Express Car Care of Denver

"Denver's Best Auto Repair and Quick Lube"

Radiator Flush

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During the winter months when the temperatures can be as cold as below zero and in the summer when the temperatures can be so hot you’re sweltering, it is crucial your heating and cooling system is working properly.  These are the perfect times to have a radiator flush performed on your vehicle.            

The engines in today’s vehicles are filled with parts that are made of aluminum.  Water pumps, manifolds, engine blocks and the heater and radiator are all made of aluminum.  In order to protect the aluminum in these essential parts from corrosion, you need fresh anti-freeze in your engine.  Your anti-freeze should be checked during routine maintenance visits but you should also have a radiator flush done at least once a year, maybe twice a year, depending on the vehicle you drive and how it’s driven.

Every time you drive, your radiator is using up a coolant (anti-freeze) and water mixture to help bring down the temperatures in your car’s engine system.  The longer and the faster your car is driven the more stress is put on the engine, causing temperatures to soar.  These high temperatures increase the potential for your vehicle to overheat.   One of the ways to avoid overheating your engine is to keep fresh coolant in the radiator.

Coolant, like other fluids used in your vehicle, will break down over time.  This is why it is important to replace or flush your coolant mixture.  When the coolant breaks down more stress is placed on your radiator and your engine runs hotter than it should.  Dirt and deposits also build up and can reduce your vehicle’s performance.  Prolonged use of dirty coolant can result in costly damage to your radiator.  So if you haven’t had a radiator flush in the last year, take the necessary steps to get one and maybe save yourself some headaches in the future.

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

When To Replace Shocks and Struts

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During the winter, as we are driving around on roads that may or may not have had the snow or ice from the prior day removed by a snowplow.  While we are bouncing and bumping along, we might wonder if all the movement we are experiencing is actually caused by the road conditions or is it time for us to replace the shocks and struts on our car.  If you have found yourself asking that question anytime recently,  I invite you to click on the link below for one of our earlier blogs and see if the information there helps you determine the answer. Shocks and Struts-How Do You Know When They Need Replacing?

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

Reasons for a Car to Overheat

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In recent weeks, we have had a few customers who have gone through the  trying experience of having their car overheat.  Unfortunately, they didn’t all have the same positive outcome from their experience, but they each wanted to know the reason their car overheated and how they could avoid it in the future.  We’ll share with you the information we passed on to them.

One of the main reasons for a car to overheat is a lack of coolant in the car’s cooling system.  This happens when there is a leak somewhere in the system and the coolant is escaping or if fresh coolant hasn’t been put in the radiator. Cooling systems are often neglected.  If your coolant isn’t changed, the hoses and passages get dirt and sludge built up in them and the coolant can’t flow rapidly enough to cool the engine.  Keep your eye on your car’s temperature gauge.  If there is a possibility of your car overheating, the needle on the temperature gauge will move toward the “H” (for hot) to alert you to what is happening.

Another common reason for a car to overheat is a thermostat that is stuck.  The thermostat can freeze or stick in the closed position which blocks the coolant from flowing to your engine.

There are several other reasons for a car to overheat, such as a damaged water pump or cooling fan or possibly a clogged radiator.  These are all things that should be looked at and diagnosed by a professional mechanic and not something that you should try to figure out on your own.

But no matter what is causing your car to overheat, the most important thing to remember is don’t continue to drive the car!  Overheating can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage!  If you experience any of the signs your car is overheating, the temperature gauge is high, or there is steam and/or a burning smell coming from the engine, pull over as soon as possible and turn the car off!  Call a tow truck but don’t drive the car when it’s overheating!   By putting yourself through some slight inconvenience now, you can avoid major inconveniences and costly repairs later.

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

Cabin Air Filter

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Now that the weather has gotten colder and we can no longer drive around town with our windows down.  Have you noticed the air blowing around inside your car isn’t as quite as fresh smelling as it once was?  If that is the case, it might be time to change your cabin air filter.  The cabin air filter is an essential part of your car’s ventilation system.  It removes dust particles, pollutants, and unpleasant odors from the air before they can enter the passenger compartment. Cabin air filters are also called interior ventilation filters, pollen or dust filters, ACC filters, or passenger compartment filters.

A cabin air filter purifies the air ( which is especially important to those of us who suffer with allergies or respiratory problems).  And it also protects the heater and air conditioning components.  A dirty filter puts more wear on the ventilation system because when there is a higher resistance to air flow, the blower has to work much harder.  This reduces your heating and air conditioning performance over time.  So if your filter isn’t changed like it should be, you not only have unpleasant odors to deal with, but possible repairs to the ventilation system.

So when should they be changed?  Under “normal” driving conditions for a vehicle driven mainly in a city or suburb area, a cabin air filter lasts about a year.  For a vehicle in a rural area that is driven frequently on unpaved roads, the filter life may be only six months or less.  A lot depends on the vehicle and the way it is driven.

If you aren’t sure whether or not you have a cabin air filter in your vehicle, more than eighty percent of all new vehicles today have a cabin air filter.  If your car was manufactured after 2000, than it more than likely has one. But if you’re driving an older model of car and smell a strange odor, unfortunately, it might not have a thing to do with a cabin air filter!

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

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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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.

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.

Fuel Injection Cleaning Service

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Maintaining our vehicles properly is the only way to ensure peak engine performance and good fuel economy.  Having a fuel injection cleaning service is sometimes overlooked but it is an important part of maintaining your car’s engine.

The fuel injector is a small engine part that injects fuel where it needs to go, at a rate that is best suited for your car.  When it’s in perfect condition, the fuel injector filters out debris that is not good for the engine and also allows the filtered fuel to be used by the engine correctly.  When fuel injectors are dirty, they can’t deliver the correct spray required for your car’s combustion, so your fuel economy and engine performance will suffer.  Fuel injectors get dirty over time because some chemicals in the gasoline don’t evaporate or get washed away and they leave deposits on the injectors. These deposits build up and if they aren’t removed they will clog the injectors.  If your car is misfiring or idles rough, it could be a sign it might need a fuel injection cleaning.

There are different ways of cleaning fuel injectors.  One is to add a fuel injector cleaner to a tank of gas every once in awhile to clean them.  Another way is to have the fuel injector removed, cleaned and serviced professionally.  This is the better method because as well as cleaning, you can also have repair work done on the injector if it’s needed.  It’s important to have your fuel injectors serviced once a year.  When you use an in-tank method of cleaning your injector you are unable to see the condition of the filters, O-rings and other parts of the injector.  All these parts wear out eventually and can cause problems if not replaced.  Also only using the in-tank method can damage parts of the injectors.  When you have a professional fuel injection cleaning service, your mechanic checks the filters, O-rings and other parts to see if they need to be replaced and then replace them if needed.  Though this method may be more expensive and time consuming, it is usually the best cleaning process.

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

Brakes Service

Oil Change

Suspension

Transmision Service

Engine Service

Auto Tips & Tricks