Modern Lakewood vehicles have several computers on board that control all kinds of things like engine functions, transmission shifts, traction control, anti-lock brakes, stability control, emissions – and on some vehicles, even steering, braking and the throttle.
Think about that for a minute – things that used to be controlled by simple mechanical connections now have electronic controls that rely on computers, software and sensors. It’s no wonder that when something goes wrong with their sedan or SUV it can be pretty complicated for Lakewood car owners to track down the source of the problem.
To help your Pickering’s Auto Service Center tech figure out what’s wrong, your sedan or SUV is equipped with on-board diagnostics. The Check Engine Light comes on to tell you there’s a problem and the engine management computer stores a trouble code. Your honest, and friendly. Pickering’s Auto Service Center tech connects a scan tool to your vehicle’s diagnostic port and retrieves the trouble codes as well as other important data.
Trouble codes are like clues for the Lakewood technician to follow as he diagnoses what’s wrong with your sedan or SUV. In a way, it’s like going to your Lakewood doctor with a problem. She’ll run some additional tests and gather the information she needs to make a diagnosis and form a treatment plan. How much a vehicle diagnosis costs at Pickering’s Auto Service Center in Lakewood depends on how much time it takes to sort out the symptoms and find the underlying problem.
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Pickering’s Auto Service Center 303-237-7717 90 Wadsworth Blvd Lakewood, CO 80226
All those automotive fluids can be confusing for Lakewood drivers. Recent years have brought new grades of engine oil, types of transmission fluid, coolant, and brake fluid. The right fluid protects your vehicle and helps it perform at its best. The wrong fluid won’t work as well for Lakewood drivers and could even cause damage.
In addition to new grades of engine oil, many sedan or SUVs now leave the factory with synthetic oil. Lakewood drivers should always use the recommended grade and type of oil in their engine.
All coolant, also called antifreeze, used to be green. Now there are several other colors of coolant sold at Pickering’s Auto Service Center in Lakewood. Each type is designed to protect the cooling system components that are particular to your vehicle. The wrong stuff can void your sedan or SUV cooling system warranty and could even cause engine damage.
Most passenger vehicles on Lakewood roads today use either DOT 3, DOT 4 or DOT 5 brake fluid. Your sedan or SUV power brake system is specifically designed to use ONE of these types – you need the right one. Higher numbers do not necessarily mean a higher, upgraded fluid.
Now, the critical thing is knowing that your vehicle requires specific grades and types of fluids and that using the right fluids is good and using the wrong ones is bad. Once you’ve got that down, it’s easy to remember to check with your honest, and friendly. Pickering’s Auto Service Center service advisor or sedan or SUV owner’s manual to find out which automotive fluids to use.
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Pickering’s Auto Service Center 303-237-7717 90 Wadsworth Blvd Lakewood, CO 80226
It’s important for Lakewood drivers to know battery basics. First, let’s talk about which is harder on a battery – hot or cold CO weather. Most Lakewood drivers think it’s cold weather because that’s when we call on our batteries to have enough power to start a cold sedan or SUV engine.
However, heat does more damage to a battery than cold. Truth is, our batteries start to die a little from day one. Keeping a full charge slows the process, which is hard with short Lakewood trips because the alternator doesn’t have time to fully recharge the battery from starting the engine. Lakewood drivers can top off the charge with a computer controlled battery charger – say, once a month in the summer and every three months during the winter.
As far as how long a battery will last, statistics show that 70% have given up the ghost within four years. By that time, they aren’t capable of taking a full charge like they used to, and your sedan or SUV alternator has to work overtime to keep up. This causes your alternator to wear out early.
If you’re pushing 4 to 5 years on your battery, see your honest, and friendly. Pickering’s Auto Service Center technician for a battery test to see if it’s recommended to replace it. Not only can you avoid getting stranded with a dead battery, but you’ll save unnecessary wear and tear on your sedan or SUV alternator.
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Pickering’s Auto Service Center 303-237-7717 90 Wadsworth Blvd Lakewood, CO 80226
Virtually all vehicles come with power steering so many Lakewood car owners have never driven a car or truck without it. Power steering assists you when you turn your sedan or SUV steering wheel. Without it, it would be very hard to steer.
Now this power assist comes in a couple of forms. In recent years, a lot of Lakewood vehicles have an electric motor that reduces steering effort and helps improve fuel economy.
The other kind of power steering is hydraulic. This is the kind most older CO vehicles, and a lot of newer ones, have. Power steering fluid is pressurized by a pump and is used to assist steering. Of course, Lakewood car owners need the right amount of fluid in the system. If it’s too low your steering is affected and you could damage your sedan or SUV pump.
Also, power steering fluid can become corrosive over time and damage the pump, hoses and connectors; leading to leaks and repairs. Power steering service at Pickering’s Auto Service Center in Lakewood includes removing the contaminated fluid and replacing it with fresh fluid.
A word about power steering pumps: Some are powered by an electric motor. Others are driven by the serpentine belt. A worn serpentine belt stresses all of the sedan or SUV components it drives, including the power steering pump, so replace the belt at Pickering’s Auto Service Center as advised to avoid undue repairs.
Losing your power steering while driving in Lakewood can be unsettling – just remember that you can still steer, it’ll just be harder. Check with your honest, and friendly. Pickering’s Auto Service Center service specialist to see if it’s time to service your sedan or SUV power steering system.
In addition to power steering service, at Pickering’s Auto Service Center we offer comprehensive automotive services including engine tune ups, transmission repairs and safety inspections.
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Pickering’s Auto Service Center 303-237-7717 90 Wadsworth Blvd Lakewood, CO 80226
There are so many tire choices in the Lakewood, Lakewood, and Lakewood area, selecting the right one can be a bit overwhelming for Lakewood car owners. And even though it’s kind of fun to have new tires on your sedan or SUV, they’re a significant investment for most Lakewood folks so you want do it right.
Tip: talk with your honest, and friendly. Pickering’s Auto Service Center tire professional. He’ll help you sort through the choices.
Here are some of the issues you’ll talk about: One is size – you know, all those numbers on the side of the tire. The right size is essential. All new vehicles are required to have stability control which, along with other important safety systems, is calibrated to work with specific tire sizes. Your Lakewood tire professional can help stay within vehicle manufacturers’ specifications or program a different tire size into your sedan or SUV’s computer.
And you’ll want to discuss how and where you drive in Lakewood to determine the type of tire you need: summer, winter, all-season tires or all-terrain. There are tires for every Lakewood auto owner’s needs.
Like we said, tires are a big investment, so you want to get a good value on tires. Now that doesn’t always mean the cheapest tire. A top tier tire from Pickering’s Auto Service Center will last a long time and give Lakewood car owners good performance throughout its life. Tires sold in Lakewood bargain tire shops may not live up to that promise. Again, your honest, and friendly. Pickering’s Auto Service Center tire professional can give you options that offer the best long-term value within your immediate budget.
Last, with a 2-wheel drive vehicle you should always replace both tires on an axle. Modern sensors and computer safety systems for sedan or SUV brakes, stability and traction control need both tires to have the same amount of wear to work properly. And always put the new tires on the rear so you don’t fishtail in a turn. With all-wheel drive you should replace all four tires at the same time.
Schedule a tire inspection at Pickering’s Auto Service Center to see how much life is left in your sedan or SUV tires and seek the help of a professional when choosing new shoes for your vehicle.
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Pickering’s Auto Service Center 303-237-7717 90 Wadsworth Blvd Lakewood, CO 80226
Every sedan or SUV on CO freeways has a differential, and it is vital to the proper operation of the vehicle, but most Lakewood car 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 sedan or SUV 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 vehicle. You’d be right. But the differential is called a transaxle on a front-wheel drive vehicle because its location allows it to be combined with the transmission.
In an all-wheel drive vehicle, an additional differential or transfer case is located between the front and rear axles. Differentials are strong: They have to be because of the vital job they do. But those tough parts need proper lubrication. You don’t want your differential to seize up. That results in costly damage to your sedan or SUV.
So you need to have your sedan or SUV differential serviced regularly. It’s not a complicated job. At Pickering’s Auto Service Center in Lakewood we’ve been servicing differentials for 30 years. The used lubricating fluid is simply drained and then replaced. Some vehicles require specific additives in the differential fluid; your Lakewood service center will ensure you are getting what your sedan or SUV needs.
The intervals in time or mileage for servicing your differential vary greatly from vehicle to vehicle. Check with your owner’s manual or Pickering’s Auto Service Center to find out how often your sedan or SUV differential needs to be serviced.
Generally, however, front-wheel drive vehicles need their differential serviced more often than rear-wheel drive vehicles. Also, if you spend a lot of time off-road or on Lakewood area dirt or gravel roads, or if you drive through water, you will need to service your differential more often than the standard recommendation – check with your honest, and friendly. Pickering’s Auto Service Center technician.
Preventive maintenance for your differential is good car care that can spare you costly repair bills. Knowing what your differential is and how it operates is vital and will help you understand why this is good auto advice. Remember, take care of your sedan or SUV, and it will take care of you.
When all of a vehicle’s wheels are lined up exactly with each other, your wheels are in alignment. Hitting a road hazard or even just the normal bumps and bounces of everyday driving in Lakewood can cause your sedan or SUV’s wheels to be out of alignment.
Driving for an extended time in Lakewood when you’re out of alignment causes your sedan or SUV’s tires to wear unevenly and excessively – perhaps causing you to have to replace tires years too early or even lead to a blowout: Dangerous … and expensive. It can also cause premature wear to your suspension system, which can be really expensive.
Here are some alignment basics:
The first adjustment is called toe or do the wheels point in towards each other or away from each other at the front of the tire. The next adjustment is called camber or do the wheels tip in or out at the top. And finally, there is castor. Castor measures the angle where the front axles attach to the vehicle.
The ideal alignment for your sedan or SUV was designed by its engineers. Alignment service at Pickering’s Auto Service Center starts with an inspection of the steering and suspension – to see if anything’s bent or broken. Then the Lakewood technician will look at tire condition.
From there, the sedan or SUV is put on an alignment rack and an initial alignment reading is taken. The wheels are then aligned to sedan or SUV manufacturer’s specifications.
Your sedan or SUV owner’s manual probably has a recommendation for how often your alignment should be checked – usually every couple of years. If you suspect an alignment problem, get it checked at Pickering’s Auto Service Center before you suffer expensive tire or suspension damage.
Hello, welcome to Pickering’s Auto Service Center. Today’s topic is batteries. It seems like everything in Lakewood runs on batteries. Of course, the batteries we’re most concerned with here at Pickering’s Auto Service Center are those in our vehicles. Car batteries wear out just like any other battery and need to be replaced. There are a couple of things Lakewood drivers should know when looking for a new battery.
There are two measurements that come into play: one is cold cranking amps and the other is reserve capacity.
Let’s start with cold cranking amps. This can be thought of as the power output used to start a cold engine. The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on your vehicle and where you live, specifically how cold it is where you live. The two factors are that the colder your sedan or SUV’s engine is, the more power it takes to turn the engine over to get it started. It has all that cold, sluggish oil to contend with.
The other factor is that the chemical reaction in the battery that creates electrical energy is less efficient in the cold. We even have a table. Let’s say it’s eighty degrees Fahrenheit out. At that temperature, 100% of the battery’s power is available. At freezing, only 65% of battery power is available, but it requires 155% as much power to start the engine as it did at eighty degrees.
As you can see from the chart, the colder it gets, more power’s needed, but the available power drops.
Percent of Power Available
Celsius
Fahrenheit
Power Required
100
27
80
100
65
0
32
155
40
-22
0
210
25
-32
20
350
So if you live where it’s cold, you need a battery with more cold cranking amps than you do where it’s moderate or hot. The battery that originally came with the vehicle was based on averages. At Pickering’s Auto Service Center, we like to remind Lakewood auto owners that they should always get at least as many cold cranking amps as the manufacturer recommends, but may want to upgrade if they live where it gets real cold.
And the type of engine you have will impact the battery you need: A six-cylinder engine requires more cold cranking amps than a four. An eight cylinder needs even more. And diesel sedan or SUVs require more than a gasoline engine with the same number of cylinders.
Now on to reserve capacity: It’s a measurement of the number of minutes of reserve power the battery has at a given load. The number is more important to Lakewood drivers these days because of parasitic drain. Parasitic drain is the battery energy that’s used when the key is off in your sedan or SUV. So, the power drawn by the security system, the remote start system, even the power the computers require to maintain their memory.
Reserves are also needed when you make very short trips around Lakewood. You’re not driving long enough for the battery to recover the energy it used to start the engine. So go with the minimum recommended by your manufacturer or Pickering’s Auto Service Center and upgrade if you need more.
Talk with us at Pickering’s Auto Service Center about your options. If you need more from your battery, a larger, heavy-duty battery may be called for. At Pickering’s Auto Service Center, we remind our customers that it’s very important that the new battery fits your sedan or SUV: the terminals can’t be touching other parts and stuff.
Batteries are a big ticket item for most Lakewood motorists, so the warranty gives piece of mind. There’re two kinds of car battery warranties: pro-rated and free replacement. With the pro-rated, you get a credit for a portion of the battery if it fails during the warranty period. With a free replacement warranty, you get just that, a free replacement. Be sure to ask us at Pickering’s Auto Service Center about the warranty so you know what you’re getting.
Hello Lakewood, let’s talk about brakes. Braking, as all Lakewood drivers know,is slowing or stopping a vehicle. As you can imagine, brakes are engineered to work well on a particular vehicle application. For example, you would expect more powerful brakes on a heavy-duty pickup that routinely hauls big loads and pulls trailers, than you would on a compact car. And a Corvette that can go over 180 miles per hour would have much different braking needs than the family mini-van you drive around Lakewood.
But the mechanical aspects of the brakes themselves are just one issue. There’s also the power brake pump and brake fluid. And then there are the tires, which are critical to the effectiveness of the brakes.
Let’s step back. A new sedan or SUV or truck rolls off a local Lakewood dealer showroom floor. It has brand new brakes with brand new brake pads. The brake lines and pump are filled with fresh fluid and are completely clean inside. And the tires are brand new, with full tread.
Naturally, braking power is at its peak performance. Now the miles start to add up on the sedan or SUV. We tend to focus on the brake pads. In the business, the pads, and shoes on drum brakes, are called the friction material. That’s because they provide the friction used to stop the vehicle. The pads are designed to be effective throughout their useful life – it’s not until they are worn so thin as to be out of spec that they lose stopping effectiveness.
The mechanical parts of the brakes have pistons and springs that get quite a workout while breaking. Over many miles, these wear and get gummed up. They start to lose effectiveness gradually and could even fail. That’s why a regular brake inspection is important for your sedan or SUV. At Pickering’s Auto Service Center we can test the operation of the brakes and see if any parts need cleaning or replacing.
That leads us to brake fluid service at Pickering’s Auto Service Center. Some of the critical additives in the fluid that lubricate and clean the sedan or SUV fluid system are depleted over time. That and moisture building up in the system deteriorate the performance of the brake fluid. A brake service at Pickering’s Auto Service Center cleans out deposits, water and dirt. Then the system is filled up with fresh fluid.
The tires are what connect the sedan or SUV to the road. The stopping force is ultimately dependent on the traction provided by the tires. The better they grip the road, the quicker you’ll stop.
This is especially important on wet Lakewood roads. Studies have shown that wet stopping distance increases significantly as tires wear down. Lakewood drivers need to understand that they can have brakes that are operating at peak efficiency and yet still be in danger because their tires are worn out.
Today in our Pickering’s Auto Service Center blog, we’re going to talk about following recommended service intervals. Your sedan or SUV isn’t the only aspect of your life in Lakewood with recommended intervals: Let’s start with twice yearly dental cleaning. And physical exams. How about laundry, mowing the lawn and paying the bills?
Now, what would happen if you didn’t follow these intervals? Well, you’d get more cavities. You’d probably not become aware of health issues that benefit from early detection and treatment. And you’d have to wear dirty clothes, be embarrassed by your overgrown lawn and have your utilities shut off.
We all realize there are some things in life that we have to take care of regularly. If we don’t, there are negative consequences. Our quality of life takes a hit and it inevitably costs more money.
So why is it so hard to remember to follow regular preventive maintenance on our sedan or SUVs? Probably a couple of reasons. One is that automotive maintenance items just don’t seem that urgent. Everyone in Lakewood can see our dirty shirt, but no one knows how dirty our transmission fluid is. It’s easy to put off. The other reason is that we’re just not as familiar with automotive maintenance, so it’s a bit intimidating.
From a practical standpoint, Lakewood people don’t need to memorize their sedan or SUV owner’s manuals. You can let your Pickering’s Auto Service Center advisor remind you of the manufacturer’s recommendations: he has checklists of what the manufacturer recommends and can find potential problems when he inspects your sedan or SUV. You really can rely on Pickering’s Auto Service Center professionals to help you make good car care decisions.
For Lakewood drivers who want to be more proactive with their sedan or SUV care, here are some simple ways to remember what has a maintenance interval.
First: Fluids. If it’s liquid, it’s got a replacement schedule. Oil, transmission fluid, coolant, power steering fluid, brake fluid, differential fluid, etc.
Then think tires. They need air, rotation, balancing, and alignment. And while you’re thinking tires, think brakes and shock absorbers.
And what makes your sedan or SUV go? Air and fuel. Air filter replacement, fuel filters and fuel system cleaning. Of course there are more items, but if Lakewood car owners remember to take their car or truck in to Pickering’s Auto Service Center for these things, their service advisor will help them with the rest.
And if you don’t follow recommended service intervals? You use more gas, your sedan or SUV doesn’t perform as well, your safety is compromised and you’ll spend more money in the long run. So it’s the same as everything else: The quality of your motoring life takes a hit and it ends up costing you more.
Reason enough for me to follow recommended service intervals.
