Colorado Springs Auto Repair

Your engine is like a finely choreographed dance. All the parts have to work together. If the timing is off at the ballet, dancers crash into each other and fall down. It the timing is off in your engine, it may not run at all. One of the most intricate dances in your engine has to do with the combustion cycle.Your vehicle engine has cylinders in which a piston travels up and down. At the top of the cylinders are valves that open to bring in the air and fuel. And there are valves that open to let out the exhaust after the fuel has been burned. Call Lighthouse Automotive at 719.634.0005 for answers about your timing belt, or drop by our Colorado Springs, Colorado, service center on 2499 East Platte Ave. It's critical that the values be timed to open and close at precisely the right time in the combustion cycle, or the engine will run poorly or not at all.The timing belt is responsible for ... read more

Nowadays, Colorado Springs drivers are paying more at Colorado gas pumps. For some families it adds up to several hundred dollars every month. That's got to come out of the budget somewhere. This is one of the reasons many Colorado drivers are putting off buying a new car. They plan on keeping their old vehicle for a year or two longer than before.Even now, 2/3 of the personal vehicles on our local Colorado Springs, Colorado, roads have over 75,000 miles (120,000 kilometers) on them. The average age of vehicles is over nine years. And most people in the Colorado Springs area can't afford to be stranded or inconvenienced by a breakdown. So following a regular maintenance schedule, like personal diet and exercise plans, is actually critical to preserving your investment.Determining what to do for a higher-mileage vehicle can be challenging because many owner's manuals don't publish service intervals after 60,000 miles (100,000 kilometers). Thus, Colorado Springs drivers need to be b ... read more

  Today we're going to be talking about serpentine belts for our Colorado Springs, Colorado, customers. Let's start by talking about the accessories that are driven by the serpentine belt. First is the alternator. That's the device that makes electricity to power the vehicle and recharge the battery. Then there's the air conditioning compressor that makes cool air for you while you're driving around Colorado in the summer.The power steering and power brake pumps are driven by the serpentine belt in most Colorado Springs residents' vehicles. Those pumps provide pressure that assists your steering and braking.In many vehicles, the water pump is driven by the serpentine belt. The water pump is what circulates the coolant that protects your engine. In some cars around Colorado Springs, Colorado, the water pump is driven by the timing belt.The radiator cooling fans on some vehicles are also driven by the serpentine belt. Some have separate electric motors. Th ... read more

Flats, blow outs, skids and longer stopping distances can all be the result of driving around Colorado Springs on underinflated tires. Admittedly, it's hard to tell when a radial tire is underinflated. If your vehicle manufacturer recommends 35 pounds of pressure, your vehicle tires are considered significantly underinflated at 26 pounds. The tire may not look low until it gets below 20 pounds.New laws require all vehicles to include a tire pressure monitor system, or TPMS. This technology has been used by race car drivers for years. They are able to head off problems from underinflation by closely monitoring tire pressure on the track. It's up to your vehicle's manufacturer to determine which of many TPMS systems available they'll use to comply with the law.Obviously, all of this doesn't come free for Colorado Springs drivers. Government studies have estimated the net costs. Of course, the TPMS system itself will cost something. M ... read more

Colorado Springs residents often ask the question: "Will using premium gas make my car run better?" The answer is simple. But first, let's talk about what exactly premium gasoline is.Different grades of gasoline have different octane ratings. Regular gasoline has the lowest octane rating and premium the highest. Most gas stations around Colorado Springs, Colorado, also carry a mid-grade that falls in between the two. The octane range for the different grades of gas varies by region due to altitude differences.Engines require different octane ratings because of design differences. For example, turbocharged engines usually require premium gas.There's a sticker on your gas tank filler lid that tells you the minimum octane rating your vehicle manufacturer recommends. For help identifying the type of gasoline your engine needs, come by Lighthouse Automotive in Colorado Springs. Lighthouse Automotive2499 East Platte AveColorado Springs, Colorado 8090971

Many Colorado Springs drivers want to accessorize their vehicle - you know, make it theirs. One of the easiest ways to get a custom look is to get some new wheels. There are thousands of wheel designs at Colorado Springs area tire shops to get you the look you want. And for many Colorado Springs drivers, that look includes bigger wheels. It used to be that cars came from the factory with 15 or 16 inch wheels. Now 16, 17 and even 18 inchers are standard. And the factories are offering optional wheel packages up to 20 inches or more. So let's talk about what to consider when you want to upsize your wheels. It's not exactly a DIY project, so you need to know a thing or two before you get started. The most important term to know is rolling diameter. The rolling diameter is simply the overall height of your tire. Unless you want to modify your vehicle suspension, you'll want to keep your rolling diameter the same when you upsize your wheels.Let's think about those three golden doughnu ... read more

One might say the most challenging part of being an automotive service technician at Lighthouse Automotive is diagnosing a problem before it can be fixed.Cars are made up of a bunch of complex systems. There usually could be a number of reasons for any given symptom. So, it's challenging to track down the actual cause of the problem. And it can be frustrating for the vehicle owner because it can take time and money to get to the bottom of a problem. If it's not something obvious, it's easy for the customer to focus on the fixing and not the diagnosing.Let us at Lighthouse Automotive introduce you to something we'll call 'Customer Detective Work' –  helping your technician find clues to what's wrong.We start with the detective basics: What, Where and When. Play along with me; You come in to Lighthouse Automotive and your car is making a funny sound... Q: Where's the sound? A: Around the right front wheel. Q: What kind of sound? A: Kind of a clunk, clunk ... read more

The government mandates a lot of equipment on cars in Colorado Springs, Colorado: emission devices and control computers, safety equipment like airbags and crash worthiness requirements. All of this is great for the Colorado Springs motoring public, but it does add quite a bit to the price of a new vehicle.Because new vehicles are more expensive, people in the Colorado Springs area are driving their old vehicles longer. The average vehicle is now over nine years old. Two thirds of vehicles on the road in Colorado have more than 75,000 miles (120,000 km) on them. As cars age, their performance drops, they have difficulty idling for long periods and are more sensitive to weather extremes. Fortunately today's cars are up to the challenge – but they need a little help to keep on goin'.Give Lighthouse Automotive a call at 719.634.0005 to schedule your next maintenance.Some owner's manuals don't specify service requirements at higher mileage. That doesn ... read more

There's a reason we use the word “diagnose” when we talk about fixing cars in Colorado Springs. Figuring out what's wrong with your vehicle has a lot of similarities to figuring out what's wrong with someone who is ill. Vehicles are a mass of complex systems that can produce a variety of symptoms when something goes wrong. As with human diagnoses, a specific symptom may be indicative of a number of problems, and figuring out the specific cause takes training and experience.Sometimes the diagnosis of your vehicle's trouble comes down to a matter of trial-and-error. This can be frustrating for Colorado Springs drivers because time and money are on the line. You may feel you should only be paying for repair work. Of course, you only want to pay for the right repair – and a proper diagnosis is part of getting it right. Like at the doctor's office — some of what you pay for is the doctor's time and ef ... read more

As Colorado Springs consumers, we live in a disposable society. It's amazing all the stuff we throw away.New stuff comes out so fast in Colorado, and much of it is fairly cheap, so we just toss the old and move on. It seems like when we were kids our parents were real sticklers about taking care of our stuff - especially parents who grew up in the Depression. You know, hang up your clothes, polish your shoes, put away your toys. If something got lost or ruined by neglect, tough; we had to do without.  We couldn't afford new cars very often, so we tried to make them last as long as we could. It's a good thing that cars are more reliable these days. They just don't break down as often. And the good news for us Colorado Springs penny pinchers is that a modern car can easily go 200,000 miles (320,000 km) with proper care. The engineering's there and so is the manufacturing quality. The missing ingredient is us making sure we follow the vehicle manufacturer's maintenance schedules.Is i ... read more