Rocklin and Sacramento Auto Repair

When your vehicle’s battery is dead, it leaves you with that horrible, helpless feeling.  A dead battery means it won’t hold a charge, and there are several reasons it won’t. One is age.  Batteries have chemical and electrical systems in them that create power, and as time goes by, they won’t work well anymore.  They may have been degraded by exposure to extreme temperatures, both hot and cold. Batteries have a code on them that can tell you when they were manufactured. Another reason your battery won’t hold a charge is corrosion on the terminals, the metal posts where your battery cables are connected.  A chemical reaction between the battery’s acid and air creates a salty moisture that can corrode those terminals.   If your vehicle’s alternator is not working properly, it won’t charge your battery as it is designed to, and the battery may lose its charge more quickly than it should. Another possibility is there ... read more

Think about this the next time you’re driving.  Your front wheels can steer your vehicle and, at the same time, the wheels can move, even with all the irregularities in the road moving them up, down and in different directions. Pretty amazing engineering, wouldn’t you say? What allows that are parts called ball joints.  Most vehicles have them only in the front, but there are some vehicles that have them in the rear as well.  When you consider all the bumps and turns your wheels are subjected to, it’s not hard to imagine the wear and tear these ball joints endure. After any vehicle has put on many months of road time, these ball joints will start to wear out.  You may find your vehicle’s front wheels clunk when you are on the road, it may not hold the road as well when you go over a bump, or you may feel vibration in your steering wheel and your tires may start to wear unevenly. When you start to notice any of these symptoms, it’s a goo ... read more