Albany Auto Repair

We have talked about how important tires are and about the difference between normal tires and snow tires. What about WHEN to replace your tires?   Tires are a normal wear item and are only designed to last a certain amount of time and miles. Because no road is perfectly smooth and we have to make turns, stop, and go, tires wear out.    When is it time for new tires? There are several reasons for needing new tires: age, wear, and damage.  Age can cause issues for tires, especially if they have spent their whole life outside in the sun. When tires age, they dry out, become less soft, and develop cracks in the rubber around the wheel or tread. While this may not immediately cause issues, a car or truck that doesn't get driven often can be extremely dangerous. It could separate or rupture without warning just sitting there or worse while driving down the road. Tires have date codes on them they will tell you when a tire was made. If your tire shows no signs of ... read more

Have you ever been driving, hit the brakes, and heard just an awful sound?    It could be something simple like a small rock getting stuck between the brake parts, or it could be time for a brake service. Brakes work off friction; a brake pad or shoe is made of very rough material and is pressed against the brake rotor or drum, and that is what stops your vehicle.    Under normal conditions, brakes aren't going to make noise, but sometimes, small rocks or other road debris can get in there and make noise. Or when a brake pad wears down on some models, they have a part designed to squeal on purpose to alert you that the pads have reached the end of their lifetime and need to be replaced. Most European cars have sensors in the pad or caliper that will warn you on the dash that the pads need to be replaced instead of making a noise.    If you ignore these warnings or if your automobile doesn't have either of these features and you wear completel ... 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 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

Your car may run great, but you have to slow down and stop at some point. That's where brakes come in!   When you step on the brake pedal in your car or truck, you expect your vehicle to slow down and eventually come to a complete stop, but do you know how that process works?    In your car or truck, brakes work off something called hydraulic pressure. Your brake pedal is attached to a booster that takes the pressure you apply to the pedal and amplifies it.    The booster then takes that increased pressure and compresses the fluid in your brake system, which sends that pressure into your brake calipers or drums.   A caliper uses hydraulic pressure to drive a piston that squeezes a brake pad into the rotor to slow it and the wheel down. The brake pads are mounted into the caliper and sit on each side of the rotor so that it can clamp onto both sides evenly.   The rotor is a large disc that sits behind your wheel and is connected to the wh ... read more

What is an alignment? Well, it's getting your car or truck lined up… but what does that mean exactly.    When we talk about Alignments what we are talking about is getting all 4 wheels pointed in the same direction and rolling smoothly down the road. We talked last week about tires and tire wear. A big factor in tire wear is a bad alignment. Besides improper tire wear a bad alignment will cause your car or truck to pull to one side going down the road. It can also have poor handling in general.   There are a lot of adjustments to be made on a typical modern car, that's why we have a computer and laser system to help make these changes. Pictured is a car on our rack with the sensors on each wheel and the computer screen displaying the desired alignment numbers and current numbers so our technicians know how much adjustment is needed.   Why do alignments need to be checked? Because your alignment involves your car’s suspension, steering, whee ... read more

What happens to tires when the weather warms up?   Warm weather is here, and summer road trips are right around the corner. Tires are THE only part of your car that touches the ground and keeps you going down the road. You could say tires are the most important part of your car or truck. Flat tires are no fun, but another problem is when your tires wear down from normal use, they begin to have less and less traction in rainy or snowy conditions. Luckily we don’t have to worry about snow anytime soon.    Wet slippery roads cause millions of accidents across the county. Many of those are from bald tires. We inspect your whole vehicle when you come to Crabtree, Including tires. There are indicators on tires to let you know when it's time for replacement. We will check this for you.    When you bring your vehicle to Crabtree we will make a maintenance schedule for you that keeps your car and your wallet happy. This, of course, includes tires. We sel ... read more