Crosse Auto Repair

TMPS; you’ve heard that term before, but what does it mean? It stands for Tire Pressure Monitoring System. Just like the name suggests; they monitor your tire pressure. Most cars today have one on each tire. Sometimes spare tires will also have a TPMS. When this warning light comes on, do not ignore it! So, I had this light come on for my car. They found a nail in the tire. Non-repair zone… of course. Got 4 new tires because of being 4 wheel drive. The light came on again this weekend!! Now the TPMS sensors will need to be checked and the faulty one(s) replaced. The tech will hook up a special tool that sends a signal to the TPMS and see if a signal is sent back. They will need to check all the sensors because it could be more than one sensor that is bad. “The Car Care Council’s new video about the TPMS system explains the meaning of the symbol on your dashboard and its importance to vehicle safety,” said Rich White, executive director, Car Care Council. The new TPMS video from the Car ... read more

The history of A/C for our cars is a very interesting one. Can you imagine not having A/C as option? Me either! The First Patent The first patent for a production automobile was issued In 1886. This is what the vehicle looked like. As you can see it has no windshield, roof, doors or windows. Mother Nature was their air conditioning! The 20’s, 30’s and 40’s By 1921, most cars were enclosed and a small electric fan could be added. These fans circulated the air, but did not cool the air. This was a welcomed addition to many vehicles. In 1930, the “car cooler” became available. It used the evaporation of water to cool the air inside cars. This cooler air was blown in through the open passenger side window. The down-side was that it would only work in areas with very low humidity! However; people were very appreciative of this invention. The 1940 Packard was the first car to offer factory-installed air-conditioning. The cooling system was lo ... read more

How do car batteries get recycled? Just what you always wanted to know, right? LOL Car batteries, at Bob’s Auto Service, are simply saved and then given to our battery rep. Our rep will then take them to be recycled. As consumers, we can simply take our batteries to a local recycling center to be recycled for us. The batteries eventually get delivered to a recycling plant. The plant then processes the batteries from smashing them into pieces to separating the materials to be recycled and used again. You can read more information about recycling batteries from the NAPA Know How website at

A wobbly steering wheel and a clanking sound in the front end…. it sounds like your vehicle may have failed tie rod ends. Did you hit a curb this winter or had to drive through some rough potholes or bumps? Is your vehicle pulling to one side while driving or braking? All these situations could indicate failed tie rod ends. Because the tie rod ends are a major part of your vehicle’s steering mechanism, you will want to call us to verify what is causing the issues with your vehicle and have it repaired. Give us a call at 608

What is the name of this tool? Answer: This is a Spitler Puncture Plug. It was used to repair tires. Early automobile drivers had to deal with bad roads that damaged their tires quite often. The first automobile tires were an extension of bicycle tires. They used high pressurized air. Unfortunately they often failed. The Spitler Puncture Plug Company designed these plugs to quickly seal the inner tube punctures so drivers could get back on the road again. An actual cover to a box of plugs. The actual bottom box for a set of plugs with directions on how to use them. A box of plugs with the tool used to fix a flat inner tube. No doubt about it, fixing a tire in the early 1900s was quite the experience. Sooo glad for the advancements in tire repair today. Makes me like our new tire changer even more! Here is a link for the Spitler Puncture Plug Company: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah