Services

At Art’s Automotive, our goal is to keep your Honda running reliably and your costs low by providing an intelligent service plan and fairly priced repair. On this page, you’ll find our insights into Honda’s Maintenance Minder system, our approach to the Honda maintenance schedule, and an overview of our…

Whether you’re one of our customers in Berkeley or just someone researching the service and maintenance needs of your Subaru, we hope you’ll find this article useful. It’s our honest opinion about what maintenance services a Subaru really needs.

Why should you listen to us? We’ve been mechanics in Berkeley…

Art’s Automotive has been servicing Mazda vehicles in Berkeley for over 40 years now. Mazda isn’t our biggest brand, but they’re popular in the Bay Area and they make some good cars, so we’re happy to have them in our lineup. We don’t offer locksmith services or control unit programming…

The Prius is a great car. In fact it’s my favorite car. It’s not really fun to drive, but it’s practical, economical, and over all, very reliable. Prius repair is what I do best, and if I had a choice, I’d prefer a Prius in my bay over any of…

If you own a Subaru with a start-stop system, you may be shocked when you replace the battery. Not because there’s any danger of electrocution, but because Subaru charges a shocking amount of money for their enhanced flooded battery. When people are hit with an unpleasant surprise, they generally have…

Art’s Automotive offers advance Honda hybrid diagnostics and repair in Berkeley. We’ve been working on Honda vehicles since 1980, and Honda hybrids since the Insight was introduced in 1999. Complex electrical diagnostics have always been one of our strong suits, so it’s only natural that as hybrids got older and…

The head gasket on the Gen3 Prius is more likely to fail than on most other Toyota models. The affected years are 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. I’ve never seen a problem with the earlier generations, and so far, there have been no issues with the Gen4 (2016…

Whether were doing something as simple as a Subaru engine air filter replacement or major service work, we care about the parts we use. Our first priority is quality. Using poor quality parts can cause damage. But we also need to consider cost and more importantly value. This page is…

Welcome to Art’s Automotive, Berkeley’s local Subaru key fob specialists. Whether you’re looking for a replacement smart key, emergency key cutting, or would like us to register a new Subaru key fob for your car, our skilled team is here to help. We use official Subaru equipment, guaranteeing your new…

This is a short article about the “check hybrid system” message that appears on many Toyota hybrids (like the Prius, Camry, RAV4, and several others). It does indicate there’s a problem, but it’s not necessarily something major, so don’t let it ruin your day.

If you’re near Berkeley we can…

You should certainly inspect any vehicle you’re considering purchasing, but that not the only it’s worthwhile to pay a mechanic for an inspection. Whether shopping for a new car or driving a car you’ve owned for years, putting your head in the sand like a Ostrich won’t save you from…

If you’re in the East Bay and need a tire rotation, we’d be happy to help. We rotate thousands of sets of tires every year in our Berkeley shop, and we’ll do a good job. That said, tire rotation isn’t challenging in any way. Nearly any mechanic should be able…

Tune-up? Regular service? Routine maintenance? What does it all mean? The quick answer is it depends. We put together a helpful, basic service interval guide if you’re more interested in when you should do what. If you’re more interested in what the service items are and why you might want…

Looking for wheel alignment services in Berkeley? You’ve come to the right place! Proper wheel alignment will improve your vehicle’s handling, extend tire life, and ensure better suspension performance. Conveniently located near Oakland, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, and Orinda, we proudly serve the entire East Bay Area. Whether you’ve…

In this page we’ll share what we’ve learned about wheel bearings and wheel bearing replacement during our 40+ years running an auto repair shop in Berkeley. Who might want to read this page? Maybe you if:

• Someone said you have a bad wheel bearing
• You’re hearing a noise you think…

If you’re looking for more information what makes our Toyota brake pad replacement unique, you’ll probably find our brake replacement page more informative. One the other hand, if you’re looking for proof that we care about the parts we install on our customers’ cars, or, like me, can’t stop looking…

I wrote this article about replacing control arm bushings back when the 2001 Civic was brand new, I was thin, and my blond hair flowed freely in the breeze. It’s old, but I think it’s still useful. Customers often ask questions about control arm bushings, and since our website lacks…

Brake inspection is important. If you wait too long to inspect your brakes, you may end up with a lot of unnecessary damage and a big repair bill, so it makes sense you have your mechanic check your brakes regularly.

But how can you tell if you really need brakes?…

This article covers a common Subaru transmission repair we frequently perform. Many mid-2010s Subaru vehicles come in with the following codes: P2764, P2763, P2762, and P0700. The purpose of this page is to educate curious car owners who have pulled their own trouble codes. Unfortunately, the repair is beyond the…

Looking for information on axle or CV boot replacement? Wondering what the axle does or why you might want to replace the axle instead of the CV boot?

Whether you’re curious about a recommendation your repair shop gave you or thinking about replacing an axle as a DIY project, this…

What is a timing belt? Simply put it’s a cogged rubber belt that connects the camshaft and crankshaft of an engine. The crankshaft is spun by the pistons via connecting rods, sort of like the crank on a bicycle is spun by your legs and feet. The camshaft must open…

Why would I need to rebuild my engine? The usual reasons for rebuilding an engine are loss of compression, excessive oil consumption, or excessive oil clearances, which can cause the engine to run poorly or fail to start, pump blue smoke from the exhaust, or make abnormal knocking noises.

The…

This is the story about a repair to 2001 Prius hybrid transmission. It had developed a problem with MG2 inside of the transmission. The MG2 is the larger of the two electric motors in the HV transaxle assembly. We’ve replaced two hybrid transmissions in the past, but this is the…

If you’re looking for someone to diagnose or replace your Toyota hybrid transmission near Berkeley, please read on. This is one of the many hybrid services we offer that aren’t available at many other local shops. If you’re interested in seeing some of the other Toyota transmission work we’ve done,…

With Berkeley’s recent disillusionment with Tesla, we’re getting a lot of calls from people looking to buy an electric vehicle (EV) and wondering which EV vehicles we service. In 2025 there are EV offerings from Toyota, Subaru, and Honda. We work on all three makes, but we only service EVs from two…

It looks like we’re about the get into the Mazda hybrid service business. Mazda has announced their first hybrid offering, the 2025 CX-50 hybrid. The CX-5 and then the CX-50 have been very popular car is among our customer base, and a few people have asked if we we think…

Hybrid battery repair is something that’s held interest for me since the early 2000s. When Toyota introduced the Gen 1 Prius in 2001, Berkeley streets were flooded with them. A lot of our customers purchased gen 1 Priuses, and once we proved we were pretty good at fixing them, we gained many more new…

In this article we’ll fix a control unit on a Prius hybrid that wasn’t intended to be repaired. This type of electronic repair can save our customers a lot of money and make repairs possible when parts are discontinued. Who should read this? Ideally potential customers who want to see…

The East Bay loves the RAV4 hybrid! More of our customers are coming in with new RAV4 hybrids than any other model. And why not? It has very good fuel economy, more room than a Prius, and is a great-driving SUV. As specialists in hybrid vehicle repair serving Berkeley and…

This is a short article about the “check hybrid system” message that appears on many Toyota hybrids (like the Prius, Camry, RAV4, and several others). It does indicate there’s a problem, but it’s not necessarily something major, so don’t let it ruin your day.

If you’re near Berkeley we can…

We have 40+ years of Japanese car experience and 20+ years of hybrid experience. If you’d like to know more about our qualifications to service and repair hybrids , click the link. This is a short article about the Subaru Crosstrek hybrid and the services we provide. We’ll also cover…

Things don’t always go as planned. You head out to your Prius and touch the door handle, but it doesn’t unlock. Try pressing the unlock button on the smart key, still nothing. Once you’ve opened the door using the emergency key insert, the car won’t Ready. Aarrgh! A dead Prius…

The head gasket on the Gen3 Prius is more likely to fail than on most other Toyota models. The affected years are 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. I’ve never seen a problem with the earlier generations, and so far, there have been no issues with the Gen4 (2016…

This is a “show and tell” with a Toyota hybrid inverter repair we did for a customer. The first-generation highlander hybrid had some problems with the inverter. The 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 models were affected, and Toyota issued a safety recall and replaced the IPM (part of the inverter)…

We’ve been repairing hybrids for a long time now, and this high voltage isolation testing article is a pretty old. That said, while the self-diagnostic capabilities have improved over the last 24 years, the manual testing is pretty much the same, so this information is still valid.

P3009 DOESN’T HAVE…

This page details a Lexus Hybrid repair we’ve done a few times here. If water enters the remove the vehicle where the battery lives, it will cause the vehicle to break down. Most of the time this is caused by a leak in the body near the rear hatch struts, but we’ve also…

East Bay’s Leading Hybrid Vehicle Specialist in Berkeley

Let’s talk about hybrid battery health. Is there a way to tell if you hybrid battery is about to fail? In the article we’ll attempt to answer a question that has concerned many of our customers. Whether they’re considering buying a hybrid, or have already purchased a hybrid, battery life…

When we were deciding which 12V battery to use here at Art’s Automotive, our most important considerations were reliability, performance, and customer satisfaction. Over the last 45 years, we have partnered with several battery distributors. Some were great, but changed over time. Others were very short experiments. Right now, we…

There are more than a couple terms used to describe Honda battery drain: key-off drain, parasitic drain, or if you want to be fancy, quiescent draw.

Regardless of what you call it, it amounts to the same thing. If you leave your Honda sitting unused for a while, the battery…

I love it when I can repair an expensive component for a reasonable price. It’s good for our shop and for our customers. The 2012-2016 Prius Plug-In has an onboard battery charger that I’ve seen fail a few times now and I’ve had success repairing this unit. That’s what this…

Over the last 40+ years in Berkeley, we’ve done a lot of Toyota electrical diagnosis and repair, but we do things a little differently than at the Toyota dealerships. When Toyota dealerships find wiring problems, they nearly always recommend replacing the wiring harness, which will cost thousands of dollars. When…

OBD2 connector repair ought to be easy, but unfortunately, it isn’t. Connectors and terminals aren’t always available, and when they are, it can be very difficult to find the parts you need. Here’s some information that may help you if you’re looking into option to fix your OBD2 connector.

What…

The green display with the speedometer, fuel gauge, gear position, and odometer will often stop working on the 2004-2009 Prius. We repair these units (known as the combination meter) in house. We repair the common capacitor failures, like many other automotive electronics repair services , but that’s not all we…

Once I figured out how to repair Prius combination meters with the infamous “blank speedometer” , I thought it might be nice to learn to program the mileage so that I could make exchange units. I have a tool that handles mileage correction for many cars. It’s menu driven and…

I had a first-time customer call in the other day and ask how much it would be to figure out why her car wouldn’t start even with a good battery. She said she had replaced the battery and then the car started, but the next day when she tried to…

At Art’s Automotive we pride ourselves on being able to offer many services other shops don’t. Welding , machine shop services , reprogramming, circuit board repair, immobilizer registration, and locksmithing to name a few. Our capacities allow our customers options they won’t find at many other shops. This often means…

Have you lost a key (or all of them)? Has your ignition key broken? Do you have a broken door lock or ignition switch? Is your immobilizer light blinking and your car won’t start? Arts Automotive is a trusted local auto locksmith in Berkeley, California. We offer professional services like…

If you’re looking for a replacement smart key for a Toyota, Honda, or Subaru, you’ve found the right place. We do registration of the key in the immobilizer system and smart key system and we cut smart key inserts in house, including high-security and “laser cut” keys. We even have…

This is going to be a very short article about hybrid battery cooling maintenance on Toyota products. Hybrid batteries don’t need much maintenance, but occasionally the hybrid battery inlet filter or screen will clog with lint, hair, and other debris. This will reduce air flow over the battery and the…

We do a lot of hybrid cooling system repairs. To be honest, they’re nearly all inverter pumps, water pumps, and hybrid battery inlet filters. Kind of boring stuff really. But this time we had a treat. A unique failure that required some creativity and skill to fix.

Sometimes I secretly…

Sooner or later your car’s AC will stop working and it will need service and/or repair. The most common symptom is blowing air that’s room temperature or only mildly cold, but there can be other symptoms too.

Mechanics often recommend fuel additives to clean intake deposits, but they won’t help with all types of engines. Fuel additives won’t prevent or remove intake valve deposits on direct injection (DI) engines. In this article, we’ll explain why that is and how to remove intake valve buildup on DI engines…

Art’s Automotive in Berkeley provides expert catalytic converter replacement, whether your converter has been stolen or has failed due to age or other factors. We proudly serve Berkeley and the surrounding area, and our experienced technicians install only high-quality, genuine catalytic converters to ensure a long-lasting repair you can trust….

So this Honda Fit comes to the shop for a check engine light repair, sort of. It has no check engine light, but it’s just failed its smog check due to a permanent code P0456. What’s a permanent code? It’s just like a regular trouble code, except it can’t be…

How do you get a catalyst monitor to run? Why do you need it to run? Well, in California all vehicles model year 2000 and newer don’t require a tailpipe emissions test. Instead, we check to see if the vehicle’s computer has found any problems that might cause increased emissions…

We do off-car fuel injector flow testing and ultrasonic cleaning in our Berkeley, CA shop. We only offer this service as a full-service option. In other words, you can’t bring your injectors to us to have them cleaned, but you can bring your car if you think it has an…

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) offers some unique diagnostic and repair challenges compared to conventional fuel injection, but it’s not difficult to work with. It’s just different. We rely heavily on scan tool data when diagnosing direct injection, rather than direct measurement, so that’s one difference. And special tools are required to replace…

Please note: This is a repair we did in 2006. Today, this repair would be illegal. We get a lot of calls asking if we can do this repair. Sorry, but the answer is no. FIY, this car came back with a P0420 3 years, 53K miles later. The original…

These older Toyota Tacoma air cleaner housings are not one of Toyota’s best designs. We frequently find the tube section floating at the end of the air intake boot. This should be a part that costs about $60 bucks, but it isn’t; it’s 10 times that much. Toyota wants a whopping…

There are few things more frustrating than finding damaged threads in a captive sub-frame nut, except perhaps causing the damaged threads yourself. Murphy’s Law dictates the discovery will usually take place around 3:00 on a Friday as you are are finishing up a clutch or engine repair, giving you little…

You might be surprised how much damage rodents like mice and rats can do to a car; repairs can get really expensive. Whether they chew through wires or hoses, inconveniently die in the HVAC system, or as in this case, pee on the hybrid battery pack until it stopped working….

Plastic welding is an excellent way to repair damaged plastic parts and can be employed to save money or repair a part that is no longer available. It’s *real* welding. It’s not like epoxy, crazy glue, or a hot glue gun. Plastic filler rod and the base material are melted…

In general, we do not offer stand alone machine shop services for other shops or individuals. We have set up our machine shop primarily to control costs, repair times, and quality for machine work on cars we are repairing here at Art’s. We will do the odd brake rotor, flywheel,…

Replacement of the Honda multi-purpose camera (which is the one behind the windshield near the rear view mirror) is pretty simple, but unfortunately it requires a static calibration, which means you’ll have to pay an ADAS specialist like us to replace the unit for you. In the future I imagine that…

Art’s Automotive Berkeley has the same Eyesight calibration equipment as Subaru dealerships and a lot of experience. In this article we’re going to cover all the questions a Subaru owner might have about Subaru Eyesight calibration. What is it. Who needs it. How much does it cost. Where can I…

ADAS calibration is necessary after many types of automotive repairs. ADAS stands for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. Currently (2022) virtually all new cars have some type of ADAS system, but some 10-year-old cars also have early ADAS systems. If you’ve found the article, you may have been told that you’ll…