Mechanic & Brake Service for Brooklyn Park

Two things about this suburb change what we see: the airport corridor traffic, and the number of cars that sit unused while their owners are away.

A vehicle parked for two or three weeks at a time behaves differently from one driven daily, and the effects compound if it happens regularly.

The battery is first. Modern cars draw current constantly for alarms, keyless entry and telematics. Two weeks is usually survivable. Four weeks on an older battery frequently is not, and repeated deep discharge permanently reduces capacity.

Brakes develop surface rust. A car left outside for a fortnight will have a film on the rotors. That is normal and scrubs off. What is not normal is the pitting that develops when the same car sits repeatedly, and pitting causes a pulse through the pedal that never clears.

Tyres flat-spot. Sitting on one patch of rubber in Adelaide heat leaves a temporary flat spot that causes vibration for the first few kilometres. Usually harmless, occasionally permanent on older tyres.

As a mechanic Brooklyn Park travellers use, our usual advice is a battery maintainer if the car regularly sits more than a fortnight. They cost little and they solve the main problem.

Short, frequent trips to drop off and collect. Engine barely warms, brakes barely get used, and both suffer for it in the ways short-trip driving always causes.

If the airport run is most of what your car does, the single most useful thing is a longer drive every few weeks to get everything properly hot.

• Battery condition under load, not just voltage
• Rotor surface for pitting rather than film
• Tyre pressures, which drop while parked
• Brake fluid, since moisture absorption continues regardless of use

A mechanic Brooklyn Park residents rely on should ask how often the car sits, because it changes the answer.

2/208 Grange Rd, Flinders Park, roughly six minutes from Brooklyn Park.

Call (08) 8443 7900.

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