Greenwood Village Auto Repair

The cooling system keeps Colorado vehicle's engines from overheating while they are driving around Centennial. Its job is to move heat away from the engine. Let's talk about the various components of the system and how they make this happen.The radiator is the part most Centennial drivers associate with the cooling system. Coolant flows through the radiator which has fine cooling fins that draw the heat out of the coolant and dissipate it into the air. To make sure there's enough airflow over the radiator, a fan pulls air over the cooling fins even when the vehicle is idling.In some vehicles, the fan is powered by the serpentine belt. On others, an electric motor runs the fan. Electric fans turn on and off as needed. You may have heard the fan kick on shortly after you turn your vehicle off. The sensor has determined that the engine needs a little help cooling down to a safe temperature.A hose connects the radiator to the water pump. T ... read more

Hello, welcome to Davis Automotive Repair. Today's focus is batteries. It seems like everything in Centennial runs on batteries. Of course, the batteries we're most concerned with here at Davis Automotive Repair are those in our customer's vehicles. Just like the batteries in our smoke detectors or TV remote, they wear out and need to be replaced . This can be thought of as the power output used to start a cold vehicle engine. The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on your vehicle and where you live in Colorado, specifically how cold it is. (Many Centennial drivers have first-hand experience trying to start their car on a cold winter morning.) The two factors are that the colder your vehicle's engine is, the more power it takes to turn the engine over to get it started. It has all that cold, sluggish oil to contend with.The other factor is that the chemical reaction in the battery that creates electrical energy is less efficient when the temperatu ... read more

Most Centennial residents have experienced a flat tire. You know it's inconvenient and a pain. Our tires are important. Keeping them in good working order isn't just a big safety issue for Centennial drivers – it also has a financial impact. With high Colorado gas prices, we've all heard about the importance of keeping proper tire pressure to save on gas. In addition, proper inflation promotes even tread wear so your tires last longer.  There's another danger with under-inflated tires for Centennial residents. Low tire pressure puts added stress on the structure of the tire itself, causing it to break down prematurely. Also, under-inflated tires generate more heat which also reduces tire life. So get those slow leaks fixed quickly – don't just keep adding air every few days. You want to avoid tire damage. Centennial residents should only hire qualified tire professionals to perform repairs - we have a whole team of them at Davis ... read more

Do you have any plans around Centennial, Colorado, for the weekend? Maybe you and some friends are taking the boat up to the lake. Maybe you'll be having a lot of fun water skiing and doing a little fishing.You got the boat all ready. It's all gassed up. You packed lots of snacks and the cooler's stocked – ready to go.How about your tow vehicle? It has plenty of gas and you've even vacuumed it out, but is your auto maintenance up to date?Stop and think. You'll have some heavy traffic on your way out of town. Hilly terrain as you get to the lake. Some dirt roads – and you may have hot weather. And all the time you're going to be towing around a lot of extra weight.That all adds up a lot of severe strain on your engine, brakes and transmission. Your transmission's going to be working overtime, spending more time in lower gears. The internal transmission temperature is going to be much higher than normal. What's a fun little blast to the lake for you ... read more

Here's an interesting statistic for our in Centennial, Colorado, drivers: Only 30 percent of car batteries make it to 48 months. And the life expectancy varies by where you live. It ranges from 51 months in extremely cold areas to just 30 months in extremely hot climates.Why is that? It turns out that it's our modern cars with all their electric accessories that are to blame. Things like, GPS, DVDs and entertainment computers are keeping vehicle batteries from maintaining a full charge. The longer a battery goes with a low charge, the sooner it'll die.It's clear that you Centennial drivers need to recharge your batteries. This is the job of the alternator. The problem comes when the car's demand for electricity is high and we are driving in stop and go conditions or short trips around Centennial. The alternator just can't keep up.The result is shortened battery life. So what can we do to improve our battery's health?We need to keep the battery as close to a full cha ... read more

There are a number of factors that contribute to the high nighttime accident rate in the Centennial 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 Davis Automotive Repair, located at 6867 South Emporia Street, Centennial, Colorado 80112. Please give us a call to make an appointment: 303-790-4789.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 headlights are as brig ... read more

At Davis Automotive Repair we've had a lot of Centennial customers asking how they can make their vehicles last longer. These questions are actually a reflection of a trend that's been building for several years in Colorado. The median age of personal vehicles is now over nine years. And 33 percent of all vehicles on the road have over 75,000 miles (120,000 km) on them. It looks like it's going to keep heading in that direction for a while. With high fuel prices, a lot of Colorado folks are putting off buying a new car. So let's say you're one of the average in the Centennial area; you've got a nine-year-old car with 80,000 miles (130,000 km) on the odometer. What can you do to make it last another year or two?Let's start with the premise that there's no reason that a modern car can't run for 200,000 miles (320,000 km) with proper care in Centennial. The engineering and manufacturing quality is there.Of course, some parts will wear out along the way, but ther ... read more