Boulder Auto Repair

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

Your car might have an alignment problem if: it drifts or pulls to one side, your steering wheel is off center, you have uneven tire wear or your car doesn’t feel like it handles right. When all of a vehicle’s wheels are lined up exactly with each other, your wheels are in alignment. Running into potholes, smacking a curb or other object are great ways to knock your car out of alignment. Then one or more of your wheels starts pulling in a slightly different direction and the problems begin. Driving for an extended time when you’re out of alignment causes your tires to wear unevenly and excessively. This can be dangerous and expensive. You’ll have to replace your tires sooner, but even worse – you may cause premature wear to your suspension system, which can be really expensive. The front wheel alignment is adjustable on all vehicles, and the back wheels are also adjustable on some cars. The adjustment can go three different ... read more

Welcome to the John’s Auto Care automotive blog. Today, let’s talk about the effect of tire tread depth on braking. When talking about stopping power, most Boulder and Boulder drivers tend to focus on our brakes. But our tires are where the rubber meets the road. So having good brakes isn’t enough. Safe Boulder drivers need to have tires with enough traction to translate braking power into stopping power.Let’s focus on stopping in wet Boulder conditions. In order for a tire to have good contact with the road, it has to move the water out of the way. If it can’t move the water, the tire will actually ride on top of a thin film of water. That’s called hydroplaning. If it’s really bad, Boulder motorists can actually spin out of control – endangering themselves and the other drivers around them. At best, you won’t stop as fast.So how does ... read more

Make an appointment with John’s Auto Care to have your on board diagnostics analyzed. 1900 55th St. #104 Boulder, CO 80301303.442.2932 Today we’re going to talk about on-board diagnostics and the questions we hear from folks around Boulder CO who need answers about diagnostic services. They want to know what diagnostics are, what’s involved and what the benefits are. They really want to understand the value of diagnostic scans by a trained technician in Boulder CO. These are valid concerns. If you don’t understand something it’s really hard to know its value. Let’s start with some history. Since 1996, all cars and light trucks in Boulder CO have been required to use a standardized diagnostic system to help repair technicians determine what’s wrong with your vehicle. The diagnostic system works with the vehicle’s Engine Control Module – the computer that ... read more