Kenvil & Lake Hopatcong Auto Repair

Maintaining your car battery is an essential aspect of keeping your vehicle in good working order. At Magic Lube & Rubber, we believe that your battery is the lifeline of your car and requires regular maintenance to keep it functioning at its best. Let's take a closer look at why your battery matters and what you can do to ensure it stays healthy. Your Battery's Role in Your Vehicle Your battery is responsible for providing the initial energy required to start your car's engine. Without it, your vehicle won't move an inch. Additionally, your battery helps regulate voltage, which is essential for preventing damage to sensitive electronic components. From headlights to power windows, your battery ensures that all electrical systems in your car function correctly. How Long Does a Battery Last? On average, a car battery lasts between three to five years. However, this can vary based on several factors, including driving habits, weat ... read more

Have you ever been burdened with a dead battery in your vehicle? Most of us have experienced the pain of going to start our cars and getting nothing but a rapid-paced click, or nothing at all. A dead battery can happen at any time, and having the right knowledge and equipment is essential to get back on the road in an emergency. Jump-starting a car is a skill that every driver should know in case they’re ever stuck with a dead battery, so in this blog, we’ll be diving into How to Jump-start Your Car.   Why do car batteries die? Car batteries have a lifespan in which they will work as intended, typically four to seven years. After that, they’ll start to lose their ability to hold a charge. A car battery will also lose its charge if something draws power from the battery after the vehicle is turned off. This can be something as simple as leaving a light on, but can also be very intricate like a power draw fro ... read more

Our Repair of the Month is based on a Ram 5500 that came in with a heating issue. The customer explained that his heat was not working as efficiently as it used to and was only getting lukewarm. Another thing the customer noticed was that the heat on the passenger side seemed to be blowing warmer than on the driver's side. Based on previous experiences, we immediately knew that this was likely to be an issue with the vehicle's heater core.  The heater core is a part of the vehicle's cooling system that is responsible for heating the cabin when you turn the heat on. It is almost always located between the dashboard and the firewall, making the removal of the dashboard necessary to replace it. The evaporative core, part of the air conditioning system, can also be found behind the dashboard. This customer wanted to take preventative measures and replace the evaporator core too whi ... read more

Our June Repair of the month features a 2005 Lexus GX470 4.7L V8, with an exhaust manifold leak. The exhaust manifold is the part of the exhaust system that comes directly off of the engine block. There is a gasket between the manifold and the block that seals the gap and keeps  any exhaust gasses from escaping. In this case, the gasket needed to be replaced. When the manifold is leaking like this one, it makes a ticking sound that can sometimes be confused with an engine misfire, tick or knock. The sound is apparent upon first startup of the vehicle when the engine is cold and sometimes may go away as the engine heats up, or may stay consistent.   A leaking manifold can cause serious problems if left untreated for too long. Besides the obvious health risks of exhaust leak making its way into the cabin for you to breathe in, the exhaust valves can get burned from the heat not being expelled efficiently from the cylinder. This can also cause  damage to the piston ri ... read more

Here we have a 2013 Nissan NV2500 V8 that has suffered what we call “catastrophic failure”. Upon inspection, our tech Jay found that multiple connecting rods blew a hole clear through the oil pan sending shrapnel and oil all over the road, and cracking a couple of the pistons. The connecting rod links the crankshaft and the piston together, and takes the abuse of every single explosion the combustion chamber brings. These rods push the crankshaft and cause it to spin, which spins everything else in the motor as well. Now, this is not a normal issue that we run into every day, but unfortunately, we have seen it many times in the past. This kind of failure happens due to a lack of lubrication. Without proper lubrication, there is more friction which causes things to wear faster or fail. A couple of reasons why you might run into lubrication problems could be from old oil that has lost its viscosity, water in the oil, a bad oil pump, clogged oil ports, oil burning, or not eno ... read more