Car Repairs in Teignmouth

Teignmouth sits at the mouth of the River Teign, with a harbour, a seafront, the bridge to Shaldon, steep hills and plenty of summer visitors. The queue over the bridge or along the front is a slow-moving test of any cooling system.

Automaster is the garage at Longcombe Cross near Totnes that Teignmouth drivers use for general petrol and diesel repairs. We cover diagnostics, cambelts, water pumps, turbos, radiators, oil leaks and injectors, and we explain what is wrong before work starts.

What can I do if my car overheats near the seafront?

Pull over somewhere safe, switch off and leave the bonnet closed until things cool. Never open the coolant cap on a hot engine. Overheating while crawling usually points to a fan, thermostat, radiator or coolant loss.

Driving on can wreck the head gasket. We pressure test, find the fault and replace or repair the radiator, hoses or pump.

Slow traffic over the bridge and along the front keeps airflow low, so a cooling system with any weakness shows it quickly. A radiator with partly blocked passages, for instance, may cope on a cool day and fail on a hot one.

• Gauge climbing in traffic
• Fans not running
• Coolant under the car

How do cambelts and water pumps relate?

On many engines the cambelt turns the water pump, so replacing both together saves labour and removes the risk of a worn pump failing on a new belt.

Intervals are set by the manufacturer in time and mileage, and cars that spend long periods parked still age. If you are unsure of the history, ask us.

If the car has sat unused through winter, have the belt age checked before the holiday season, because age counts as much as mileage.

What do turbo and injector faults look like?

A turbo failing whines, smokes and loses power. Failing injectors cause rough idle, misfires, hard starts and extra fuel use, sometimes with black smoke.

The fix may be repair, cleaning or replacement. We cannot say until we have tested it, and we look for the underlying cause so the problem does not return.

• Whining noise
• Rough or uneven idle
• Limp mode

Is that oil leak a problem?

Leaks usually come from gaskets, seals or pipework that have hardened with age. A drip on the harbour car park is not just messy: a falling oil level damages the engine.

We locate the exact source and repair it, and where a gasket job is bigger than it looks, we explain why.

Whatever is wrong, we explain the findings in plain terms, show you what has failed where we can, and agree the work before starting.

Does Automaster look after Teignmouth cars?

Yes. Drivers from Teignmouth, Dawlish, Newton Abbot, Stoke-in-Teignhead and Milber use us. We are at Longcombe Cross, Longcombe, near Totnes.

Please give us the make, model, year, engine and symptoms when you ask for a quote, and tell us whether the problem appears on hills, in queues or on a cold start.