We’ve all been there: You start your car in the morning and begin to back out of the driveway. You hear an unusual noise coming from your car, and it sounds bad. How do you know if it's something you should bring in to us here at Schaeffer Automotive to get looked at? 

Vehicle belts aren’t that different than the belts that hold up your trousers. They need to fit properly and stay in place, and if they break, sag, or wear out, you’ll probably wish you were wearing a different belt that day. The same goes for the belts in your car. Your engine compartment is a punishing environment, and while all auto belts are made of materials designed to be both flexible and tough, even the toughest materials will eventually wear out due to the extreme temperatures under the hood.

If you own or manage a fleet or commercial truck, you know what a headache it can be to take the same vehicle in for maintenance over and over, wasting valuable time. At Schaeffer Automotive in Huntingburg, IN, we have the technology, equipment and technicians necessary to get the job done fast, and get it done right.

Tire rotations are a part of vehicle maintenance. The purpose of rotating your tires is to make them last as long as possible, prevent your suspension from wearing out prematurely, and keep the drivability of your car in the best possible condition. So when should you get a tire rotation?

At Schaeffer Automotive in Huntingburg, the history of cars is a huge topic of interest to us. Here’s an interesting piece of automotive trivia, from us to you.

Antifreeze is a fluid that’s just as important as oil to the engine in your car, truck, or SUV. You probably already know it’s essential to keeping your engine cool - but it’s important for more than one reason, and does require maintenance besides keeping it full. From Schaeffer Automotive in Huntingburg, IN, here’s what you need to know about antifreeze.

At Schaeffer Automotive in Huntingburg, we understand the importance of proper transmission maintenance. Commercial trucks are heavy, and they rack in a lot of miles. With this combination, it’s essential the transmissions in your trucks are always performing their best. Here’s a few things to watch out for:

Your Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN, is essentially your car’s fingerprint. In its entirety, it is specific only to your car. Each car has its own unique VIN number and can be decoded to provide manufacturing and identification information on any vehicle on the road. Date of manufacture, manufacturer, vehicle type, where it was made, and options such as engine and transmission type, whether a car is a two or four-door, and a multitude of other specifications can be gleaned from a VIN number. Essentially, a VIN number will tell you exactly what a car is and where it came from, without even having to see the car.