Boulder Auto Repair

We live in such a disposable society. It’s amazing all the stuff we throw away. New stuff comes out so fast, we just toss the old and move on. In the old days people were real sticklers about taking care of their things. If something got lost or ruined by neglect, tough – they had to do without. Most people couldn’t afford new cars very often, so they had to make them last as long as they could. It’s a good thing that cars are more reliable these days. They just don’t break down as often. And the good news for us CO penny pinchers is that a modern car can easily go 200,000 miles/320,000 km with proper care. The engineering and the manufacturing quality is tremendous. The missing ingredient is us Boulder car owners making sure we follow the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedules. Every time you go a couple thousand extra miles between an oil change, you have created an opportunity for sludge to be fo ... read more

There’s not much we can do about the price of gas in Boulder CO, but we do quite a bit about how much we use as we’re driving on our Boulder streets. Our driving habits can dramatically affect our fuel economy. The first thing we can do is watch the ‘go-pedal’. Hard acceleration just sucks the gas. Gently leave stop lights and plan lane changes so you don’t need to floor it. That can save you hundreds of dollars a year. Go a little slower on the freeway to Eldorado Springs. Once you’re going more than sixty-five miles an hour your fuel economy starts to drop dramatically. Leave early so you don’t need to rush to be on time. And cruise control is your friend – steady speed uses less gas. Plan errands ahead. Make fewer trips by combining errands. Hey at current gas prices, a lead-foot might as well be a gold foot

Boulder drivers know that engines need to burn fuel to operate. Fuel is pumped from your fuel tank to your family car engine where it is squirted—or injected—into your engine’s cylinders. This is the function of the fuel injectors. There are two ways to inject fuel into an engine. Fuel needs air to burn, so in the first method, fuel is injected into a port and allowed to mix with air and before it is drawn into the cylinders. In the second method, fuel is injected directly into the cylinders and mixes with air after it enters the family car engine. Direct injection engines burn fuel more efficiently than conventional family car engines. Some models can deliver the power of a V8 with the economy of a V6. For example, in one family of engines, the conventional version (a V6) delivers about 250 horsepower. The direct injection version delivers over 300 horsepower and gets about the same gas mileage. The turbocharged version delivers 350 horsepower. Why t ... read more

You know you need new tires, but you’re not sure what type. You look at a tire to get the size: 225, 50, R, 16, 92, H. All the way to the Boulder service center you keep repeating it over and over. You even say it over in your mind while waiting in line. Then you get to the counter and the manager asks what size you need. Then your mind goes blank. Tire size can be confusing for many Boulder auto owners. There’s so much on the side of the tire, and it’s hard to keep straight. Even though there’s a lot on a tire – if you know what it all means, it’s actually more helpful than confusing. Let’s start with the size number. For example, let’s say a tire reads: 225 50 R 16 92 H. The 225 part is the width of the tire in millimeters – the width between the sidewalls of an inflated tire with no load. The 50 is the aspect ratio – the ratio of the sidewall height to the tread wi ... read more

If you’ve ever been driving around Boulder and had a headlamp go out, you’ve probably just wanted to replace the bad bulb. If your car uses halogen headlamps, they dim over time. So if you just put in one, they won’t have the same brightness which can be distracting and will affect your field of vision. To have your headlights inspected, visit us at John’s Auto Care. We’re at 1900 55th St. #104 in Boulder, CO 80301. Or give us a call at 303.442.2932 Experts in Boulder recommend replacing your halogen headlamps every year. It’s easy to remember if you do it when daylight savings time changes in the fall. That way you’ll have bright headlamps for those long Boulder winter nights. There are other types of headlamps in addition to halogen. There are the old standard bulbs that have been around for decades. These are OK, but you can usually upgrade to halogen. They cost a ... read more