Auto Repair in Camarillo

When it comes to their vehicles, some Thousand Oaks people don’t have a maintenance mindset. They know they need to take care of their cars, but it just seems really hard to get them to remember to do it. Thousand Oaks drivers generally accept that many things in life require regular maintenance, but just may have not applied it to their SUVs. For example: the lawn. You water it and mow it every week. And weed the flower beds and rake the leaves. There are other things that Thousand Oaks people are good about maintaining. Going to the dentist twice a year. Clothes to the dry cleaner. Flu shots. Taking the kids to your Thousand Oaks doctor for a checkup before school starts. So Thousand Oaks people really are maintenance minded. They just have to learn to apply that mindset to cars. I mean, if you never brush your teeth or go to the dentist, you’ll become painfully aware of your neglect when you g ... read more

Today in the Camarillo Car Care Center auto care blog, we’re going to talk about oil change intervals. It seems that as engine technology advances, recommended oil change intervals have gotten longer for Camarillo Car Care Center customers. High quality oil in a well-engineered SUV engine has lead to extended intervals. But it’s also lead to some confusion among Camarillo drivers. The old mantra “change your oil every three months or three thousand miles, whichever comes first” once applied to every vehicle in your garage. Time and miles take their toll on motor oil. But now, you could have a different oil change recommendation for every car or truck you own. Camarillo people are like everybody else, they have a tendency to put off all the oil changes to the schedule of the vehicle with the longest interval. Of course, that can lead to problems. For example, recently four of the world’s l ... read more

Many Camarillo drivers have been hearing about new advances in power steering technology, specifically, electric power steering. Some very high-end cars have been featuring electric power steering for a few years. An electric motor directly provides the power assist to make steering easier. Undoubtedly we’ll see much more of this in Camarillo as full electric cars and electric hybrids become more common. The vast majority of cars and trucks serviced at Camarillo Car Care Center in Camarillo use a hydraulic power boost system. With hydraulics, fluid is pressurized by a pump which actuates a hydraulic cylinder to reduce steering effort. Some of these pumps are powered by an electric motor. Most pumps are powered by the serpentine belt driven by the engine. Power steering fluid has the necessary hydraulic properties and the ability to lubricate the internal ... read more

Warm weather or cold, Camarillo drivers still need to think about their SUV’s air conditioning. Most Camarillo people don’t service their air conditioning until after it fails. At Camarillo Car Care Center, we can advise you on your vehicle manufacturer's preventive maintenance schedules for air conditioning service, just as we do for transmission service, oil changes and so on. Maintaining your air conditioning system means that you always have enough refrigerant to properly do the job. Small leaks in the SUV's air conditioning system allow the refrigerant to escape and the system can’t cool the air as well. We see that a lot at Camarillo Car Care Center in Camarillo. The refrigerant also contains a special oil that lubricates air conditioning components, and keeps the seals resilient. Low refrigerant and lubricating oil means that the air conditioning parts will wear out prematurely, an ... read more

Most Thousand Oaks drivers wait for their air conditioning to fail before they service it at Camarillo Car Care Center. That’s because many Camarillo and Somis motorists don't really understand that automotive air conditioners need periodic service. Let me share some of the reasons why they fail. First, like every machine, the SUV air conditioner parts need lubrication. The lubricant is actually mixed in with the refrigerant (that’s the stuff that makes the air cool). So sometimes, even though the air conditioner is still making cool air, the oil that lubricates the parts has just been used up: and unlubricated parts can fail in all CA cars. The air conditioner actually removes some of the moisture in the air. So if you have trouble with fogging on your windshield during CA winters or during a rain storm, running the A/C on the ... read more

When your SUV breaks down, or just needs some routine service, you might get a little nervous. Your car’s so important to your life in Somis, 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 Camarillo Car Care Center 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. Somis motorists take all of this sophistication for granted - but somebody has to fix it when it breaks ... read more

Today's Camarillo Car Care Center auto maintenance article focuses on your serpentine belt. Your serpentine belt is a long belt that’s driven by your engine. It winds around several accessories that power important automotive systems. Let’s go over them. First, the serpentine belt drives your SUV air conditioning system. It spins the compressor that makes the cool air that takes the edge off the summer heat in Thousand Oaks. Next, the belt powers the alternator. The alternator creates electricity that’s used by your SUV’s electrical systems and also charges your car battery. All Thousand Oaks drivers know that without the alternator, the battery will go dead in a few miles. The serpentine belt may also run the pumps for both the power steering and power brakes. And, on many SUVs, the serpentine belt powe ... read more

Suspension systems will continue to operate effectively for many years and tens of thousands of miles. Eventually SUV components do wear out, but how long that takes depends a lot on how you drive in Somis. As you can imagine, if most of your driving is on smooth CA highways, your shock absorbers will last a lot longer than if you do most of your driving on bumpy roads or hauling heavy loads. In addition to just wearing out, SUV suspension components can be damaged in an accident or by a hard impact - like a pothole, hitting a curb or a rock in the road. Because the life span of shocks can vary so widely, your SUV manufacturer recommends periodic inspections. During an inspection at Camarillo Car Care Center, your friendly Somis service technician will check for worn, broken or missing parts. Let me give a rundown of the major suspension components. First there are the springs. Th ... read more

Today’s report from Camarillo Car Care Center is on car batteries, why they die and what we can do to lengthen their life. Most of us have had a dead battery at one time or another. In fact, it would be very unusual if you hadn’t. You may be surprised to learn that only 30 percent of Camarillo vehicle batteries last for 48 months. Now that’s an average. How long a battery lasts depends on many factors. You may not know that one of the biggest factors is the temperature where you live and drive around Camarillo. You might suppose that cold weather was harder on batteries because it takes more power to crank a cold engine, but the opposite is actually true. Batteries in very cold climates have a life expectancy of 51 months as opposed to 30 months in very warm climates. The reason is simple: batteries are chemically more active when they’re hot than when they’re cold. A car battery will actually start to discharge on its ow ... read more

Myths passed around our Camarillo CA community start with a grain of evidence and are then built up with a lot of imagination and very elastic logic. And the internet is a breeding ground for automotive myths. Some bloggers recall the SUVs of yesteryear and declare their modern decedents to be virtually maintenance free and that anyone who says otherwise is out to rip you off. Let's examine a couple of the more popular rants and look at the truth behind them. The first one is that the chassis no longer needs lubrication for suspension, steering and the driveline. They declare that anyone who has charged you for lubrication is a charlatan. The truth on which this myth is based is that many new cars come from the factory with sealed joints and cannot be greased. However, there are still some grease points on many cars around Camarillo. A grease fitting may have been installed in conjunction with a repair. And most trucks a ... read more