Mobile Mechanic FAQ

Yes — that’s the whole business. Your driveway, an apartment or condo lot, your workplace parking stall, or the roadside. We need reasonably level ground and enough room to work safely beside the vehicle. If your situation is unusual, describe it on the phone and we’ll tell you honestly whether it’ll work.

Madison end to end, plus 20 surrounding towns across Dane County and a little beyond — Sun Prairie, Fitchburg, Middleton, Verona, Waunakee, Stoughton, DeForest, Oregon, McFarland, Monona, Cottage Grove, Mount Horeb, Cross Plains, Windsor, Marshall, Deerfield, Belleville, Cambridge, Maple Bluff and Shorewood Hills. Roughly a 25-mile radius from Madison.

Call or text 608-218-4461, or fill in the quote form on any page. Tell us the year, make and model, what it’s doing, and where the car is. A photo or a ten-second video of the noise genuinely helps.

For towns inside about 20 minutes of Madison, same-day is realistic most days if you call in the morning. Farther out we batch runs and give you a committed window, usually next day. We’d rather give you a real answer than an optimistic one.

Saturdays yes, as normal working days. Sundays by appointment only, and usually for emergencies rather than scheduled maintenance.

Diagnostics and check engine lights, brakes including pads, rotors and calipers, batteries, alternators and starters, no-start and roadside repair, oil and fluid service, belts, hoses, water pumps and thermostats, struts, shocks and control arms, sensors, coils and plugs, and pre-purchase inspections.

Transmission rebuilds and internal engine work, wheel alignments, tire mounting and balancing, body work, glass and paint, exhaust welding, and anything that needs a full lift or the car left overnight. If that’s your job, we’ll say so on the phone and point you to a shop we’d use ourselves.

Domestic and import, cars, trucks and SUVs. Some European models need manufacturer-specific tooling for certain jobs — tell us the year, make and model when you call and we’ll be straight with you before anyone’s time is wasted.

Sometimes, and we’ll be honest about when it’s a bad idea. When we supply the part it’s covered by our warranty. When you supply it we warranty our labor but not the part, and if it’s wrong or fails early you pay for the second visit. For brakes and charging components we’d rather source it ourselves.

Not necessarily. Plenty of customers leave the keys and go to work. We’ll text you when we arrive, when we find something, and when we’re done. If a decision needs making mid-job, we call before spending your money.

Old parts are left with you unless you’d rather we take them. Used oil and fluids go back with us and are recycled properly. Nothing goes down a drain.

We work year-round. Cold and light snow are normal working conditions here. What we won’t do is rush a brake job in an ice storm or work somewhere unsafe — in genuinely bad weather we reschedule or find covered ground, and we tell you which before you’re left waiting. Winter is our busiest season for batteries, starters and no-starts.

Usually, but not always. Cold reduces a battery’s available cranking power while thickening the oil the starter has to turn against, so a battery that was marginal in October fails in January. It can also be the starter, the charging system, or a fuel or ignition fault. We test the whole system rather than guessing — replacing a good battery is a common and expensive mistake.

We need the working area cleared and salted. A deep driveway you can get fully off the street is ideal. If we arrive and it isn’t safe to set up, we’d rather reschedule than put a car on jack stands over ice.

Wisconsin salt is hard on brake lines, fuel lines, exhaust and suspension fasteners. It’s also why some jobs that would be routine elsewhere take longer here — a seized bolt is a seized bolt. We factor that into a quote rather than surprising you with it afterwards.