Calcium Auto Repair

Welcome to the new blog for March! We hope you and your family are prospering in this new year. With the recent weather causing some car issues this time of year, we thought it might help refresh you on the rules of how to jump-start a car from another car if your battery should fail. Pull up another car so that the driver's side front wheel is close to keep the batteries near each other. Do not let the vehicles touch. Remove the keys from both ignitions. Find the batteries in both cars. Find the positive (red) lead and the Negative (black) lead. Untangle the jumper cables.  Attach the jumper cables to the dead battery, putting the red clamp on the red lead. Put the black clamp on plastic within the car-- do not let it touch a metal surface.  Ensure that the jumper cable wires are nowhere near the fan, which will start as the engine starts. On the good battery, attach the red lead on the positive (red) terminal, and then attach the black lead on the negative termi ... read more

Welcome to February! This is your reminder that there are just 13 more days until Valentine's Day. Don't put yourself behind the eight-ball in a pandemic with last-minute devotion-- get your plan together while you still can! Of course, with it being icy and wintery in Calcium, we're facing many issues with the roads and ice. We hope you have remembered to get your winter tires put on, and if you hadn't, it's not too late until something terrible happens, so please get in touch if you need winter tires! And while tires are essential to your car's function in this cold weather, brakes are just as important. You need to be able to stop, and on some roads, you're likely to slide slowly instead of crisply braking to a stop. If your brakes aren't up to the task, you will have even less control of your car. So don't hesitate if you think something's off with your brakes-- schedule service immediately. There are three months in the calendar year that ... read more

As we say goodbye to 2020 and ring in the New Year, it’s time to take stock of where we are and make resolutions for 2021. People will vow to lose weight, take classes, learn a new language, etc. At Service Plus, we’d love to see more people make resolutions about the kind of car owner they’d like to be.   Here is a list of some of our favorite resolutions involving your car:   5. Stop speeding. Fast driving is hard on your car, it’s bad for your mileage, and, oh yeah, it’s illegal. It’s also the gateway to playing fast and loose with other rules, like lane changing and signalling and so on. And can lead to terrible accidents. So that’s a vice you can do without in 2021.     4. Buy new tires this year. It is crucial to have four good tires at all times. Your tires are what is connecting your car to the road, and if they’re neglected, you may leave the road rather violently!      3. Take more ... read more

If this is your first year at Fort Drum or in Calcium, it might interest you to know that the Fort Drum area has a great tradition of holiday lighting displays! The community really bands together to put on gorgeous presentations that will dazzle your children and put the whole family in the holiday spirit. If you’re going to be in the area this December, we hope you’ll come to some of the local events. Here are our top three holiday displays to see in the Fort Drum area! Wegman’s LIGHTS ON THE LAKE November 16, 2020 - January 10, 2021, 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. Lights on the Lake is a two-mile long drive-through show, featuring towering holiday displays, a larger-than life Land of Oz display, a twinkling fantasy forest, memorable animated scenes and a fairy tale magic grand finale! It’s a long slow drive in the comfort and safety of your own car, while listening to the wonderful sounds of the season on Sunny102!  Tickets are pre-sale only this year and can be ord ... read more

Do you know how to spot the signs that your car is in need of a new battery? Service Plus is offering you a helpful guide in case you don’t know. Let’s start with the benign signs. These usually don’t require immediate action, but warrant bringing your car into Service Plus Automotive for a quick check: Slow start. This is when you ‘turn the car over’ (attempt to start the vehicle) and the engine makes a slow whirring crank sound... the engine is sluggish and takes longer than normal to start. This might not be for sure a battery issue. It can be the alternator or it can be extreme cold, so it’s better to get it checked out. Check Engine Light or Check Battery Light. The check engine light sometimes appears when your battery power is weak or a different battery image shows when it senses a problem. Again, this isn’t urgent, but to avoid being stranded, get it checked out. Electronics Not Running at full level. This means that the headlights ... read more

Winter is coming! It’s time to start preparing for your travels in the cold weather, snow, and icy roads. At Service Plus Automotive, we’ve put together some ideas to help you approach the season’s worst conditions with confidence and preparedness: Take a Winter Driving Safety Course at Fort Drum Each year, Fort Drum offers a Winter Driving Safety Course for the community, so that drivers who are inexperienced with snow driving can learn safely how to get around in icy conditions. Why not sign all the drivers in your family up, and take it together? It’s a small thing that can help you survive if you encounter a winter emergency on the road.  Check the NYSDOT website for possible issues Get yourself in the habit of checking the roads before a trip for possible issues! The New York State Department of Transportation has a website where accidents and issues have been flagged. A quick check before you leave the house could ... read more

Photo by Olga Subach on Unsplash In our August blog, we shared some benefits about the increased flexibility to travel with kids during the 2020/2021 school year. Adding to the discussion, we have three reasons why you should take more road trips this Fall.   Labor Day Weekend: This is one of our favorite holidays. It’s the last chance to enjoy Summer weather and get away for a few days. It’s a 3-day weekend and an opportunity to relax, unwind, and unplug from your daily duties.    This Labor Day Weekend, you can go camping, take a hike, visit a lake, go fishing, or explore nature. If you and your partner don’t have kids, you can head out for a romantic getaway and spend quality time with e ... read more

Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash The kids are back in school and it’s a very unusual school year, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because we are all trying hard not to catch this virus, parents, teachers, kids, and school staff are all adjusting to the new normal.  Because education is so different during the COVID-era, we are seeing three ways that the back-to-school season is different for drivers in 2020. Here are three observations we are making here at Service Plus Automotive in Calcium, New York. First, we should let you know that the majority of our auto repair team members are parents. So, we are going through these adjustments, too. Though things are different for the 2020/2021 schoolyear, we are finding some pos ... read more