A mechanic, a stocked truck, and your own parking space.
Most repairs on a car or light truck do not need a building. They need a mechanic with the right tool, the right part on board, and enough room to get a wheel off. Freeman Roadside Repair works out of driveways, apartment lots and employee parking all over Napa and Solano.
- Open 24 hours, seven days
- No hourly minimum
- Licensed and insured
- Cars, pickups, vans and work trucks
Where the line actually falls
People assume a mobile mechanic handles small stuff and a shop handles everything else. The real dividing line is different. It is about whether the job needs the car in the air with both hands underneath it, and whether the failed part can be reached without pulling half the front end off. A surprising amount of modern repair work happens at the top of the engine bay or behind one wheel, and all of that travels.
Starters, alternators, water pumps, thermostats, belts, sensors, coils, plugs, batteries, brakes, fluid service, cooling leaks, no-start faults, charging faults, most check engine codes: that is ordinary driveway work with jack stands and hand tools. Timing belts and head gaskets go either way depending on the engine. What genuinely wants a lift is transmission removal, a clutch, subframe work, deep exhaust replacement, anything needing an alignment rack, and any job where the vehicle has to be supported for hours while parts are cleaned.
The useful part is hearing which one you have before anybody drives anywhere. Patrick has been turning wrenches for more than twenty five years, so a description of the noise and the year, make and model usually settles it over the phone. If a job belongs in a building, we say so plainly and you have lost nothing but a phone call.
There is a second category worth naming, because it is the one people get wrong most often: the repair that is physically easy but diagnostically expensive. Replacing an oxygen sensor takes ten minutes. Working out which of four sensors is actually lying, and whether an exhaust leak upstream is the reason all of them read strangely, is the part that takes real time. Shops fold that time into a bench fee. We charge for it honestly and separately, and we tell you what we found either way.
Good candidatesAnything that lives under the hood or behind one wheel: charging faults, cooling leaks, belts, sensors, brakes, batteries, fluids, and a car that will not start.
The numberYou hear what the job runs before we set out, and a quick job is billed as a quick job because there is no hourly minimum sitting underneath it.
How far outThe daily radius is Napa and Solano, with regular runs across the Carquinez into Contra Costa and out toward Sonoma. Check the coverage map.
Why the truck’s inventory decides everything
A mobile repair either finishes in one visit or it does not, and the deciding factor is almost never skill. It is whether the part is already on board. That is why the first call matters so much: a year, make, model and a decent symptom description lets us load before leaving, instead of diagnosing in your driveway and then driving to a counter in Vallejo while you wait.
Batteries, common filters, belts, fluids, hose and clamp stock, brake hardware and a range of sensors ride with the truck permanently. Model-specific parts like an alternator for one particular engine get sourced first and the visit gets scheduled once they are in hand. Nobody benefits from a car sitting apart in a carport for two days.
The other half of it is access. A flat driveway or a corner of a work lot is ideal. Steep grades, tight tandem parking and the lower deck of a parking garage can all make a job unsafe to jack, and that is worth mentioning when you call so we can figure out the move together.
Weather counts too, more than people expect. Electrical work in heavy rain is a bad idea in an open lot, and a long job in August sun on black asphalt is slower and worse than the same job in shade. None of that stops the work happening, but it changes how long to allow and sometimes which end of the day makes sense. A covered carport or a shaded side street is worth mentioning when you book.
The work this covers, page by page
This is the umbrella. Each of these has its own page with the detail on symptoms, what gets checked and how long it takes once we are parked.
Vehicle diagnostics
A code is a starting point, not an answer. Testing the circuit the code names is the part that stops you buying the wrong part.
No-start diagnostics
Cranks but will not fire, or nothing at all when the key turns. Battery, starter, fuel and spark get separated before anything is replaced.
Brake repair
Pads, rotors, calipers, hoses and fluid, done on jack stands wherever the vehicle is already sitting.
Battery replacement
Tested first, because a battery that reads fine under load points at the alternator instead.
Oil changes
Conventional or synthetic, at the house or the office lot, with the belts and hoses eyeballed while the hood is up.
Alternator replacement
Dimming lights, a battery light, a car that dies a few miles after a jump start. Output measured before the part comes off.
Overheating diagnostics
Thermostat, water pump, fan, radiator or a head gasket. They all show the same gauge reading and need different repairs.
Work truck repair
Vans and pickups that earn money. Scheduled around dispatch instead of around shop hours.
This business started because too many people were left waiting on a shoulder while somebody decided whether their job was worth the drive. Distance is our problem to solve, not yours.
Patrick Freeman, owner
Before you book a mobile mechanic
Anything not covered here is a two-minute phone call. A person answers, not a booking form.
What kinds of repairs can you genuinely finish in a driveway?
Brakes, batteries, alternators, starters, water pumps, thermostats, belts, hoses, coils, plugs, sensors, fluid service and most diagnostic work. The rule of thumb is that anything reachable from the top of the engine bay or behind one wheel travels well. Transmission and clutch work, subframe repairs and anything needing an alignment rack belong in a building.
Do I need to be there while you work?
Not for the whole visit. We need you at the start to talk through the symptom and agree the price, and at the end to hand over the keys and explain what was done. Plenty of customers leave the car at work and get a call when it is finished. If the vehicle is locked and you cannot be present, tell us when you book and we will sort out access.
Can you work in an apartment complex or a parking garage?
Usually yes in an apartment lot, as long as there is a flat space and the complex does not prohibit it. Underground garages are harder because of low ceilings, drainage and lighting, and some property managers say no outright. Mention it when you call and we will work out whether the spot is safe to jack in before the truck rolls.
How is this priced compared to a shop?
You hear one figure before work starts and that is what gets invoiced. There is no hourly minimum, so a twenty minute job is billed as a twenty minute job rather than rounded up to an hour. You also skip the tow, the drop-off, the rental and the day off work, which is usually where the real cost of a shop visit hides.
What if you get there and it turns out to be a bigger job?
Then you get told before anything comes apart. Sometimes a symptom that sounds like one thing is another, and the honest answer is that the repair belongs somewhere with a lift. We will tell you what we found, what it needs, and who can do it. Nobody gets talked into a repair that will not actually fix the car.
Do you work on diesel trucks and equipment too?
Yes. Light duty gas cars and trucks are this page, but the same truck handles diesel work, heavy equipment and farm machinery. It is one mechanic with a broad trade background rather than a dispatch service, so a mixed yard can be handled in a single visit.
Tell us the car and the symptom.
One call reaches the mechanic who will be doing the work, at whatever hour you are reading this. Give us the year, make, model and what it is doing, and you will have a price and a window before the call ends.
HoursMonday to Sunday, 24 hours
Based inAmerican Canyon, CA
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