Auto Repair in Camarillo

The PCV Valve is a little, inexpensive part that does a big job for Camarillo drivers. PCV stands for Positive Crankcase Ventilation. The crankcase is the bottom area of the engine that holds the oil. When the SUV engine’s running, fuel is burned to generate power. Most of the exhaust from combustion goes out through the exhaust system. But some exhaust blows by the pistons and goes into the lower engine, or crankcase. These hot gases are about seventy percent unburned fuel.This can dilute and contaminate the oil, leading to damaging engine oil sludge. It can also cause SUV engine corrosion, something we see occasionally at Camarillo Car Care Center. At high speeds on Camarillo freeways, the pressure can build up to the point that gaskets and seals start to leak. Back in the old days, engine makers simply installed a hose that vented these gases out into the atmosphere ... read more

Life's full of surprises in Camarillo CA, some of which cost money. A leaky roof, a broken tooth, or an unexpected car repair. Camarillo Car Care Center of Camarillo CA and AutoNetTV have done some research on how we can budget for proper vehicle care. Everyone in Camarillo CA does our best to budget for scheduled vehicle maintenance. What's hard is unexpected repairs. The truth is that our vehicles can stay on the road longer than ever before with proper maintenance. That's because of improved vehicle design and manufacturing quality. But some of those same improvements also lead to higher repairs costs. Let's take the fuel pump. Previous generations were often stranded by the side of the road by vapor lock. This occurred when the gas vaporized between the gas tank and the fuel pump. Fuel just stopped flowing. You had to sit and wait until the car w ... read more

Welcome to the Camarillo Car Care Center blog. Today, let’s talk about the effect of tire tread depth on braking. When talking about stopping power, most of us Ventura County drivers tend to focus on our brakes. But our tires are where the rubber meets the road. So having good brakes isn’t enough. Safe Ventura County drivers need to have tires with enough traction to translate braking power into stopping power.Let’s focus on stopping in wet Ventura County conditions. In order for a tire to have good contact with the road, it has to move the water out of the way. If it can’t move the water, the tire will actually ride on top of a thin film of water. That’s called hydroplaning. If it’s really bad, Ventura County drivers can actually spin out of control. At best, you won’t stop as fast. So how does a tire move water? It has channels for water to flo ... read more

Flats, blow outs, skids and longer stopping distances can all be the result of Thousand Oaks folks driving around on under-inflated tires. Now, it’s hard to tell when a radial tire is under-inflated. If your manufacturer recommends 35 pounds of pressure, your SUV tire’s considered significantly under inflated at 26 pounds. The tire may not look low until it gets below 20 pounds. New laws required manufacturers to include a Tire Pressure Monitoring System - or TPMS system - in all cars and light trucks by the 2008 model year. The system has a dashboard mounted warning light that goes off if one or more of the tires falls 25% below manufacturer’s pressure recommendations. This technology has been used by Thousand Oaks race car drivers for years. They are able to head off problems from under inflation by closely monitoring tire pressure on the track. It’s up to your car’s manufacturer to determine which of m ... read more

Some Camarillo motorists are confused by Camarillo Car Care Center charges for diagnostic services for a vehicle repair. Many services at Camarillo Car Care Center and other Camarillo automotive repair shops include diagnostic fees. When you take your laptop into a Thousand Oaks computer repair shop for a problem you’ll likely have to leave a deposit for diagnostics. When we visit our Camarillo doctor for a medical problem, we’re paying him to diagnose our ailment and of course for the tests that go along with it. So receiving a diagnostic charge at Camarillo Car Care Center for a tricky automotive problem shouldn’t be a surprise. In the Thousand Oaks area, automotive diagnostics can cover quite a range. If you hear a noise in your SUV brakes when you slow down in rush-hour traffic on a busy CA expressway, you pull off the next off-ramp and take a quick visual check. That is usually enough to k ... read more

Looking at getting some new tires? The choices at Somis tire stores can be a little overwhelming. Suppose you have an SUV and are trying to decide between all season tires or some that are also rated for off-highway. Do you get off the payment on the outskirts of Somis more than most? If so, some additional off-road traction would be nice. Maybe the real reason for wanting those off-highway tires is that they look cool. Well there’s nothing wrong with that. If you make sure that you’ve got your functional needs covered with your selection, then you can have some fun with where you go from there. Let’s suppose you zip around Somis in a sporty car. You may like to run a high-performance summer tire when the weather’s good. When CA weather turns cold, you can put on high-performance winter tires. For the kind of driving you like to do, you want full-on performance tires. All-season tires are naturally a compromise that works ... read more

When I was a kid in Camarillo, my dad always made sure he took the cars in for Spring and Fall checkups. I was telling a friend that it's about time to get into Camarillo Car Care Center for my checkup and he said that he read on the internet that modern cars don't need seasonal service. My friend is (technically) right about some things, but from a practical standpoint, a seasonal check up still makes sense. Back when my dad was teaching me about how to take care of the family SUV, most cars used a different weight of oil in the winter and in the summer. But most of today's modern engines run the same oil year round. High-tech engines and high-tech motor oils are better able to handle the seasonal changes. Your owner's manual or Camarillo service advisor at Camarillo Car Care Center can tell you the right oil to use. Of course, you're concerned about the coolant or antifr ... read more

There was a man in Thousand Oaks who learned that most car accidents occur within a mile of home - so he moved. (Just Kidding!) When we think of defensive driving, we often focus on our local CA highway situations. The fact of the matter is we need to be just as careful close to home in Camarillo, because that's where we do most of our driving. We can't let our familiar surroundings keep us from driving defensively. Defensive driving begins with the proper attitude. Have in mind that you won't let anyone take your safety away from you. You'll be aware of your surroundings, road conditions, other vehicles and hazards. And the first person to be concerned with is you: start with your own environment. Don't leave without securing all occupants including children and pets. Watch for loose items that can become projectiles during evasive maneuvers. Driving too fast or too slow increases the chance of an accident ... read more

Under-inflated tires waste gas for lots of folks in the Camarillo area. Think how hard it is to walk in sand - you just have to work harder because of the resistance. When your tires don't have enough air in them, their rolling resistance is dramatically increased and it simply takes more gas to get from Camarillo to Camarillo . Always check your tire pressure when you gas up at one of our local Camarillo service stations. If they're low - even just a little bit - bring them up to proper pressure. There's a sticker on the inside of your driver's door that gives the manufacturer's recommended tire pressure. And don't rely on your tire pressure monitoring system to alert you to when you need more air. The TPMS system is set to warn you when pressure drops twenty percent below recommendations. That's severely under inflated and you needed more air a long time ago. And if you have a slow leak - get it fixed right away at ... read more

Here's a travel tip that'll I'll bet you didn't know, and, it might keep you safer… The average American commuter in CA spends two and a half hours daily in their car. The government says a hundred thousand auto accidents yearly are caused by drivers who fall asleep at the wheel. (Aggressive driving is the number one traffic safety concern.) So what does this have to do with how your car smells while you're driving around CA? Well, which scent did you think makes drivers more alert?It's C. Drivers are more alert and have less fatigue with pine scent in the car, according to AroMetrics. And, drivers were less angry with overall improved driving performance with strawberry and pine scents. And you thought they just smelled nice