Gilbert Auto Repair

When talking about stopping power, we tend to focus on our brakes. But our tires are where the rubber meets the road. So having good brakes isn't enough: we have to have tires with enough traction to translate braking power into stopping power. Let's focus on stopping in wet 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. To move water out of the way, the tire has channels for water to flow through. Look at a tire and you'll see channels that run around and across the tire. They're designed to direct water away from the tire so it can contact the road better. The deeper the channel, the more water it can move. A brand new tire has very deep channels and can easily move a lot of water. As the tire wears down, the channels become shallower and can move less water. When it wears down enough, it can seriously affect your ... read more

Question: I need new tires. How do I know which tires to get? Spectrum Car Care Answer: Let's look at selecting new tires in light of three factors: Function, Fit, and Value. Function: This gets at what your needs are for new tires: weather conditions, terrain, temperatures, etc. New family vehicles sold in AZ come with all-season tires. They can be used all year long and do pretty well in most Gilbert road conditions – but they aren't ideal at the extremes. Winter tires have a more aggressive tread for handling snow and ice and they have a rubber compound that helps them have better traction as temperatures drop below 45 degrees Fahrenheit/7 degrees Centigrade. In AZ winter weather, that means definitely better stopping and road-holding characteristics for Gilbert than all-season tires. De ... read more

Today we’ll be looking at automotive service schedules; in particular the often overlooked scheduled services. These are known as Unperformed Maintenance. The following is a list of the ten services you shouldn’t overlook. These are all important services that you should pay attention to. So here they are, in no particular order. Power Steering Service Have you really ever considered a power steering service? Power steering takes fluid that builds-up excess moisture and gets dirty over time. Having the power steering cleaned out removes all this dirt and stops the power steering from corroding. Check with your Service Advisor to see if it’s time you had your power steering checked out. Wheel Alignment Your car will start to pull to one side if your wheels come out of alignment. Not only is this annoying but it’s downright dangerous and really damages your tires; leading to costly repairs. Most owner’s manuals come with the recommendation of checking you ... read more

If your tires and under-inflated it can cause flat tires, blowouts, skids, and lengthen the stopping distance of your car. Unfortunately it can be hard to tell when tires are under-inflated because you might not be able to tell until they are seriously under-inflated and the pressure gets below 20lbs. Modern cars and trucks these days are often equipped with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). This technology has been used for years by race car drivers but only recently made its way into the wider commercial world. Race crews use this technology to nip tire pressure problems in the bud by monitoring tire pressure as a car goes around a track. Of course these TPMS aren’t free. Studies done by the US government estimate how much you can expect a TMPS system to cost; taking in to account the cost of the system itself, keeping the system maintained, replacing broken parts, and other cost increases. These costs are offset because you’ll save money on fuel and tire wear ... read more

Tires keep your car going, so it is important to take care of them with regularly scheduled maintenance. Here are a couple of main reasons that cause wheel alignment issues for cars (leading to why tires wear out quicker than advertised): Suspension and steering components wear over time as well which can lead to and alignment issues. Of course, a big bump like hitting a curb or pothole can knock a wheel out ofalignment or damage a steering or suspension part. So when wheels are properly aligned they obviously all point i n the same direction. When they are out of alignment, you’ll notice a couple of things. First the vehicle pulls to one side when driving (it could be slight or pretty severe). If your wheels have been out of alignment for a while, you’ll also start to see uneven tire wear – the shoulder on either the outside or inside of the tire is worn down more than the other. And we’re not done, a whole bunch of steering and suspension compone ... read more