Servicing & Repairs
Servicing in Egham & Staines
Magna Carta offer a range of servicing options to match your maintenance needs.
Servicing your vehicle is the best way to find and fix potential problems. A regular service ensures that your vehicle is safe for you and other road users. A service also ensures the vehicle is running optimally, which can also improve fuel efficiency!
A badly maintained car is unsafe, expensive to run - which is why we offer a range of servicing options to keep your car safe and reliable.
Servicing Laws
In 2003, new European laws (Block Exemption Legislation) came into effect allowing independent garages to carry out servicing or repairs without invalidating a vehicle's warranty. This means that you don’t need to have your car serviced by a franchise dealer in order to retain your warranty cover.
Repairs in Egham & Staines
Starter Motor Repairs
The starter motor is essential to the ignition process in your car. Once the engine is running it will continue firing under its own power, but it needs a starter motor to trigger the internal combustion process when you start the vehicle.
A faulty starter motor will typically cause problems with engine ignition. Failure to start or slow engine turn over can both indicate a starter motor fault.
Suspension Repair
Your car's suspension has two primary purposes - to maintain road handling and braking efficiency, and to improve ride comfort for the passenger.
The suspension on most modern vehicles uses coil springs and shock absorbers, though there are other systems available. Either part can fail, although it is most common for the shock absorbers to wear with time and leak fluid. Coil springs do occasionally fracture, but this is much less common in reasonable use.
There are a few things to look out for in your suspension system. These include...
- Fluid leaking from the shock absorber.
- Dented or damaged shock absorbers.
- Uneven wear to you tyres.
- Vehicle swaying or leaning when cornering.
- Vehicle "nose dives" under braking.
- Excessive bouncing after hitting a bump.
- Harsh or bumpy ride.
- Steering is stiff or noisy.
Alternator Replacement & Repair
The Alternator charges the battery and powers your car's electrical systems while the engine is running.
Tell-tale signs of Alternator problems include erratic headlamp output and intermittent outages in the vehicle's electrical systems. Many modern vehicles also display a dashboard warning light to indicate alternator trouble, which can vary from one make to another.
A faulty alternator can also give the appearance of a dead battery - when the alternator malfunctions the battery is no longer being efficiently recharged, so quickly runs out of power.
Brake Repairs
Your brakes are probably the most important part on your vehicle. If your car is having a braking problem you need to find the problem and repair it as soon as possible. Indicators of a brake fault include increased stopping distances, a "spongy" pedal, or grinding sounds when stopping.
Diagnosing the problem
If you step on the brake pedal and it feels like it’s going too far down before you start to slow, you might have one or more the following problems:
- Low Fluid Level
- Check your brake fluid. If it’s low, top it off to the mark on the side of the reservoir.
- Contaminated Fluid
- Even though your brakes operate in a closed system, contaminants can still work their way in. Air can enter through the smallest of holes, and you could end up with water contamination from condensation.
- Worn Brake Pads
- Your brakes should never wear low enough to cause your brake pedal to feel low, they’ll scream at you before then. But if they do get very low, you might have this problem. Replace your brake pads as soon as possible. Of course, this can be avoided with regular brake inspection.
- Boost Unit Failure
- Finally, if your brake booster fails you’ll have low brake pedal issues. Most brake boosters are vacuum controlled, so a special vacuum measurement device is required to check it. If the boost unit has failed, it will need replacing.