Express Car Care of Denver

"Denver's Best Auto Repair and Quick Lube"

Car Maintenance Tips for Winter

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I was just listening to the weather report and they tell me, snow is on its way!  It made me stop and wonder if my car is prepared to meet with the winter weather.  This is my list of car maintenance tips for winter.  Check and see how your car stacks up!

  1. Inspect windshield wipers.  Wiper blades are like squeegees.  The arms of the wiper drag a thin rubber strip across the windshield to clear away the water.  The rubber needs to be clean without any nicks or cracks in order to clean the windshield.  Replace them if needed or wipe the edge of the blade with a cloth soaked in window cleaner until all the dirt is removed, this helps the blades make a tight seal against the window and prevents streaks.  Never use your wipers to clear off the snow or ice from your windshield!  Doing this will damage your wiper motor.
  2. Clean  headlights.  Wash them with soapy water, rinse them, and then apply a nonabrasive car wax with a soft cloth.  The wax is water-repellent and leaves a barrier that keeps dirt from building up on the lights.  It’s a good idea to do this once a month especially during the winter.
  3. Preserve door and window seals.  Wipe a rubber protectant  (like Armor-All) or silicone on the window and door weatherstripping to keep it in good condition.  Don’t use an oil based product, ( WD-40) because the oil can damage the rubber.  Regular treatment of your car’s weatherstripping will lessen the likelihood of your doors sticking to the rubber seals in the cold winter weather.
  4. Maintain  car battery.  Keep your battery clean, wipe it with a damp rag.  Clean the battery posts or terminals using a brass wire brush and baking soda paste.
  5. Inspect wheel-well splashguards.  Splashguards help keep water and winter’s salty slush from splashing up into the engine compartment where it can damage sensitive electrical components.  Check these guards for damage when you wash your car and re-secure or replace them as needed.
  6. Wash your car in winter too. Washing your car is even more important in the winter than in other times of the year.  All the sand, slush and ice mixed in with the road salt is exactly what makes your car rust.  The fastest corrosion occurs when the temperature repeatedly rises and falls below freezing.  Especially during the messy months, be sure to rinse the undercarriage and hard-to-reach areas that are susceptible to rust, like the bumpers and inside the wheel wells.

And last on our list of car maintenance tips for winter is, go easy when you’re stuck.  When you get stuck in mud or snow, don’t make the problem worse by damaging an expensive component.  Gently rocking in an attempt to free the car is OK, but if it looks as if you’re really stuck, don’t keep it up.  Throwing your car from forward to reverse repeatedly, can generate a lot of heat and cause trouble for transmissions, clutches, and differentials. You’re better off calling a tow truck than risking major damage to your engine by trying to get out on your own.

For all of your Denver Auto Repair needs, trust Express Car Care. Call (303) 691-2760 or stop by our shop today.

Winterizing Your Car

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It’s that time of year again!  This is the time of the year that you need to take a little extra time winterizing your car.  Living here in Colorado, we have to be ready in a moments notice for our winter storms.  Use this list of winterizing ideas to keep your car ahead of the storm!

  • Change the oil in your car.  If it’s time for your 30,000 full service, than go ahead and do it now, make sure that the oil in your car has the proper viscosity, or thickness, for the winter weather.  Some cars need a thinner oil in the cold weather.  Oil thickens in the cold and if it gets too thick it won’t flow through the engine like it should.  A lot of the newer cars use the same grade of oil all year long but older model cars need a different grade for summer or winter.  So check your owner’s manual to be sure.
  • Check the Battery.  Your battery’s capacity is reduced by cold weather, so check your battery cables for cracks and breaks.  Make sure the terminals fit snugly and aren’t loose.  Check the battery fluid to make sure it’s full.  If you don’t know how to check the level of your battery fluid, have it checked by a professional.  It’s also a good idea to make sure that your battery has the ability to hold a charge.  This is also a service done by your repair shop.
  • Replace your antifreeze.  Your car’s coolant system not only keeps your engine from overheating but it also protects it from corrosion.  Every vehicle has a certain water to coolant ratio, check your owner’s manual to be sure, but a winter ratio of 60% coolant to 40% water works for most vehicles.
  • Examine your belts and hoses.  Cold weather can damage belts and hoses, so make sure they are checked for wear and tear.
  • Replace wiper blades and washer fluid.  Windshield wiper blades usually last about a year so replacing them each year at this time is a good idea.  Then it’s easier to keep track of when they were last replaced.  Fill your windshield washer reservoir will washer fluid.  You might also consider mixing in a de-icer with the washer fluid.  Never put plain water in the reservoir, it freezes and will crack the reservoir.
  • Check your defrosting and heating units.  When our windshield fogs up in the winter, it makes it very difficult to see.  Defroster units should be checked to make sure they are functioning properly so our vision is never impaired while we’re driving.
  • Check tire pressure and condition.   Tires need to be properly inflated as well as have good tire tread depth.  This is also a good time to consider buying a set of snow tires.  They do a better job in winter driving conditions than all-weather tires.
  • Keep your fuel tank full.  Although it’s never a good idea to let your gas tank run on fumes, the possible damage this causes is greatly increased during the winter.  Cold and shifting temperatures can cause condensation to form on the walls of an empty gas tank, if this condensation (water) finds its way into the fuel lines and freezes, you will end up with a very costly repair.  Keeping your tank full will benefit your car and your wallet

For all of your Denver Auto Repair needs, trust Express Car Care. Call (303) 691-2760 or stop by our shop today.

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When To Flush Your Brake Fluid

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Did you know that you should flush your brake fluid regularly?  Most of us don’t know when to flush our brake fluid or why we need to do it.

Brake fluid attracts moisture, and when moisture enters the brake fluid system, it creates some hazardous conditions.

  1. Moisture forms acid that attacks the rubber seals and keeps them from sealing properly.
  2. Moisture creates rust and corrosion that can become clogged in small passages and causes engine parts to seize.
  3. Moisture reduces the boiling point of brake fluid.  When brake fluid boils it changes from a liquid to a gas, this  prevents the brake fluid from doing its job correctly.  It can only perform effectively if it remains a liquid.  If your brake fluid boils, a vapor is created that reduces the amount of pressure that’s applied to the brake pads.  If this happens, you can push the brake pedal all the way to the floor and still not be able to stop your vehicle.

This moisture was not a huge issue ten years ago, but on ABS brake systems of today, the rust and debris that collects in the fluid can cause internal damage and be very costly.  For more information on ABS systems check out our blog.

So how do you know when to flush your brake fluid?  Have your technician check the three C’s:   color, clarity, and content.  The color of your brake fluid should be a light amber.  The clarity should be clear, which means it shouldn’t have any particles or debris in it.  And the moisture content should be less than 3 percent.

According to AAA, many cars on Colorado roads today, were built by European automakers and require regular brake fluid inspections, which about half the cars fail.  Such inspections aren’t required here, but someone needs to monitor the color, clarity and moisture content of a vehicles brake fluid, either the owner or better yet, a professional!  Brake fluid flushes are recommended every two years by industry standards, sooner if you live in a humid climate.  Check with your technician and discuss what works best for you and your vehicle.

For all of your Denver Auto Repair needs, trust Express Car Care. Call (303) 691-2760 or stop by our shop today.

What’s So Important About An Oil Filter?

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In the course of our business, we are often confronted with customers who don’t understand the importance of their oil filter.  They are usually focused on the quality of the oil and the cost of the oil change and don’t really see what’s so important about an oil filter?

Oil filters have a very important function and if your oil filter is poor quality, it can shorten the life of your engine and cause other parts to fail.  This small part of your vehicle’s lubrication system plays an important role in protecting your engine from premature wear.  All the moving parts in the engine need clean oil to properly lubricate them.Tiny bits of metal chip off of various engine parts while it’s running.  If these bits of metal are allowed to recirculate through the oil, they could break off other bits of metal, which eventually causes erosion.  A quality oil filter helps prevent erosion from taking place.  The oil filter cleans the oil as it passes through the filter and prevents abrasive contaminants from damaging the engine parts.

It is very important to choose a high quality oil filter because the internal construction and quality of the filter has a huge effect on the life of your car’s engine.  Here at Express Care, we use a Wix oil filter.  Wix was patented in 1954 and has been at the forefront of oil filter technology and performance for passenger cars, trucks, buses and off-road vehicles ever since.

Filtration efficiency or particle size retention is one of the standards used to determine the quality of an oil filter.  Particle size retention is the measure of how well a filter can retain particles of various sizes.  Wix has developed optimum filtration efficiency in their filters.  They are able to trap and hold essentially all the particles larger than 25 microns.  (A human hair measures about 70 microns in diameter.)  These filters can also capture a high percentage of even smaller particles.

Another standard that a quality filter must meet is dirt-holding capacity.  This is the amount of contaminants that can be removed and held by the filter until the filter ceases to function.  The capacity of Wix filters is significantly larger than the minimum requirements specified by vehicle manufacturers to efficiently filter all the oil used during a regular oil change interval.

As you can see, it is just as important to use a quality oil filter as it is to use quality motor oil in our vehicles.  They work together to help our cars run efficiently.

For all of your Denver Auto Repair needs, trust Express Car Care. Call (303) 691-2760 or stop by our shop today.

 

Conventional Oil vs. Synthetic Oil

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We are often asked, “which oil should I use, conventional or synthetic?”  This seems to be an unending debate, conventional oil vs. synthetic oil, but we will try to give you some facts that might make your decision a bit easier.

Conventional oil comes from crude oil that is pumped out of the ground.  The crude oil is refined at an oil refinery and becomes the base stock for conventional oil.   Even though is goes through a refining process  conventional oil still contains small amounts of contaminants that can’t be removed.  Unlike conventional oil, synthetic oil base stock is created artificially or synthesized.  These oils are purer and are custom designed to provide the “ideal” lubrication.

Both conventional oil and synthetic oil have additives to help prevent sludge and deposit build-up, but synthetic oil also has performance additives that provide superior protection for the life of your engine and in extreme driving conditions such as extremely cold or hot temperatures.

Because of the higher purity properties of synthetic oil, it can stand up to heat and withstand colder temperatures much better than conventional oil.  This is a huge advantage when you first start your car in the cold weather.

There are a few more advantages you get by using synthetic oil.  It flows easier in cold weather, so if you live where it gets really cold in the winter, you might want to use synthetic.

Also because synthetic oil doesn’t break down as quickly as conventional oil, there are longer intervals between oil changes.  Although some have thought that synthetics last forever, this is not the case.  Eventually the additives in the synthetic oil will break down like conventional oil and the oil will need to be changed.

The higher cost of synthetic oil has been a major deterrent for some people, but the fact that they extend drain intervals, provide better fuel economy and reduce engine wear, make them more economical than you might think.

Just as we need to do with all the information we receive, we need to decide what works best for us and our vehicle,  so look over  your owner’s manual, see what they recommend and then make your decision.

For all of your Denver Auto Repair needs, trust Express Car Care. Call (303) 691-2760 or stop by our shop today.

Brake Problems

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In Roseville  Michigan, a twenty-four year old man tried to use his feet to stop his runaway truck that had serious brake problems.  After his brakes failed on a busy street in Roseville, about two miles north of Detroit, the man was unable to use his brakes to stop.  So he continued driving but stuck his feet outside the truck in a futile attempt bring the truck to a stop.  Witnesses said the man reached speeds of about 40 mph and struck two cars after going through a red light.  He continued on and was eventually able to bring the truck to a stop but not before he had hit two more vehicles!

Then there was the firefighter that experienced brake problems when he was approaching an intersection while returning from an early morning alarm.  The vehicle was going less than 45 mph and the roads were clear but the temperature outside was near 9 degrees.  He tried to gear down but the automatic transmission didn’t work and there were two cars waiting for the light on either side of the intersection.  Fortunately, he was able to move as far to the left as possible as he approached the intersection and he made a wide right hand turn onto a two lane road and was able to come to a safe stop in an empty parking lot!

Don’t let this happen to you!

Although brake failure accidents are very rare, ( they consist of 5% or less of car accidents per year) we certainly don’t want to be included in that 5%.  So take the steps necessary to maintain your brakes properly and prevent brake problems from turning ugly.  There may be no sure way to prevent the possibility of a brake failure accident, but you can make sure to do your part.

Make sure that your brakes are inspected and serviced regularly.  If there is a recall notice for your vehicle, affecting the brakes or anything else, take it seriously and don’t ignore it.

Listen for grinding or squeaking noises when using the brake, or difficulty actually stopping the car.  Also be aware if your car veers to one side or the other when you put pressure on the brake pedal.  And last but not least, don’t neglect your brake fluid.  Most experts recommend that you completely change the brake fluid every one to two years.  Brake fluid that has been in the car for a year may contain 2% water, which greatly decreases its effectiveness.

For all of your Denver Auto Repair needs, trust Express Car Care. Call (303) 691-2760 or stop by our shop today.

 

Transmission Problems

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As I get older I am even more aware of the small changes in my body and how they affect my abilities.  Just as our bodies give us clues that there might be something wrong, our car’s transmission will give us signs there might be problems.  I’ve listed here five clues that your car might have transmission problems. 

The easiest clue to help us spot possible transmission problems is leaking transmission fluid.  Automatic transmission fluid is essential to keep your car shifting properly.  Transmission fluid is bright red, clear and smells sweet when everything is working correctly.  Unlike motor oil, transmission oil isn’t burned up when it’s used, so if you are low on fluid, it has to be leaking somewhere.  It’s a good idea to have your transmission fluid checked at least twice a year, just to be safe.

Another clue there might be transmission problems is when you are starting your car.  A transmission in need of repair will have trouble turning over or may stutter before turning over.  If this is the case, it could be a simple problem like moisture in the electrical wires or a bigger problem in the transmission.  Have your mechanic test the electrical system and the transmission if you notice these clues.

Every car is built differently and emits different sounds while the engine is running, but usually clunking, whining or humming is a clue there might be problems.  If you notice a sound that you haven’t heard before, have your car checked out by a professional.  Just as your car shouldn’t make unusual noises it shouldn’t be grinding or shaking either!

Your car shouldn’t grind or shake when you start it or while it’s changing gears. Both are signs that your transmission needs attention.  If you notice anything besides a smooth transition between gears, then you might have transmission problems.

The check engine light is the quickest way  to alert you to any problems in your engine.  Most cars use electrical and computer systems to monitor the proper functioning of the transmission.  If the check engine light comes on, check if there are other clues to help you assess if the problems you’re having are related to your transmission.  If you’re in doubt, take your car to a trusted and qualified mechanic to determine whether or not your transmission is in need of service.

For all of your Denver Auto Repair needs, trust Express Car Care. Call (303) 691-2760 or stop by our shop today.

Hottest Car Tournament

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Congratulations to the 1970 Dodge Challenger for winning the third heat of our Hottest Car Tournament!  So far the classic cars have had a slight edge over the new throwbacks.  So let’s get started with our fourth and final heat!  This heat features the winners of each heat and will determine the Champion of our tournament.  Here are the three contestants, make sure your choice is heard!  Place your vote by clicking on Comments below and tell us which car is the hottest.

Classic Mustang

2010 Chevy Camaro

1970 Dodge Challenger

The winner and Champion (by a nose) of our Hottest Car Tournament is the Classic Mustang!  Thank you to those of you who participated!

For all of your Denver Auto Repair needs, trust Express Car Care. Call (303) 691-2760 or stop by our shop today.

Hottest Car Tournament

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Let’s start the third heat of our Hottest Car Tournament!  Everyone has their own ideas on what makes a hot car.  There are many factors that come into play when making your choice, all the way from the style of the car to the way it makes you feel when you look at it.  A car can stir up fond memories and launch us into another time.  Whatever it is that works for you, take some time and help us decide which cars seem to have the most fans!  It’s very simple to participate.  We’re posting two photos of  “Hot Cars” – you decide which one you like best and let us know your choice.  The winner, or the car with the most favorable comments, will continue on to the next heat until we have the ultimate winner of the tournament.

The winner of the second heat in our tournament was the 2010 Chevy Camaro!

Let’s take a look at our next two contenders!  To cast your vote simply click on Comments below.  Don’t forget to vote!!

1970 Dodge Challenger

2011 Dodge Challenger

Hottest Car Tournament

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Everyone seems to have their own opinion when it comes to deciding who has the hottest car.  There are several factors that come into play when choosing a hot car, starting with the decade that you were born all the way down to what you think is the best color.  We thought it would be interesting and fun to hold a “Hottest Car Tournament” and see what cars seem to have the most fans!  It’s very simple to participate.  We’ll be posting two photos of “Hot” cars – you decide which one you like better and let us know your choice.  The winner ( car with the most favorable comments) will take on another car until we have the ultimate winner of the tournament.  If you have a suggestion for a possible car entry, be sure to share that with us as well.

The Classic Mustang was the hands down winner of the first heat in our Hottest Car Tournament!

Let’s take a look at our next two contenders!  To cast your vote simply click on the Comments below.  Vote now!

2010 Chevy Camaro

Classic Camaro

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