Albany Auto Repair

Why Doesn’t My Heater Work? It’s getting cool in the morning again. What a bad time to find out the heater in your car isn’t working anymore.    If you have been driving for any amount of time, then you know it takes a few minutes for your vehicle to warm up in the cold weather. But what about when the vents never warm up? There's a problem! We will touch on a few of the basics.   The heater in your car works off the coolant that the engine uses to stay at the proper temperature. If the engine thermostat isn't functioning properly, the coolant may just not be warm enough to blow warm air into the interior.    Also, that coolant flow could be blocked in your heater core, which brings the warm coolant into the vehicle's interior. Or it could be low on coolant as well, which will reduce flow as well.   Another possible issue could be the controls on the dash; if the computer that controls heat and air conditioning malfunc ... read more

Why Is My Engine Squealing?   A belt squeal can be an awful noise. It can be scary too, if you haven’t experienced it before.   A squeal from under the hood is never a good thing, sometimes; it can be something simple. Often, it's an indication of a bigger problem.  The belt that runs all the accessories of your engine is called the drive belt or serpentine belt. That drive belt can sometimes get wet if you are driving in heavy rain or hit a large puddle. That can cause a squeak or squeal that goes away quickly.    Otherwise, if you hear a squeaky noise from your car, you need to get it checked out. The belt itself does age and wear out over time, but it could possibly be that an engine leak has developed and is getting the belt and pulleys wet. Or one of the accessories the belt runs on is starting to fail and isn’t spinning as freely as it should. There are several things that could be causing the squeal, so getting it looked at quickly ... read more

How Do I Get My Diesel Ready For Winter? Diesel engines are known for being more powerful and effective than their gasoline counterparts. An unfortunate thing they are known for is being harder to start in the winter. This is different for modern diesel engines. Because of the way older diesel engines operate, if they have not been very well maintained, there may be some trouble starting when the weather cools down for the winter.   Like modern gasoline engines, diesels have grown in complexity to enable them to produce more power and less emissions at the same time.    Diesel engines use glow plugs or intake heaters to warm the inside of the engine upon starting to help burn the diesel fuel. Since diesels don’t use spark plugs, but instead use heat and pressure to ignite the fuel. On a cold day, the engine needs to be warmed to help them start faster.   That is why in winter, especially on really cold days, you will see big semi trucks and even pickup t ... read more

Why Is My Tire Light On, But I Don’t Have A Flat Tire?   New cars with all their technology are great, but a light on the dash can be annoying if it looks like nothing is wrong. Although, there might be a good reason it’s on. As the temperatures outside start to drop every year, we have increased calls and visits from people with a low tire light on the dash. Without getting too “sciencey”, hot or warm air expands, and cool or cold air contracts. So for a tire, that means the pressure can increase and decrease based on temperature.   The monitoring system in automobiles has a range of pressures it considers safe, so during normal day-to-day conditions, your warning light isn't going to go on and off. A tire that was checked or filled in the middle of summer to the correct pressure on a cold winter day could be just low enough to set the warning light. Nothing is wrong, it just needs to be topped off.   When summer comes back around, you ... read more

How Do I Get My Car Ready For Winter?   Here in Oregon, the weather is already starting to change; like it or not, winter is coming. Before winter, we do have a fall. Here, that means rain, rain, and more rain. Rain means a few things for drivers: you need good wiper blades and good tires, which we check during inspection here at Crabtree.    Once winter arrives and the cold sets in, there are a few more things to be mindful of. Like Fall, Winter requires more of your tires and wipers than summer. Also, if you live in a place where you have to deal with snow, you may want to change your tires to dedicated snow tires.    The difference between snow tires and regular tires is traction. Snow tires are designed for maximum grip on slippery surfaces. That is accomplished in a few ways. The rubber on a snow tire is much softer. Since snow is typically soft and fluffy, a snow tire can be softer than a normal tire without wearing out quickly. You can run a snow t ... read more

Why Do I Have To Change My Oil?   The reason oil changes are required is pretty simple: friction. An engine is a complex machine with a lot of moving parts. The internal parts of your engine are made of various types of metal, and when metal moves against metal, friction causes issues. As a kid, do you remember rug burns? That's friction. Without oil to lubricate your engine, the bearings, and other moving parts would seize up almost immediately. So now we know what the oil does in an engine: it lubricates and helps keep things cool.   The oil itself breaks down with age and time. Also, even though oil helps lubricate your engine, there is still normal wear that occurs. That wear causes small metal fragments to be deposited into the oil. That is why there is also an oil filter on your engine to catch those fragments before they get into a bearing or other small oil passage.   So, since we know that oil breaks down and engines naturally wear over time, then we s ... read more

Ever jump in your car, hit the key and nothing happens? Panic sets in, you don’t have time to deal with a dead battery!  Sometimes these things happen, maybe a light got left on, or something in the car failed and drained the battery.    Batteries will start your car or truck time and time again, but once they start to die sometimes getting your vehicle started can get harder. Typically they will die without much warning. That’s why proper battery testing is important during your normal maintenance.    During every service at Crabtree, we inspect all aspects of your vehicle, including the battery and charging/starting system.   A battery test will tell us what condition your battery is in and how much life it has left. We keep batteries in stock for nearly all makes and models. If it’s not in stock we can have it here in a short amount of time.   At Crabtree Automotive, we work on all makes and models, even Diesels. From Hond ... read more

Why Does My Car Shake Going Down The Road?   Have you ever started driving your car and notice its shaking or vibrating as you drive?   There are a few things it could be, but today we will talk about the most common: Tires. Tires play a vital role in your automobile. They are what connect your car to the road.  Tires are made of rubber and filled with air to cushion all the bumps and holes in the road, and to get traction in all sorts of weather and driving conditions. They also have metal wires inside of them to increase their strength and stability (called steel belts). Tires wear with daily use and also can dry out and start cracking from the sun.   Like any part of an automobile, a tire can fail as well. One of those failures can be the steel belts we just mentioned. Sometimes, those can break inside the tire and cause the tire to not be perfectly round anymore causing a serious vibration   Because of how fast a tire has to spin during normal use ... read more

How To Get Your Car Ready For Back-To-School   It’s that time of the year again. School shopping, getting your kid signed up for classes, and getting everyone ready for another school year.    You don’t want to deal with car trouble too! Sometimes breakdowns happen, but there are a few things we can do to help keep that to a minimum.   Getting your car ready for the extra Back-to-School duties is important. The miles that usually come with school duties, or a new teen driver can put stress on your automobile.    You can start by washing your car. Not only will it be nice to have a clean, fresh car to start the school year off with, but it can help you identify issues you may not have noticed.    Along with washing it, you can replace wiper blades and fill the windshield washer fluid. You also want to make sure that you have a good roadside emergency kit and a good spare tire with the proper air pressure.   The rest of ... read more

Do you ever get into a car on a hot summer day, turn on your A/C just to be met with an awful smell? Yeah, it’s no fun. I'm sure we have all experienced that, but what causes the smell? (This is a dirty A/C Evaporator from a 2012 Ford F-450 that was used on a farm. just goes to show how filthy they can get)   The A/C and Heating system circulate air throughout your car or truck much like the A/C used in your house. Also like your house, most automobiles have filters in the A/C and Heating System (these are called cabin air filters).   Cabin air filters trap a lot of smells and allergens. Regular maintenance of replacing your cabin air filter can keep odors at bay. For automobiles that don’t have cabin air filters the heater and cooling elements, and the vents, can collect dirt and allergens that a filter would stop. So cleaning those elements and vents are required.   BG Services steps up again with their Frigi-Fresh Service, It cleans and disinfect ... read more