Automotive Service
We service most makes and models — brakes, oil, alignment, diagnostics and everything in between. If you are not sure what is wrong, call us and describe it. We will tell you what to expect.
- Expertise.com — Best Tire Shops in San Francisco, 2022
- Free pickup for most vehicle repairs (excludes tire repairs). Call the shop to arrange our flatbed.
- 2115 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA 94063 — free parking on site.
Brakes & safety
Stopping power, air conditioning and exhaust.
3 services
Air Conditioning
If your air conditioning blows warm, takes far longer to cool than it used to, or smells musty when you switch it on, the system has a fault rather than simply being low.
Brakes
If your brakes squeal, grind, pull to one side, or the pedal sinks further than it used to, have them inspected straight away rather than waiting to see if it settles.
Exhaust Service
If your car has got noticeably louder, you can smell exhaust fumes inside the cabin, or something is rattling under the floor, the exhaust system needs inspecting.
Tires & wheels
Fitting, repair, balancing, alignment and custom wheels.
9 services
Shopping for tires or wheels?
Custom Wheels
New wheels have to match your vehicle on bolt pattern, offset, load rating and brake clearance before the look matters at all.
Flat Repair
If you have picked up a puncture, whether the tire is flat now or just losing pressure over a few days, bring it in and we will find the leak and tell you honestly whether it can be repaired or needs replacing.
Lift Kits
A lift kit raises your truck or SUV to fit larger tires and gain ground clearance, and it changes the suspension geometry in the process, so it has to be aligned afterwards.
Tire Installation
New tires need to be mounted to the wheel, balanced, and fitted with the pressures and TPMS reset set correctly, or they will wear unevenly from the first mile.
Tire Rotation
Tires wear at different rates depending on which corner they sit at, so moving them around at regular intervals is what makes a set wear evenly and last its full life.
Tire Shaving
Tire shaving, also called truing, removes a small amount of rubber to make a tire as close to perfectly round as possible, which cures vibration that balancing alone will not fix and improves grip and handling.
TPMS Services
If your tire pressure light is on, keeps coming back after you reset it, or stayed on after new tires were fitted, the system needs servicing rather than ignoring.
Wheel Alignment
If your car pulls to one side, the steering wheel sits off center when you are going straight, or your tires are wearing on one edge, the alignment is out.
Wheel Balancing
If you feel a vibration through the steering wheel, the seat or the floor that appears at a particular speed and fades again, the wheels are almost certainly out of balance.
Maintenance & inspections
Oil, fluids, scheduled servicing and inspections.
8 services
Fluid Inspections
Every major system in your car runs on a fluid, and most of them fail quietly by degrading rather than by running out.
Oil Change Services
Engine oil lubricates, cools and carries contaminants away, and stops doing all three as it ages, which is why it is replaced on an interval, not when something goes wrong.
Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance is servicing components on a schedule so they are replaced while they still work, rather than waiting for the failure and the damage that comes with it.
Smog Check Repair
If your vehicle has failed its California Smog Check, or the check engine light is on with a smog test due, the underlying fault has to be found and repaired before it can pass.
State Inspection Rules
California does not have a periodic vehicle safety inspection, so there is no annual or biennial safety certificate to obtain here as in many other states.
Vehicle Inspections
California does not require a periodic safety inspection, so a voluntary check is the only thing that catches brake, tire, steering and suspension wear before it becomes a failure.
Vehicle Tune-Ups
A tune-up replaces the ignition and filter parts that wear out: spark plugs, ignition coils, air and fuel filters, and the PCV valve.
Wiper Blades
Wiper blades are rubber left out in the sun, so they harden and split whether you use them or not, and they usually fail right when the first serious rain arrives.
Electrical & diagnostics
Batteries, lights, and finding out what that warning light means.
4 services
Warning light on? Tell us what it’s doing and we’ll tell you what to expect.
Describe the problem
Battery Service
If your car cranks slowly, needs a jump, or the electrics behave oddly, the battery is the first thing to test, and it may not be the battery at all.
Check Engine Light
A check engine light means the engine management system has stored a fault code, and the code narrows down where to look rather than telling you what to replace.
Diagnostics
Modern vehicles record faults across dozens of electronic modules, and a proper diagnosis reads that data and then tests to confirm the cause rather than guessing from the code.
Headlamp Replacement
A headlight that has failed, or a lens so clouded it is throwing away most of its light, is both a safety problem and something you can be pulled over for.
Engine, air & fuel
Filters, belts, injectors and diesel servicing.
9 services
Belts and Hoses
Belts and hoses are rubber parts that perish with age and heat, and when one fails it usually takes something more expensive with it or leaves you stopped at the roadside.
Cabin Air Filter
The cabin air filter cleans the air coming into your vents, and when it clogs your airflow drops, the windows take longer to demist, and the car starts to smell musty.
Diesel Engine Maintenance
Diesel engines run at much higher compression than gas engines and have their own service needs, particularly around fuel filtration, water separation and the emissions hardware.
Engine Air Filter
The engine air filter stops dust and grit reaching the inside of your engine, and as it clogs the engine has to work harder to breathe, which costs you power and fuel.
Fuel Filter Services
The fuel filter keeps rust, sediment and debris out of your injectors, and a clogged one starves the engine of fuel exactly when it is asking for the most.
Fuel Injectors
Fuel injectors spray a precisely metered, finely atomised mist of fuel into the engine, and when their nozzles foul the spray pattern degrades and the engine misfires, runs rough and drinks more fuel.
PCV Valve
The PCV valve vents pressure out of your engine's crankcase and routes it back to be burnt, and when it sticks the pressure has to escape somewhere, which usually means pushed-out seals and oil leaks.
Serpentine Belt
One serpentine belt usually drives your alternator, water pump and power steering, so when it fails you lose charging, cooling and steering assistance at the same time.
Timing Belt Services
The timing belt keeps your engine's valves and pistons moving in step, and on an interference engine a snapped belt lets them collide, which can destroy the engine.
Cooling & fluids
Radiators, coolant, water pumps and overheating.
4 services
Coolant and Antifreeze
Coolant does more than stop freezing, it raises the boiling point and carries corrosion inhibitors that protect the metal inside your engine, and they wear out long before the fluid looks bad.
Cooling System
An engine that overheats even briefly can warp a cylinder head, so a cooling system problem is one of the few faults where continuing to drive genuinely makes it far more expensive.
Radiator Service
The radiator is where your engine's heat actually leaves the car, and it fails by corroding internally, blocking, or leaking at its seams and plastic end tanks.
Water Pump Service
The water pump circulates coolant through the engine, and when it fails, coolant stops moving and the engine overheats within minutes no matter how full the system is.
Drivetrain & suspension
Transmission, differential, steering and ride quality.
7 services
Differential
The differential lets your driven wheels turn at different speeds through a corner, and it runs on a heavy gear oil that degrades and needs replacing on a schedule.
Drivetrain
The drivetrain is everything that carries power from your engine to the wheels, and a fault anywhere in it shows up as vibration, clunking or a driveline that does not feel connected.
Four Wheel Drive
Four-wheel drive adds a transfer case and a second driven axle, which means more components to service and more ways for the system to fail to engage.
Power Steering
If your steering has gone heavy, groans when you turn, or feels inconsistent from one moment to the next, the power steering system needs looking at rather than tolerating.
Shocks & Struts
Shocks and struts stop your springs from bouncing, and because they fade gradually rather than failing outright, most people do not realize how far gone theirs are until they drive a car with fresh ones.
Suspension Services
Your suspension keeps the tires in contact with the road and absorbs what the road throws at the car, so when parts of it wear you lose ride quality, steering precision and grip together.
Transmission Service
Transmission problems almost always announce themselves gradually through slipping, harsh or delayed shifts and burnt fluid, and acting at that stage is the difference between a service and a rebuild.
Roadside & towing
When the car will not make it to us.
2 services
Car won’t make it here? Call the shop during opening hours.
650-365-0280- Mon–Fri
- 8:00 am – 5:30 pm
- Sat
- 8:00 am – 2:00 pm
- Sun
- Closed
Roadside Assistance
If your car will not start, has a flat, or will not make it to the shop under its own power, call us and describe what happened before arranging anything else.
Towing Services
If your vehicle cannot be driven, we can bring it in on our own flatbed, and for most repairs that pickup is free, with tire repairs excluded.
Describe it and we'll tell you
A noise, a light, a feeling that something changed. Call and describe it — you will get a straight answer about what it probably is and what it takes to look at.