Los Altos Auto Repair

So you’ve bought a used car in the Los Altos area. Do you know what you’re getting? It is hard to know what you’re getting because people in the Los Altos area sell cars for different reasons. Think about why you’ve sold cars. Did you just want something new or were there problems that you wanted to run away from. Maybe it was a little of both.

Used cars with 25,000 to 35,000 miles on them are often lease returns, Los Altos corporate program cars or rental fleet vehicles. Most Los Altos buyers feel pretty confident about these because they’re newer and may still be under warranty. But how well have they been maintained?

If you plan on owning a car for a long time, you’ll keep up on the auto maintenance so that you can avoid pricey repairs down the road. But, if you know you’re only going to have the car for two or three years, you may not be so committed to maintenance. It would be easy to think that skipping an oil change here and there wouldn’t ruin a brand new engine. Then it’ll be someone else’s problem when it comes time to pay for the damage.

It would be very tempting to skip the 30,000 mile service if you knew you’d be turning in your leased vehicle in a couple of months.

If the vehicle didn’t come with maintenance records, you need to assume the worst. Most likely the coolant system and transmission have never been serviced. The cabin air filter has probably not been changed and a fuel system cleaning may be in order.

You’ll want Allied Auto Works to check the air conditioning, battery, engine air filter, serpentine belt and hoses. A used car inspection at Allied Auto Works is well worth the cost.

And if your “new” used vehicle has more miles on it, an inspection is even more important. Check your owner’s manual or talk with your personal Allied Auto Works service advisor (call 650.968.7227) about what should have been done. Please don’t forget the timing belt; that can be very pricey if it fails.

Allied Auto Works will help you with a plan to take care of key services and get the rest caught up. If your budget won’t allow you to take care of everything right away, we can help you prioritize your needs and get it taken care of over the next several months. And remember to keep your maintenance records. They’ll help you get top dollar on the CA used car market when it’s time for you to sell.

Allied Auto Works
2073 Grant Road
Los Altos, CA 94024
650.968.7227

Your minivan engine really needs clean air to operate efficiently. Let’s go egghead for a minute. For every gallon of gas we burn driving around Los Altos, twenty pounds of carbon dioxide comes out the tailpipe. Question: how can a gallon of gas that weighs a little over six pounds produce twenty pounds of carbon dioxide?

The answer is that the carbon comes from the gasoline, but the oxygen comes from the air. You see, it takes about twelve thousand gallons of air to burn a gallon of gas in your engine. Clearly, your minivan needs a lot of air to keep going in Los Altos. A lot of clean air is better.

You’ve seen the pictures of the crowds in Asia wearing face masks. They want some kind of filter to keep unwanted pollution and germs out of their lungs. Well, your minivan also works better when its internals are clean. When your minivan air filter’s dirty, it simply can’t trap any more dirt, so the dirt just passes through into your air intake system. From there it can clog your fuel injectors and even get into the engine itself. And burning dust and pollen in your minivan engine does you no good.

So, we’re talking potential damage for Los Altos drivers. But another big thing is wasted fuel. Your minivan engine management computer tries to mix the correct amount of air in with the fuel. If the filter’s clogged, there isn’t enough air for the optimal fuel to air mix and that really messes with fuel efficiency.

In fact, replacing a dirty air filter at Allied Auto Works can improve your fuel economy in Los Altos by up to ten percent. At today’s fuel prices in Los Altos, you should be able to pay for a new air filter before your next oil change.

The verdict: When your minivan engine air filter needs to be replaced; it needs to be replaced. How often depends entirely on how dirty the air is where you drive in Los Altos. A simple visual inspection at Allied Auto Works will tell you when you need a new engine air filter.

When you look at the air filter on your furnace at home and see it’s all clogged up with dust and dirt, you don’t hesitate to replace it. When your Allied Auto Works technician brings out your nasty engine air filter, you now know why you should go ahead and change it out.