Keller Import Service is a supporting member of the Car Care Council, and we applaud their mission to educate the motoring public. This year Car Care Awareness Month has been moved to April. We plan to participate in it's activities with Specials for our customers. To visit the Car Care Council site click here. Be Car Care Aware is the new slogan of the council. This is what we strive to do at Keller Import Service by advising you, on your service needs, and we will always keep you involved in the decision making process regarding the repair and maintenance of you vehicle.

My "CHECK ENGINE" light is on, what should I do? Most automobiles built since 1992 have a “CHECK ENGINE” warning light. Since 1996, they are referred to as the “Malfunction Indicator Light”, or the “MIL” for short. What does this mean when it illuminates? This is one of the most common calls we receive. “My check engine light is on what should I do and what caused this to come on?” When ever the MIL is illuminated one of the computers, often referred to as CPU’s, has detected a problem, or a value that is out of range. The first thing you should note is how the car is running. Does it appear to be running and performing normally? This will determine the urgency of the situation. If it appears normal make a note of it and continue to pay close attention to any change that may occur. Then call us as soon as possible with any information and make an appointment to have the car checked. If you notice a major change in the way the car is running, such as skipping, surging, hesitation or hard starting, this could mean a more serious problem. You should call us immediately and we will arrange to get the car in quickly to determine if it should be driven at all, until corrective measures can be performed. In either case this will involve checking the engine or transmission CPU’s for diagnostic fault codes. This is sometimes referred to as a “SCAN” of the systems. This must be done as the first step of the diagnostic procedure. We can then tell the severity of the situation, and determine if any repairs are necessary or if further diagnostics are required. Today's automobiles are very complex and require this procedure be followed. Most of the changes we have today are a result of the Federal Government mandating ever stricter emission regulations and higher fuel mileage requirements. The good thing is that today's automobiles run much cleaner and get much better fuel mileage than cars did 10 years ago. To accomplish these diagnostic test properly we have made major investments in sophisticated “Scan” tools dedicated to Mercedes and Volvo cars. These most often consist of laptop computers running specialized software and computer interface boxes and cables. This in effective allows our computers to talk to your cars computers. Be aware that with out this equipment the diagnostic procedures are very limited. I am proud that we are able to do this for you our customers, also be aware that most other repair shops have not made this necessary investment and rely on “generic” scan tools that give limited information at best, and at worse can give erroneous information. So what does all of this mean? If you experience a warning light coming on, don’t ignore it and hope the problem will go away. It could be something simple, but needs to be checked, and rest assured we can help you with a correct diagnoses and only the repairs that are needed.