Ft. Collins Auto Repair

“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that is all. When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything because the product you bought was incapable of doing the job it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it cannot be done. If you deal with lower price, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.” —- John Ruskin For every product made or service rendered, there is a person who will make that product or sell it a little cheaper. For every consumer, there is one searching for a little cheaper buy

We are made of water. Arthur Guyton ‘s Textbook of Medical Physiology states that “the total amount of water in a man of average weight (70 kilograms) is approximately 40 litres, averaging 60 percent of his total body weight. In a newborn infant, this may be as high as 75 percent of the body weight, but it progressively decreases from birth to old age, most of the decrease occurring during the first 10 years of life. Also, obesity decreases the percentage of water in the body, sometimes to as low as 45 percent”. (Guyton, Arthur C. (1991). Textbook of Medical Physiology (8th ed.). Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders. p

It happened to me recently. I noticed a bounce and clunk when shifting into reverse. Hmmm. I also noticed the noise when dropping into a lower gear for fast acceleration

From time to time we see vehicles at the side of the road resting on the steering and suspension with a wheel missing. It looks terrible, but in most cases it is not as bad as it looks. Wheels can come off for a number of reasons, but the most common is that the lug nuts holding the wheel in place are not properly tightened. Those lug nuts have a specified tightness, called a torque specification, to which they are to be tightened. Most of us use a special wrench (torque wrench) which measures how tight the nut has been placed to hold the wheel. Some people use what is known as a torque stick that fits on the end of a wrench and accomplishes the same thing. Either way, it is important that whenever a wheel is removed for any reason, it should be torqued down rather than being just randomly having the lug nuts wrenched on. There are a number of reasons a car or truck should have the lug nuts torqued. Most important, is safety. If the nuts are not tight enough, they can come unscrewed an ... read more

Hello Winter! But what about our trusty steeds? I have some tips that you may find helpful in this really cold weather. When starting a really cold car or truck, turn on the defroster right away and let it gradually heat up the windshield as the engine warms the coolant. This will prevent small chips and dings from becoming huge cracks. Make sure the antifreeze in your vehicle is good to -37F which is the equivalent of a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and water. You can purchase a 50/50 mix these days at all places that sell antifreeze, from NAPA, Carquest, to The Zone (Autozone), O’Reilly Auto Parts (Formerly Checker), Kmart, Target or Walmart. Be careful when adding that antifreeze to a hot engine, do it slowly. Keeping your tank filled or with a substantial amount of gasoline will prevent gas line freeze ups by keeping small amounts of water that accumulate in the tank on the bottom of the tank. Make sure your spark plugs are clean or new so that you will get a full spark on the ... read more