Ft. Collins Auto Repair

All Tech Automotive WestMonday - Friday: 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
1007 Centre Ave. , Fort Collins, CO 80526
All Tech Automotive EastMonday - Friday: 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
450 Industrial Dr. , Fort Collins, CO 80524

Monthly Archives: May 2011

My Car/Truck Won’t Start

When faced with a “no start” problem the first thing we ask is

Gimme a Brake!

Of all the parts on a car or truck, the ones most closely connected to the safety of the driver are, in my mind, the brakes. The braking system is what we rely on to not only stop the vehicle, but slow it down as well. The two basic types of brake systems are the pad and rotor, and the shoe and drum styles. The older of the two is the drum and shoe which employs a shoe which fits inside of a round drum and is pressed against the inside of the drum by a hydraulic component known as a wheel cylinder. The wheel cylinder is operated by the master cylinder inside the engine compartment which sends pressure by way of brake (hydraulic) fluid to the wheel cylinder pressing the shoe into the drum. The pad and rotor system is the newer of the two and consists of a set of pads which are pinched into both sides of a metal plate we call a rotor. The pinching is performed by a caliper in which the pads are mounted and which like the wheel cylinder is operated by hydraulic pressure from the master cy ... read more