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COVID-19 Policies and Procedures

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To our valued clients regarding COVID-19, 

We are OPEN and here to help! 

We are taking precautions to keep our clients safe – picking up and delivering cars from your work/home with repairs, sanitizing high touch areas in cars, sanitizing the office frequently, and asking our clients to use our key-drop so you don’t even need to enter our shop. We take Visa, Mastercard payments over the phone or E-Transfer through email. Give us a call if you have any questions. 

With everything going on, we wanted you to know that we are here to help. We are open and continuing to service vehicles and we are committed to taking precautions to keep our clients safe. You can get your car fixed without ever needing to enter our shop. Here’s how:

  • Vehicle Pick Up and Delivery: Get your car repaired without ever leaving home. Access Automotive will pick up your car from work or home and drop it off to you when it’s done, for no-charge. If time permits. 
  • Pay from Home: Pay from your mobile device or your computer. Give us a call and pay over the phone. No need to come in to pay.
  • No Contact Key Drop: We have a secure Key-Drop beside our front door. You can drop your key inside the Key-drop so you do not need to come in contact with anyone.
  • Disinfecting Keys and Car: Upon receiving your keys, we will wipe all keys down with a disinfecting wipe (as a precaution). While our staff works on your vehicle, they will be wearing safety gloves the entire time. Once the work is done on your vehicle, we will disinfect any high-touch areas, such as the steering wheel, gear shift, and door handles.  Before giving you your key back, we will disinfect the key.
  • Sanitizing the Office: We are sanitizing the office, front counter, door handles, and bathroom very regularly to reduce the spread of germs.
  • Phone and Email Communication: We will be in contact with you via phone and email so that you know exactly what is going on with the service to your vehicle and can approve any work that is done. No need to wait at the shop.

Have questions? Or want to schedule an appointment? Give us a call at 780 484 1194 and we’d be more than happy to help.

Stay safe and wash your hands – we’ll get through this together! 😊

*Some restrictions apply to the no-charge vehicle pickup. Call for more details.*

Wishing you health and happiness,

Rob Music
Access Automotive
780 484 1194

Don’t Make Compost on Your Vehicle

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unsplash-logoMihai Surdu

Leaves, twigs and other organic matter can cause havoc with gutters on your house—and the same on your vehicle. Quite often when we open and hoods on vehicles, we see the air plenum (or called air cowl) below your windshield built up with this debris. This can cause all sorts of concerns. First, this will eventually plug your Heating / Air Conditioning drain tube. The drain tube vents all the moisture and condensation in the HVAC system. Also, you will receive less air movement from your air vents because of the clogged air plenum. So, open your hood and check the vents under the windshield. It only takes a few minutes to clean.

5 Tips for Car Spring Maintenance

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Edmonton Car Maintenance Spring Tips

Spring is in full swing and summer is just around the corner. Here are a few things that we like to do to make sure your vehicle is in the best shape possible.

1. Find out if you need an oil change and check your fluids

Your engine in your vehicle does the same job as the muscles in your body. You wouldn’t think to starve your muscles. How would you get anywhere? Well, that goes the same for the engine in your vehicle – and the rest of the systems that need fluids!  Don’t starve it of clean oil! If you don’t know how to check the fluids, we’ll show you!

2. Change or rotate your tires

Your front tires do all the steering and cornering. This adds tremendous wear to the edges of the tires. You could have plenty of tread in the middle and nothing on the edges. If you don’t want to buy 2 tires every 2 years, you should be rotating them front to back every 10,000 to 12,000 km.

3. Clean Your Car Interior

Okay, winter is now over and you haven’t cleaned the interior. Trust me, I know it’s harder to clean it when it’s -20c. I now will provide you with three reasons to get it done pronto.

  1. Prevent Excess Wear and Tear. When you neglect to clean the inside of your car, your vehicle’s interior surfaces could start to develop excess wear and tear.
  2. Avoid Health Issues. Whenever you get behind the wheel of your car, you will enter a closed environment. If your vehicle is filled with dust and dirt, these particles could create poor air quality in the interior of your vehicle. Keeping the interior of your car clean will help you avoid allergies and other problems that can be associated with poor indoor air quality. By reducing stress, a clean car interior can also promote your mental health, as well.
  3. Increase Driving Safety. If your car’s windshield, windows, and side mirrors are covered in grime or debris, they will affect your ability to see your surroundings as you drive.       

4. Inspect Your Wiper Blades

There is nothing more dangerous than trying to drive a vehicle in the rain, and the wiper blades are smearing, streaking or chattering. In this country, they don’t last long. Get your visibility back to 100%.

5. Inspect Your Brakes

You really don’t want to find out that your vehicles’ brake system isn’t working 100% on your first road trip or vacation. The hot weather could cause a new set of problems than winter. I recommend you enjoy the open road and hot weather stress-free. The cost of missing a vacation or trip could be huge!

At Access Automotive we do a 50-point spring inspection along with your oil change to keep your car from developing any unexpected concerns, keeping your long-term repair bills lower and helping to prevent the inconvenience of a break-down on your summer road trip.

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Raised Wiper Arms…What’s the Point?

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Raised Windshield Wipers in Winter in Edmonton

In the last few years you may have noticed a trend of vehicles with the wiper arms flipped up when freezing weather is expected.

Every time I see a vehicle with the arms up, I ask myself “What’s the point?”. The basic premise is that by lifting your wiper arms, you are preventing the wiper blade from freezing to the windshield.

But the vehicle has a defrost mode to heat the windshield with. Maybe it’s easier to clean the snow/ice of the wiper blades. Okay valid point. But here is my view on this.

1. The manufacturer never intended for the arms to stay up for a long period of time. So eventually the springs will weaken. Check your vehicles manual….nada.

2. Damaged windshield. Ever see a wiper snap back to the windshield? Scary. It’s just dangerous because, on a windy day, the arm can snap down with enough force to crack your windshield.

3. It just looks silly….