With winter here full blast, things start to slow down in the world but not everything should be slower, especially your BMW! If you are experiencing dim headlights, slow windshield wipers and turn signals or a weak battery it might be your alternator. The alternator on your BMW powers the electrical system for the whole vehicle.
Your BMW alternator does many more things these days than alternators fitted in BMWs just a few years ago. Remember, alternators are a power-plant replenishing the current and electricity used by your BMW’s equipment. From the headlights to the stereo equipment and navigation system, to your seat-heater and air conditioning system, as your BMW uses power to run them, your alternator replenishes what your BMW sucks out of the battery as soon as it’s used. Some BMW alternators may employ “BSD – Bit Serial Data”, these alternator with BSD interface can actively communicate with the engine control module (your BMW on-board computers). The alternator is not linked to the charge indicator lamp, only to the engine control module. The alternator can detect a variety of faults and relay them to the computers on-board to warn or keep fault-codes for your BMW technician to retrieve next time it comes in for service.
So if your BMW is displaying signs of electric system make sure to come in to our Park Cities, Plano or White Rock Lake locations to ensure you do not end up with a dead battery one morning! We can check your alternator, just like a doctor checks your heart with an EKG, so that you know if you need anything before you wind up with a dead battery.
If your BMW Alternator is slow to charge or you find that any of the above described symptoms occurring with your BMW; come into our Dallas location near Love Field if you are in the Park Cities, Love Field, Downtown or University Park area so that we can check your entire charging system, including your battery for a trouble-free operation. Come visit our Plano location if you are in Plano, Addison, Frisco, Richardson or Carrollton area. Our Dallas White rock location is ready to serve you if you are in Highland Park, White Rock or Lakewood area.
For most of us, driving is easy and muscle memory. You start the car, put it in drive and off we go to conquer the world. One of the key things that keeps our car going so we can put it into drive is our transmission. We routinely change our brake pads, brake fluid and fill up the car with gas, but have you ever checked to see when you should get a transmission flush? Your vehicles service manual will tell you the suggested intervals to have the transmission serviced and this is vitally important to keeping your car going smoothly on the road. Transmission fluid lubricates the transmission so you can shift as you are flying down the tollway or just get out of your driveway. This fluid has some pretty awesome properties; it will flow through the transmission whether it’s in the negatives or over 100 degrees outside. (We are all familiar with the latter, too). If the fluid is too old, it will lose some of its properties and could turn to varnish or sludge in the transmission which leads to serious problems. If your transmission has sludge or varnish, just like you engine, it will not be able to smoothly transition between gears, the transmission could start slipping which causes temperatures to rise, and eventually the transmission can fail all together. We can keep this from happening by following our service manuals and getting our transmissions flushed at the appropriate intervals. Stop by your closest Autoscope for a transmission service!
Living in Texas, we all know a lot about the heat. We know that our air conditioning raises electric bills, we know we and our plants need more water, we know that a sunny day can be a mixed blessing. However, what not everyone knows is that the heat of this time of year can cause some serious damage to our wind shield wipers. With the random rain storms that come with this time of year, we need to check on our wipers to ensure our safety, along with everyone we are sharing the road with. 
