Auto Repair in Camarillo

When all of a vehicle’s wheels are lined up exactly with each other, your wheels are in alignment. Hitting a road hazard or even just the normal bumps and bounces of everyday driving in Camarillo can cause your SUV's wheels to be out of alignment. Driving for an extended time in Camarillo when you’re out of alignment causes your SUV's tires to wear unevenly and excessively - perhaps causing you to have to replace tires years too early or even lead to a blowout: Dangerous … and expensive. It can also cause premature wear to your suspension system, which can be really expensive. Here are some alignment basics: The ideal alignment for your SUV was designed by its engineers. Alignment service at Camarillo Car Care Center starts with an inspection of the steering and suspension - to see if anything’s bent or broken. Then the Camarillo technician will look at tire condition. Fr ... 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

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

Wheel alignment is often overlooked by busy Somis and Ventura County car owners until serious tire damage has been done. One wheel can be knocked out of alignment from the rest by hitting a curb or pothole on Thousand Oaks roads. When a vehicle’s out of alignment, one or more of the wheels does not track true and pulls against the others. The tires will wear out very quickly and will need to be replaced prematurely. It could also lead to SUV suspension damage. At Camarillo Car Care Center, your vehicle is put on an alignment rack where the tires, steering and suspension parts are checked for damage. Then the alignment is charted and checked against the factory settings. Adjustments are made to bring the wheels back into alignment. This gets all four wheels going in precisely the same direction. Signs of alignment problems are: Your car pulls to one side ... read more

Bad air quality while you're driving around Camarillo is nothing to sneeze at. But seriously, more and more vehicles these days come equipped with a cabin air filter. Since they're fairly new on the scene, a lot of folks don't know about them yet. These filters clean the air in the passenger compartment, or cabin, of your car or truck. They do the same job as the furnace filter you have at home. They can filter out particles as small as thee microns. By contrast, a grain of sand is about 200 microns. So your cabin air filer can clean out dust, pollution, pollen and spores, to keep the air in your car nice and clean. And just like your furnace filter, they need to be replaced when they get dirty. Check your owner's manual, but they typically need to be replaced at around twelve to fifteen thousand miles. The filter is usually either under the hood or under the dashboard. Some are a little tricky to get to, so you'll want to have your Cama ... read more

Today we're talking about shocks and struts. They're so easy to forget about because they last so long and wear out so slowly. But your shocks are really responsible for keeping your tires on the road - so they're very important. Without shocks, your wheels would be bouncing over bumps and lifting in corners. The shocks push the tire down to the road to maximize traction. Good shocks equal good ride quality and safe handling. There's a difference between shocks and springs. Springs support the weight of the vehicle, keeping it suspended up off the axels. The shocks moderate the rebound motion as wheels hit bumps. Now a strut combines a shock and a coil spring in one compact unit. When your shocks are worn out you may notice degraded handling as you drive around our Camarillo streets. Your vehicle feels squirmy around corners and floaty over bumps. You may notice the rear end squatting when you accelerate or the fro ... read more

Imagine you've left Camarillo and you're up in the arctic on a dog sled. Your dog team is pulling straight and true. You can cover a lot of ground fast. Now imagine what would happen if one or two of the dogs wanted to go their own way and were pulling off to the side. That would slow you down. You would have to work harder to keep the sled going where you want it. The dogs are all working as hard as before, but you're covering less ground for the same effort. You're wasting kibble. The same is true of your vehicle when the wheels are out of alignment. That wheel that's pulling to the side is dragging down the rest of the car; so you push a little harder on the gas pedal to keep up your speed. You're wasting gas. So have your wheel alignment checked at least once a year. Get it checked right away if you feel the car pulling to one side. Sometimes we bump a curb or hit a pothole and knock our wheels out of alignment ... read more

Do you hear loud noises under the hood when you turn on your air conditioner? Do you only get cool air sporadically? If so, it is time to get your air conditioner checked. It's real easy to take your car's air conditioner for granted. Just push the right buttons and out comes cool, dry, clean air. But your air conditioning system needs attention from time to time to help it keep its cool. When most people hear the words “air conditioning problems”, it sends a shiver up their spine. That is because the air conditioning system is fairly complex. It has a lot of parts and when it's broken, it's expensive to repair. What things can we do to prevent air conditioning breakdowns? A common cause of air conditioning failure is leaks. Water and air can leak into the system. The system doesn't work as well with air in it. And water can cause rust that leads to damage of the A/C components. Also, refrigerant, the stuff that makes the air cold, can le ... read more