Auto Repair in Camarillo

Everyone in the Thousand Oaks area wants our tires to last as long as possible. Two ways to maximize tire life are wheel balancing and tire rotation. When wheels are out of balance, they wobble a bit. That makes the tires wear in a cupping pattern. And they vibrate. To fix this, your service technician at Camarillo Car Care Center puts weights on your wheels to balance them out. If a front wheel is out of balance you'll feel it in the steering wheel. If it's a rear wheel you'll feel it through your seat. That brings us to tire rotation. The front tires on a car wear out more quickly than the rear tires. As they push through turns from Camarillo to Ventura County, the shoulders of the front tires wear down. So rotating front and rear tires allows them to all wear at about the same rate over the life of the tire. Proper tire inflation will also help your tires last longer. Under-inflated tire ... read more

Imagine this: You’re driving through the pouring rain, struggling to see where you’re going. Suddenly, your car feels as if it’s gliding above the road – and you realize you have no control over it. It’s called hydroplaning. A thin layer of water builds up under your tires and they lose contact with the road, causing your car to slide like a sled. It can be terrifying. Here are a few preventive steps to help avoid hydroplaning: Make sure your tires are properly inflated and that they have enough tread; that helps dissipate water and keeps the tire connected to the road. Slow down. Speeding is a major factor in hydroplaning. Drive in the middle lanes on multilane roads to avoid puddles, which can be deeper than they look. If you find yourself hydroplaning, take your foot off the gas, and gently turn the wheel in the direction of the skid. Try to glide until you feel the road again. If you must put on the brakes ... read more

If you've ever been driving around Camarillo and had a headlamp go out, you've probably just wanted to replace the bad bulb. If your car uses halogen headlamps, they dim over time. So if you just put in one, they won't have the same brightness which can be distracting and will affect your field of vision. To have your headlights inspected, visit us at Camarillo Car Care Center. We're at 2739 Daily Drive in Camarillo, CA 93010. Or give us a call Experts in Camarillo recommend replacing your halogen headlamps every year. It's easy to remember if you do it when daylight savings time changes in the fall. That way you'll have bright headlamps for those long Camarillo winter nights. There are other types of headlamps in addition to halogen. There are the old standard bulbs that have been around for decades. These are OK, but you can usually upgrade to halogen. They cost a little more but you can't believe the difference. If you ... read more

All new passenger vehicles on our Camarillo CA 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 und ... read more

There are a number of factors that contribute to the high nighttime accident rate in the greater Thousand Oaks area, things like drowsy driving and a higher rate of impaired driving. Without a doubt, visibility is a major contributor. Let's focus on visibility… It's said that 90 percent of our driving decisions are based on what we see. Nighttime driving has the effect of reducing 20/20 vision to the equivalent of 20/50 vision. What you could clearly see at 50 feet in daylight can't be seen until you are just 20 feet away at night. Too make sure your headlights are giving you the greatest visibility, visit us at Camarillo Car Care Center. you'll find us located on 2739 Daily Drive, Camarillo, CA 93010. Please give us a call to make an appointment Accident avoidance is dependent on reaction time. Reaction time deteriorates measurably in low light conditions. One thing we can do to improve visibility is to make sure our hea ... read more

Make an appointment with Camarillo Car Care Center to have your on board diagnostics analyzed.2739 Daily Drive Camarillo, CA 93010 Today we're going to talk about on-board diagnostics and the questions we hear from folks around Camarillo CA who need answers about diagnostic services. They want to know what diagnostics are, what's involved and what the benefits are. They really want to understand the value of diagnostic scans by a trained technician in Camarillo CA. These are valid concerns. If you don't understand something it's really hard to know its value. Let's start with some history. Since 1996, all cars and light trucks in Camarillo CA have been required to use a standardized diagnostic system to help repair technicians determine what's wrong with your vehicle. The diagnostic system works with the vehicle's Engine Control Module - the computer that controls many engine functions. The computer monitors dozen ... read more

Screeching tires, crunching metal - it's an accident! If you've ever been in a car accident in Thousand Oaks, even a minor one, you know how upsetting it can be. It's hard to think straight and know what to do. Let's review what you should do in case of an accident: When an accident occurs, you should always stop. Leaving the scene of an accident in Camarillo is considered a crime - even if it's not your fault. And hit and run penalties are fairly severe, possibly resulting in steep fines, loss of your CA driver's license or even jail time. Your jurisdiction may require that you try to help someone who is injured by calling for help or performing first aid if you are able. Warn other Somis and Ventura County motorists by putting out flares, using your flashers or lifting your hood. Call Thousand Oaks emergency services as soon as possible. Tell the operator if medical or fire help is needed. Always ... read more

Every car in Camarillo CA is at risk for theft. So it's up to us to make our cars a less appealing target and more of a challenge - hopefully sending potential thieves to look elsewhere. The National Insurance Crime Bureau recommends a layered approach to protecting vehicles: Common sense Visible and audible devices Immobilizing devices Tracking devices Let's review each of these. First, common sense: you would be surprised how many vehicles are stolen from Camarillo CA where the keys were left in the ignition with the doors unlocked. Always take your keys, and lock the doors. In fact, in some places it's against the law to leave a vehicle unattended with the keys in the ignition. And don't leave spare keys in the car or hide them outside – because a thief will find them. Try to park in well-lit areas that have a lot of foot traf ... read more

When your car breaks down in the Camarillo CA area, or just needs some routine service, it can make you a little nervous. Because your car's so important to your life, you need to be back on the road as soon as possible. And, with the problem fixed right the first time. We've been checking into some of the training our Camarillo CA technicians receive, and we're very impressed. It's amazing how much knowledge and skill goes into diagnosing and repairing a modern car. So it's not like when your uncle worked on his hot rod over weekend. Today there are four cylinder engines that make more power than the V-8's in luxury cars 20 years ago. A new V-6 Toyota Camry could beat Sonny Crocket's Ferrari in a race to 60 mph. Our engines are more and more powerful and at the same time their fuel economy keeps inching up. And they're so reliable. This is all due to engineering. But the advances come at the price of simplicity. Modern cars are so much more comple ... read more

About 90% of our Camarillo CA driving decisions are based solely on what we see. So having a good pair of windshield wipers is extremely important. Everyone in Camarillo CA 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 Thousand Oaks 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 Thousand Oaks 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 ... read more