Allen Auto Repair

So what is the most distracting food to have in the car while driving around LUCAS?Is it: A Hamburger; Coffee; A Soft Drink, or Gummy Bears? Well, you may be surprised to learn that all but the gummy bears are in the top ten most distracting foods when you are driving. But if you chose 'coffee,' then give yourself an extra two points.  Coffee is the number one food distraction for drivers in LUCAS and around the country.Food distractions cause 25 percent of all car accidents; over a million and a half each year!You'll notice that all of the top ten distracting food items are messy. Messy foods are the types of food you might spill (very distracting!), then try to clean up (a safe-driving impossibility!). If you gotta eat on the run, take five-then drive. You'll thank yourself later for two reasons: one, that you can actually relax for just a moment in our fast-paced world, and two, you won't have to worry about getting that ... read more

Looking at getting some new tires? Maybe the real reason for wanting those off-highway tires is that they look cool. Well there's nothing wrong with that. If you make sure that you've got your functional needs covered with your selection, then you can have some fun with where you go from there.Let's suppose you zip around LUCAS in a sporty car. You may like to run a high-performance summer tire when the weather's good. When TX weather turns cold, you can put on high-performance winter tires. For the kind of driving you like to do, you want full-on performance tires. All-season tires are naturally a compromise that works well for most LUCAS drivers, but since you have a choice, go for dedicated summer and winter tires.When it's time for new tires, visit with a knowledgeable Craig's Car Care Inc tire professional. Describe your needs and wants. He'll come up with some selections for you to discuss. And once you settle on a type of tire, there are options for special needs: like pulling ... read more

If you've ever been driving around LUCAS and had a headlamp go out, you've probably just wanted to replace the bad bulb. If your car uses halogen headlamps, they dim over time. So if you just put in one, they won't have the same brightness, which can be distracting and will affect your field of vision.To have your headlights inspected, visit us at Craig's Car Care Inc. We're at 1005 W LUCAS RD in LUCAS, TX 75002. Or give us a call at 972-941-6700.Experts at Craig's Car Care Inc recommend replacing your halogen headlamps every year. It's easy to remember if you do it when Daylight Saving Time changes in the fall. That way you'll have bright headlamps for those long TX winter nights.There are other types of headlamps in addition to halogen. There are the old standard bulbs that have been around for decades. These are OK, but you can usually upgrade to halogen. They cost a little more but you can't believe the difference. If you do a lot of night driving ... read more

Buying a new car in LUCAS is always a big financial decision. The allure of that new car smell is powerful, to be sure. But what if your current car is still in good shape? How do you decide?People in LUCAS who've been used to driving a new car every three to five years may be having second thoughts in this economy. For many, the question is, how does the certainty of a new car payment stack up against uncertain repairs for a car that may be out of warranty?For purposes of our discussion, let's assume you live right here in LUCAS and have a five year old vehicle. It's now paid off. If you keep it, you fear that there'll be some repairs over the next five years, but you really don't know what to expect. For help we turned to maintenance and repair information for cars and trucks. With this data, they project likely service and repair costs for a particular make and model. They're able to use manufacturer's maintenance schedu ... read more

At Craig's Car Care Inc we hear from a lot of people who are excited about the new diesel engines that will soon be available in passenger cars and SUV's. But our TX friends are often curious about the preventive maintenance requirements. People may not know that diesel engines have long been used extensively in Europe and Asia. In fact, in some markets, there're nearly as many diesel powered passenger cars as there are gasoline.Here's who's announced or is expected to announce new diesels for North America: BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Subaru. Of course, the US auto makers will be expanding their diesel offerings as well. Diesels will become a very big deal here in TX.You may ask, why has it taken so long getting to TX and North America? There are a bunch of reasons like fuel tax policies and such, but the biggest hurtle was that TX diesel fuel had a high sulfur content – too high for the latest generation of highly refined diesel engines ... read more

Most LUCAS folks occasionally have days when they've got a bunch of errands to run. Yesterday was my day off and I needed to fill the gas tank, pick up some groceries at my LUCAS market, swing by the ATM and get the kids from school. I could have made four trips . . . but that would have been totally inefficient. Instead I got unusually organized and planned my stops. I hit the ATM first and got gas next. Then I went to the supermarket and picked up the kids on the way home. I was proud of my wise use of time and money.What does this have to do with your car? Well, back in the day, each of your engine's accessories, like the alternator and air conditioner, were powered by separate belts. A vehicle might have five or six belts. These days, vehicles have a single belt to run all the accessories. It's called the serpentine belt. A pulley attached to the vehicle engine's crank provides the power to turn the serpentine belt. On the engine in the video, the first accessory in line is the po ... read more

LUCAS consumers are demanding. We want a safe, reliable vehicle that handles well and is comfortable to ride in. Oh, and we want good fuel economy, too. We also want vehicle repairs that are cheap, fast and easy. Unfortunately, one usually comes at the cost of the other.Today's vehicles have made significant improvements in reliability and performance over the last few decades. They also deliver more power to LUCAS drivers more efficiently than ever before. For example, some of today's 4-cylinder engines are equal to yesterday's V-8's. Our vehicles also offer an amazing range of features that make them more comfortable and convenient than ever before.But all of that improvement has come at a price for LUCAS vehicle owners. Our vehicles are more complicated and difficult to repair than ever before. They have numerous mechanical and electrical systems. Fuel systems are so complex they have to be run by a computer. Our vehicles are covered with sensors and high-tech electronic equipm ... read more

Road trip, anyone? Nothing spoils a great vacation faster than ending up stranded on the side of the road or spending a week in a rundown motel while our vehicle sits in the shop. Long days on the road can bring out the worst in your vehicle, so before you leave, prepare it for the journey by getting a trip inspection at Craig's Car Care Inc in LUCAS. After all, you wouldn't travel without clean socks, why ask your vehicle to travel with a load of dirty oil?The first step in a trip inspection at Craig's Car Care Inc is to look at your travel plans. What kinds of roads will you be driving on? Will you be in the TX back country or on the freeway? Will you be crossing mountains? Off-roading? What will the weather be like? How far away from LUCAS will you be traveling? How much are you hauling? Will you be towing a trailer or lugging a rooftop carrier? Will you encounter dust, mud, snow or sea salt? All of these questions can help determine which services are most needed. And do ... read more

Some of us LUCAS drivers just love tires. All those little rubber hairs on new tires and the smell is wonderful. We live in a great time for tires. No matter how you drive around TX, where you want to go or the look you're after; there is a tire for you.The same is true about wheels. The hardest part is choosing from the thousands of wheels available at TX tire shops.The team at Craig's Car Care Inc can help you get some things in mind before you make a purchase. Let's start with function and think about how you drive.For example, maybe you have a large SUV but you don't drive off-road around TX, so an off-road tread isn't important. Also, because you are not out bouncing over rocks in the TX backcountry, you don't need a high profile tire to protect your rims. So that means you can probably go with the low-wide look.If you have a winter season with rain and snow or if you find you need better ice and snow performance, they make great, high-performance snow tires that won't make i ... read more

Hey LUCAS - this is something really amazing: Your vehicle uses 12,000 times as much air as fuel when you drive it. All of that air has to be filtered to keep your engine clean.That's like 100 gallons (380 liters) of air every block! The engine air filter is just another example of a very important but inexpensive part that has to do a tremendous amount of work. And when it works, everything goes well. But, when it doesn't, well, it can lead to problems. Of course, your vehicle manufacturer recommends how often to change your air filter. But like most service intervals, where and how you drive your vehicle in TX affects when your filter needs to be changed.Dusty conditions around LUCAS or polluted city driving means you'll need to change your filter more often. Our trained professionals at Craig's Car Care Inc can check your filter for you. In fact, it's often a routine part of an oil change.When you think about it, a clogged air filter won't ... read more