Boulder Auto Repair

Every family car on CO expressways has a differential, and it is essential to the proper operation of the vehicle, but most Boulder auto owners don’t have a clue what it is. The differential compensates for differing wheel speeds. For example, when you turn, the inside tire on the turn travels a much shorter distance than the outside wheel. So the inside wheel of the family car must move at a slower speed than the outside wheel. Without a differential, the wheels would hop and scrape while turning. Have you ever seen the large bugle-shaped object in the middle of the rear axle of a truck? That’s the differential. In a rear-wheel drive vehicle, the differential is located on the back axle. Four-wheel drive vehicles and SUV’s have differentials on both the front and the rear axle. You might expect that the differential is located on the front axle of a front-wheel drive ve ... read more

 Have you ever noticed that your vehicle manufacturer has a schedule in your owner’s manual for what is called “severe service” maintenance? Let’s define what severe driving conditions aren’t: The easiest driving a vehicle experiences is traveling on the interstate for twenty miles or more at a constant rate of 65 miles per hour in 75°F weather with only passengers on board. Change any one of those parameters and you are adding stress to your engine. Change them significantly, and you are driving under severe conditions. Let’s look at the vital parameters one a time. First, the length of the trip. Short trips around Boulder are harder on an engine than longer ones. As your engine cools down, water in the air condenses onto the engine. When you heat the engine again, the water evaporates off. This is healthy. But on short trips, the engine doesn’t stay hot enough long enough for all of the water to evaporate so it star ... read more

  If the fuel system in your family car is dirty, you will be hurting your MPG and losing performance as you drive around Boulder, CO. Unless they drive a vintage car, Boulder car owners have fuel injectors which need to be properly maintained. That is why your family car owner’s manual has a schedule for cleaning your fuel injectors and other parts of your fuel system. Your cheerful service advisor at John’s Auto Care in Boulder has the tools and chemicals to do the job right. John’s Auto Care uses a process that gives your car a deep, professional fuel system cleaning. The particles, gum and varnish that build up in your fuel system are removed so that it can run cleanly and efficiently.After a professional fuel system cleaning at John’s Auto Care, you’ll notice more power, improved fuel efficiency and reduced exhaust emissions. AutoNetT ... read more

Every Boulder vehicle owner has to purchase tires at some time or another, so it’s a good idea to understand what the choices are. The best seasonal performance is achieved by purchasing tires to match the season you are driving in. Summer tires are designed for hot temperatures. The tread is engineered for good traction on dry or rainy CO roads. But the rubber compound in summer tires gets stiff when temperatures drop below 45°F, and snow and mud can pack into the tread, reducing the traction of the tire. Winter tires are designed for good traction on snowy surfaces. The tread actually throws snow off of the tire as the wheel turns. The rubber compound in a winter tire is soft so that it will remain flexible at Eldorado Springs temperatures below 45°F. At higher temperatures, however, the softer rubber wears down rapidly. All-season tires sacrifice some of the extreme performance of summer or winter tires, but they maintain adequate traction in either type of Boulder w ... read more

Some Boulder motorists wonder why John’s Auto Care and other Boulder auto repair shops charge a fee for diagnostic services.Think about it: When you hire a local Eldorado Springs HVAC technician to check out a problem with your air conditioner you’ll probably pay a diagnostic fee. When you visit your Lafayette doctor for a health problem, you pay the physician to diagnose the ailment and of course for the tests that go along with it.So receiving a diagnostic charge at John’s Auto Care for a tricky automotive problem shouldn’t be a surprise. In the Eldorado Springs area, automotive diagnostics can cover quite a range. If you hear a noise in your family car brakes when you slow down in rush-hour traffic on a busy CO interstate, you pull off the next off-ramp and take a quick visual check. That is usually enough to know what needs to be done. If you’re having an inter ... read more