“Parts background gives Colorado entrepreneur solid footing in shop ownership” writes Parts and People Magazine about Davis Repair owner, Larry Brown. Check out the article with shout-outs to Davlin Marketing Group, BNI Action Partners and Demandforce.
 | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
I Can See Clearly Now: Wiper Blade Replacement In Greenwood VillageAbout 90% of our Greenwood Village Colorado driving decisions are based solely on what we see. So having a good pair of windshield wipers is extremely important. Everyone in Greenwood Village Colorado has experienced the frustration and fear of not being able to see clearly during a storm, or when our windshield is just dirty. In fact, it’s estimated that 46,000,000 motorists from Denver and across the nation are driving with wipers that can’t adequately clear their windshield in a storm. It seems like your wiper blades are always at their worst when you need them the most. If that sounds like you, you’ve got plenty of company in the Denver area. 78% of drivers only change their wiper blades after the blades function so poorly that they become a safety hazard. We need to change our thinking. Instead of blades being something to replace when they fail, we need to consider wiper blades as an important safety component. Then we’ll stay ahead of the storm. You really ought to replace your wiper blades twice a year; in the spring and the fall. If you live in the colder parts of Colorado, you may even want to get special winter blades in the fall. Winter blades are designed to resist freezing. Speaking of winter and freezing conditions, if your car has been sitting for a long time and the windshield becomes frozen, don’t use your wipers to clear off snow and ice. That can just shred your blades and may even damage the wiper motor. Your wiper blades live outside; freezing cold and blistering sun. Over time, they become hard and brittle, and then tear. They also lose their flexibility and just don’t clear the windshield effectively. Worn wiper blades aren’t just a safety hazard; they can also scratch your windshield. That may require replacing the entire windshield – a big cost for such a little part. AutoNetTV recommends you replace worn blades right away. Your local service center can provide you with a quality replacement blade. They cost about the same as they would at the store – but installation is included at the service center. Of course you also need washer fluid to help your blades do their work. Even though Davis Repair will top off the washer fluid with a full service oil change, it is a good idea to have some extra fluid at home. It’s a good idea to keep a bottle in the car if you’re on a road trip. Always use windshield washer fluid. Plain water, even that fancy French bottled water, just doesn’t cut it. It can freeze in the fluid reservoir or on the windshield itself, making things worse. Besides, water won’t do as good job of cleaning your windows. So follow these tips to keep your windshield clear and your eye on the road. Find us at: Automobile Fluids For Your Ford/> If you’ve walked through the automotive fluids of an auto parts store in Denver, you’ll know how overwhelming the sheer number of products available can be. How do you know what’s right for your vehicle? As you know, these fluids all serve a function in making your car run as you drive around the Denver area. Your vehicle manufacturer has specified a particular type of fluid for every system from the motor, to the cooling system, brake fluid and so on. When you realize that not every variation is applicable to your vehicle, the task becomes more manageable. First let’s talk about why there are so many varieties. Starting with motor oil, we see that manufacturers match the properties of a particular weight or type of oil with the design needs of the engine. For example, engines with sophisticated valve trains often require a thinner weight of oil. Some vehicles around Denver come from the factory filled with synthetic oil and the recommendation to use it for life. The safe bet is to always use what the factory recommends. The recommendation is what’s been proven to work in function and durability tests. The recommended oil is also a factor in determining oil change interval schedules.
Sometimes fluids are developed specifically to meet the needs of a particular family of engines. An example would be coolant. Because of the different materials used to build the cooling system, the coolant has to be formulated to protect those parts, which vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, from corrosion. We’ve seen special coolant in Denver for General Motors, Volkswagen, Chrysler and others. The same is true of transmission fluid and brake fluid in recent years. The really good news is that your Denver service center has databases that tell them the recommended fluids for your vehicle. This takes all the guess work out. If you have some special needs, like a higher mileage engine or want enhanced performance, ask your service advisor for upgrades or additives that’ll meet your needs while being consistent with the manufacturer’s recommendations. Of course, your full-service oil change will top off your fluids. But it’s a good idea to have some of everything at home in case you need to top something off yourself or to take on a trip. Ask your Denver service advisor at Davis Repair or check your owner’s manual for fluid specifications. It’s important to know that there are national warranty laws that say that a manufacturer cannot require you to use their brand of fluid to maintain your warranty. That said, there are two things that may affect your warranty. Using the wrong type of fluid may void the warranty. Going back to radiator coolant, the correct type protects against corrosion and the wrong type will not. So it’s important to be right. Also some warranty protections are conditioned on taking care of scheduled preventive maintenance. Please review your warranty if you have questions. Is Your Greenwood Village Driving Severe?People near Greenwood Village Colorado often ask Davis Repair how often they should have a particular service done. It’s a great thing to ask. You can look at your owner’s manual, or have your Greenwood Village Colorado service advisor at Davis Repair look up your vehicle in a service database. What you find is often a surprise to people – there are actually two service schedules. One is the regular schedule and the other is the severe service schedule. Service intervals are shorter on the severe service schedule. When asked, most folks in Greenwood Village Colorado will say that their driving is normal and that the ‘regular’ schedule probably applies to them. ‘Severe service’ sounds pretty extreme – ‘I don’t drive like that’. Well, here is what the manufacturers say constitutes severe driving conditions; you can draw your own conclusions.
If that’s severe driving, what constitutes regular driving? Well, it would look something like this: I live somewhere with moderate temperatures all year round – I’m thinking San Diego here. And I live close to a freeway on-ramp. Everywhere I need to go is right off the freeway, at least four miles from my home. I can drive at a steady 60 miles per hour when I’m on the freeway. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like my normal driving. It sounds more like ideal conditions. I live where it gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I run short errands around Greenwood Village. Occasionally we load up for family trips. For me, normal driving includes elements of severe service driving. So here’s what I tell people: think about how you drive, where you live, where you go and what you are expecting to with your vehicle in the near future. Picture a line with ‘regular’ on one end and ‘severe’ on the other, and make a judgment on where you fall. If your regular oil change recommendation is 5,000 miles and the severe service recommendation is 3,000 – when should you change your oil? For me, it’s closer to 3,000 miles. For my wife, it’s closer to 5,000 miles. Your Greenwood Village Colorado auto service advisor at Davis Repair will be happy to have this discussion with you and help you sort it out. Just a quick word on why severe service intervals are shorter. One has to do with heat. That can either be external heat from the weather or engine and transmission heat from stop and go driving or working extra hard moving heavy loads or towing. The heat causes the fluids like oil and transmission fluid to break down more quickly and then they aren’t as effective. Another factor is water. Moisture naturally collects in fluids as they cool. In your motor oil, for example, if you don’t drive long enough for the oil to fully heat up, the water won’t evaporate. Water in the oil can lead to the buildup of damaging sludge. If you live where the air is dusty or polluted, fluids will become contaminated and filters will get dirtier more quickly. So make an honest evaluation of your driving conditions. You’ve made the commitment to take care of your vehicles, so it only makes sense to follow the right schedule. Our ASE Certified TechniciansCongratulations to our employees who recently certified or re-certified for the National Institute of Automotive Service Excellence ASE www.ase.com Ken Ryan – Re-Certification as a “Master Tech” Alan Anderson – Certified as a “Master Tech” We are proud to have the best auto repair team in Centennial and Greenwood Village – come in and see why it make a difference to have you car repaired by expert, honest and reliable mechanics. Your Well Trained Technician At Davis Repair/>
When your Ford breaks down, or just needs some routine service, you might get a little nervous. Your car’s so important to your life in Aurora, you need to back on the road as soon as possible – with the problem fixed right the first time. If you’ve ever checked into some of the technician training Davis Repair professionals receive, you may be surprised at how much knowledge and skill goes into diagnosing and repairing a modern car. Let me give you some perspective. Today there are four cylinder engines that make more power than the V-8’s in luxury cars twenty years ago. I mean a new V-6 Toyota Camry could beat Sonny Crocket’s Ferrari in a race to sixty.
Some cars have several networked computers controlling most of the engine functions and many other vehicle functions as well. Aurora motorists take all of this sophistication for granted – but somebody has to fix it when it breaks. It’s a real challenge for Davis Repair technicians to keep up, but we work hard to stay ahead of the technology. It requires a high level of commitment on the part of the technician and the Aurora service center as well. In addition to the training, there’s the financial commitment to purchase the diagnostic and repair tools. Davis Repair technicians receive training through a combination of formal classroom training, training provided at Davis Repair by parts and equipment manufacturers, on-line courses and home study courses. There are many independent certifications available at Davis Repair all the way up to Master Technician. The ability to repair your Ford requires a strong combination of training and resources. No one can know everything, so Aurora auto service centers subscribe to data services, technical libraries and even on-line communities that can help them when they run into a difficult problem.
So try to be more relaxed next time you bring us your Ford. You’re in good hands. FREE Battery test & ReportWinter can be hard on your battery, extreme heat and cold are the main causes of battery trouble. If you have questions about the health of your battery, come in and let us do a free diagnostic. Using our midtronics battery tester we can see how healthy your battery is, and give you expert advice on your car’s battery needs. Test Results and what they mean: A fully charged battery should read about 12.6 volts. If the battery reads 12.4 volts or less low (discharged) and needs to be recharged.
Battery Voltage and State of Charge: 12.68v . . . . . . . . . . 100% Call today to schedule your complete battery diagnostic and FREE printed report 303-790-4789
Saving Lives In Greenwood Village With Tire PressureAll new passenger vehicles on our Greenwood Village Colorado roads now have tire pressure monitoring systems – TPMS for short. They are designed to alert you if your tires are under inflated. Since they are fairly new, a lot of people have questions about TPMS. First off, the most important thing is that you still need to check your tire pressure every week – or at least every time you gas up. The TPMS system alert comes in when your tire is twenty percent below the factory recommendation. So if the recommended pressure is thirty five pounds per square inch, the TPMS warning won’t come on until the pressure is at twenty eight pounds. That’s significantly under-inflated. Enough to raise safety concerns. The worst is tire failure. A severely under inflated tire can overheat and fail. Also, handling degrades to the point that you may not be able to steer out of trouble. Also under-inflated tires wear out faster and they waste fuel. So it’s costly to not stay on top of proper inflation. What’s the practical value of the TPMS system? Well, it’s twofold. First, it can alert you when your tire is losing pressure due to a puncture or a bent rim. That’s an important warning that you might not have gotten until next time you gassed up. The second is that we all occasionally forget to check our tire pressure. So it’s a failsafe system to let you know there’s a problem brewing. Other things can cause your TPMS system to go off. The system also monitors itself. The sensors that are mounted in the wheels have little batteries that send a signal to the monitor. The batteries go dead over time and the TPMS system will let you know. And the sensors could break. Also road salt from our Greenwood Village Colorado roads can ruin them. There’s also a hassle factor that your Greenwood Village Colorado tire center has to contend with. For example, when you have your tires rotated in Greenwood Village, the TPMS system has to be re-calibrated so that it knows which tire is on which corner of the car. Same is true for when you have new tires or winter tires installed. Flat repairs, as well. That takes extra time. And it requires the right equipment and training. Special – and expensive – tire change machines need to be used with some sensors. It’s all complicated by the fact that there are a number of different TPMS systems in use so the tire professionals at Davis Repair need equipment and training for each kind. Tire centers have had to raise the price of some of these basic services to offset their increased costs. Also if you add custom wheels on your Ford, you need to put in new TPMS sensors if your originals won’t work on the new rims. If you don’t your TPMS light will be on constantly and you won’t have the benefit of the warning system. All in all, the mandated TPMS systems will save lives, so they’re worth the added hassle and expense. |
||||||||||||||||
|
E-mail: 
