving enjoyment. Thanks to AutoNetTV for their great auto video tips.

In our auto video today we’ll be talking with Alan Peterson about myths surrounding automotive maintenance. You can lump these myths into the statement that “modern cars are so reliable, they are virtually maintenance free”.

Any good myth has some elements of truth. No offense to Eagle Lake Bigfoot fans, but this maintenance-free myth has more evidence than most. If we look at some isolated areas of auto maintenance, we could conclude that maintenance isn’t so important. But other areas would just as easily lead you to believe that maintenance is more important than ever.

Here are some examples for our friends in Eagle Lake.

• Some cars in Eagle Lake no longer require chassis lubrication. They’re made with self-lubricating materials and have sealed joints. There’s literally is no way to grease those joints.

-Chalk one up for the myth.

On the other side, some vehicles come with sophisticated variable valve timing. A lot of complicated parts up in the valve train that didn’t even exist not that many years ago. These parts are very vulnerable to oil sludge.

• So, skipping an oil change here and there could lead to very expensive damage.

-A point to maintenance.

• Electronic ignition has eliminated replacing points.

-Myth gets a point.

• Fuel injectors on direct injection engines are very expensive to replace so one must be sure to get a fuel system cleaning on schedule.

-Point for maintenance.

I think you get the picture. As automotive technology advances, it eliminates or reduces some maintenance requirements. And maintenance becomes more critical for some items. Most others remain very similar to what they’ve always been.

So the maintenance mindset is still important for car owners in Eagle Lake if we want our vehicles to last a long time. The checklist may change over time, but there’ll always be a check list.

Let me mention a couple of items on modern vehicles that folks need to be aware of. One of the most of the most important is timing belt replacement. Used to be that all engines had timing chains – you know, metal chains. They rarely broke.

It’s cheaper to make engines with timing belts rather than chains, so replacing the timing belt is on most engines’ maintenance list. The money the manufacturer saves by using a belt is more than off-set by what the vehicle owner has to pay to replace the belt. And it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of repairing the damage if the timing belt breaks.

So make sure you know when your timing belt needs to be replaced. You don’t want to miss that. If you have 60,000 miles or more, break out your owner’s manual or ask your Eagle Lake service advisor at Hughes Automotive Inc to check on the recommendation right away.

Another is sealed wheel bearing assemblies on some vehicles. As you might have guessed, it’s cheaper to make a sealed unit than one that has access to inspect or service the wheel bearings. The problem is that when the bearings fail, you have to replace the entire unit, not just the bearings. That’ll cost 5 or 6 times as much.

For our friends in Eagle Lake, we hope this has underscored the importance of knowing and following your maintenance schedule. Come in and see us at Hughes Automotive Inc. You’ll find us at 109 E LeRay Ave in Eagle Lake, MN 56024. Just give us a call at 507.257.3730.

Brakes really aren’t optional equipment for Eagle Lake auto owners. And taking care of them isn’t optional either.

A regular brake inspection is on every MN car’s maintenance schedule. At Hughes Automotive Inc, our team will check your brake system and let you know if there are any important problems. Of course, if you’re having trouble with your brakes, get your car into your Eagle Lake or Eagle Lake service center right away. And watch out for these problems:

• Low or spongy brake pedal
• Hard brake pedal
• A brake warning light that stays on
• Constantly squealing or grinding brakes
• Vibrations or clunking sounds when you apply your brakes

There are two types of brakes: disc and drum. Disc brakes have a rotor that’s attached to the axle. Calipers straddle the rotor, kind of like the brakes on a bicycle. Drum brakes are more common on back wheels. Pads, called shoes, push against the inside of the drum to slow the vehicle.

There are several things that need to be serviced on the brake system. First, the brake pads and shoes wear out with use, and become too thin to really help. If the brake pads wear away completely you can damage the rotors. The calipers can grind grooves in the rotor. Then the rotor must either be resurfaced or replaced and that can be expensive. But putting it off is dangerous because your sedan won’t stop as quickly. Sometimes rotors warp or crack and must be replaced.

Brake fluid is also essential. When the brakes are applied, the pressure in the fluid activates the brake pads or shoes. Not enough fluid, not enough pressure to brake properly. Also, water builds up in the brake fluid over time, which leads to corrosion, leaks and harmful brake damage, and with hard use, the brakes could severely fade or even fail. Eagle Lake motorists should change the brake fluid when their auto manufacturer recommends it.

There are different grades of brake pads sold in the Eagle Lake area. There are regular, metallic and ceramic – higher grades are more costly, but give better braking performance and smoother operation. It’s OK to upgrade your brake pads. But, never use a grade that’s lower than what the vehicle manufacturer recommends.

Be sure to properly maintain your brakes because it’s a lot cheaper than paying your nearest Mankato area body shop after an accident.

Hello, welcome to Hughes Automotive Inc. Today’s focus is batteries. It seems like everything in Eagle Lake runs on batteries. Of course, the batteries we’re most concerned with here at Hughes Automotive Inc are those in our customer’s vehicles. Just like the batteries in our smoke detectors or TV remote, car batteries wear out and need to be replaced. There are a couple of things Eagle Lake drivers should know when looking for a new battery.

Look for two measurements that come into play: cold cranking amps and reserve capacity.

Let’s start with cold cranking amps. This can be thought of as the power output used to start a cold sedan engine. The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on your vehicle and where you live in MN, specifically how cold it is. (Many MN motorists have first-hand experience trying to start their car on a cold winter morning.) The two factors are that the colder your sedan’s engine is, the more power it takes to turn the engine over to get it started. It has all that cold, sluggish oil to contend with.

The other factor is that the chemical reaction in the battery that creates electrical energy is less efficient when the temperature dips. At Hughes Automotive Inc, we consult the table shown below. Let’s say it’s eighty degrees Fahrenheit in Eagle Lake. At that temperature, 100% of the battery’s power is available. At freezing, only 65% of battery power is available, but it requires 155% as much power to start the engine as it did at eighty degrees.

As you can see from the chart, the colder it gets, more power’s needed, but the available power drops.

Percent of Power Available	Celsius	Fahrenheit	Power Required
100	27	80	100
65	0	32	155
40	-22	0	210
25	-32	20	350

So if you live where it’s cold in MN, you need a battery with more cold cranking amps than you do where it’s moderate or hot. The battery that originally came with your sedan was based on averages. At Hughes Automotive Inc, we like to remind Eagle Lake motorists that they should always get at least as many cold cranking amps as their auto makers recommend, but may want to upgrade if they live where it gets real cold.

And the type of engine you have will impact the battery you need: A six-cylinder engine requires more cold cranking amps than a four. An eight cylinder needs even more. And diesel sedans require more than a gasoline engine with the same number of cylinders.

Now on to reserve capacity: It’s a measurement of the number of minutes of reserve power the battery has at a given load. The number is more important to Eagle Lake motorists these days because of parasitic drain. Parasitic drain is the battery energy that’s used when the key is off in your sedan. So, the power drawn by the security system, the remote start system, even the power the computers require to maintain their memory.

Reserves are also needed when you make very short trips around Eagle Lake. You’re not driving long enough for the battery to recover the energy it used to start the engine. So go with the minimum recommended by your manufacturer or Hughes Automotive Inc and upgrade if you need more.

Talk with us at Hughes Automotive Inc about your options. If you need more from your battery, a larger, heavy-duty battery may be called for. At Hughes Automotive Inc in Eagle Lake, we remind our customers that it’s very important that the new battery fits your sedan: the terminals can’t be touching other parts.

Batteries are a big ticket item for most MN car owners, so the warranty gives piece of mind. There’re two kinds of car battery warranties: pro-rated and free replacement. With the pro-rated, you get a credit for a portion of the battery if it fails during the warranty period. With a free replacement warranty, you get just that, a free replacement. Be sure to ask us at Hughes Automotive Inc about the warranty so you know what you’re getting.

Today we’re going to be talking about serpentine belts for our Eagle Lake, MN customers. Let’s start by talking about the accessories that are driven by the serpentine belt. First is the alternator. That’s the essential device that makes electricity to power the sedan and recharge the battery. Then there’s the air conditioning compressor that makes cool air for you while you’re driving around MN in the summer.

The power steering and power brake pumps are driven by the serpentine belt in most Eagle Lake motorists’ vehicles. Those pumps provide important pressure that assists your steering and braking.

In many sedans, the water pump is driven by the serpentine belt. The water pump is what circulates the coolant that protects your engine. In some cars around Eagle Lake, MN, the water pump is driven by the timing belt.

The radiator cooling fans on some sedans are also driven by the serpentine belt. Some have separate electric motors. That’s really a lot of vital work for one belt.

But modern engine design has a single belt that snakes around the front of the engine and drives most if not all of these accessories. Serpentine belts do a lot of critical work, but they’re tough and can last Eagle Lake auto owners for thousands of miles.

Just how long will they last? That’ll vary for each individual car in the Eagle Lake, MN area. Your auto maker will have a recommendation for when it should be changed, but it could need it sooner. The good news is that a visual inspection at Hughes Automotive Inc can detect a belt that’s getting close to failing.

Your honest Hughes Automotive Inc service specialist can look at the belt: if it has more than three or four cracks per inch, it needs to be replaced. A deep crack that’s more than half the depth of the belt – replace. Frayed, missing pieces, a shiny glazed look? Toss it.

What’s involved in replacing the belt at Hughes Automotive Inc? First the old belt is removed. Then a new one is fitted around all the pulleys for the accessories and the drive. There’s a special pulley called a tensioner.

This pulley is mounted to the engine block with a spring loaded arm. Its important job is to apply the correct amount of tension to the belt to keep it from getting loose and maybe slipping off. Because the spring in the tensioner pulley wears out, AutoNetTV and the automotive professionals at Hughes Automotive Inc recommend Eagle Lake auto owners replace them at the same time as the belt. It just makes sense.

What are the warning signs that there’s a problem with the serpentine belt? You may hear a squealing sound from under the hood when accelerating around our Eagle Lake streets. A loose belt might give you a slow, slapping sound.

What do you do if your belt breaks? If you’ve actually had that happen on a busy Mankato interstate, it can be a little scary. The first thing Eagle Lake car owners usually notice is that they have no power steering or power brakes. Don’t panic – you can still steer and brake, but you’ll have to do the work. It’ll be harder to steer and you’ll need more time and effort to stop, so plan accordingly.

Your dashboard will light up will all kinds of warnings. You’ll see a warning about your cooling system if you have a water pump that’s driven by the serpentine belt. This is essential because without your cooling system working, your engine will overheat. If you don’t stop you’ll have massive engine damage, maybe to the point that you need a new engine. Open your windows and turn the heater on full blast to provide a little engine cooling. Pull over as quickly as you safely can!

The battery light will come on because the alternator isn’t working. If your car’s water pump isn’t driven by the serpentine belt, you’re not in danger of overheating so you can drive a little further if necessary. But the battery will run down to the point where the car will just shut off. You don’t want that to happen while you’re driving in our local Eagle Lake, MN traffic.

Remember, Eagle Lake motorists can avoid this stressful scenario if they replace their sedan serpentine belt on schedule. Ask your honest Hughes Automotive Inc technician to check your belts and hoses from time to time so you can take care of them if they need to be replaced prematurely.

Hughes Automotive Inc
109 E LeRay Ave
Eagle Lake, MN 56024
507.257.3730