Let me just talk about maintenance quick. Do you brush your teeth? Do you change the furnace filter in your home? Water or refrigerator filter? I could go on with more examples like these. Take the furnace filter, when you change it, do you notice a difference in air quality, air flow, air smell?? Probably not, but there is. The less clogged a filter is the less the system has to work to push through it and the more contaminates that filter can grab out of the air! Same goes for all the fluids in your vehicle and filters too. You may not notice a difference but if left unchecked or touched for a long enough time - it is likely that something with give and cause trouble.. If you are proactive and like keeping your vehicles dependable and efficient and working how they were intended, then doing some maintenance is a great investment whether you intend to keep it for 60,000 miles or 160,000 miles… There are like anything, different ways to do the same job.. When Unified does a job, we do it completely and thoroughly and we use the right parts such as only original equipment fluids and spark plugs and sometimes even better spark plugs than what it came with. If we waited to notice a difference or problem with something like a filthy color fluid or a misfire or a check engine light from a plugged air filter, we would not be doing our job and you would not have a great motorist experience with your vehicle both in terms of frequency to the shop and lack of reliability! If you care about these things, we are a great shop to keep you in great shape!!

What is the purpose of an oil change? Drop the filter and pull the plug right? Fill with new oil, done. That is why we do not do oil changes. We do oil services. An oil service is done twice a year typically. Your vehicle has a lot going on from mechanical to electrical. It is my responsibility to Inspect your vehicle during an oil service. This means brakes, tires, leaks, belts, BULB CHECKS, battery(s), pre oil level check, fluid checks when able by manufacturer, loose suspension or steering concerns, wheel bearings, glass, wiper blades, air filter and make note of any upcoming or over due maintenance! That is a lot of stuff to document, take pictures of, and inform the client of! I personally love to do it! On top of this, the actual oil service itself, letting the engine drain completely and then NOT overtightening the drain plug. Replacing the filter with a premium one, yes there is a difference in the filter media, and filling it with a premium synthetic oil. Fully synthetic, not semi-synthetic and not the least expensive synthetic! If you count on your car and want to know its condition and keep it reliable, YOU CAN COUNT ON UNIFIED to do your oil service!!!!

While we’re on the subject of oil services, I want to tell everyone to stop watching their oil change life percentage on their dash and instead watch the oil sticker and odometer! There are exceptions but if you drive your vehicle in the Northwoods and it gets the average mileage put on or less, about 13 -15 thousand miles per year, you really need to watch the odometer and not go over 5000 mile oil service intervals with full synthetic oil and a good filter. The one or less extra oil service per year will absolutely pay off for anyone looking to keep their car past warranty! Oils have certainly improved over the years but the demand from the engines has greatly increased with direct injection, variable valve timing, and turbochargers. The oil is put through such temperature extremes and pressures that it cannot help but get dirty, breakdown, and wear out. The cheapest thing to do on a car is oil services, on time or even under time in the case of short tripping and always being outside in winter.. That being said…Schedule and oil service already!!!!