Having trouble with your fuel system? Bring your vehicle into John's Automotive Care for a check up.In today's John's Automotive Care auto post,we're talking about fuel system cleaning. The first thing to know is how important it is to have a clean fuel system. San Diego residents need fuel to go, and the cleaner the fuel system, the more efficiently the fuel will burn. That means more power and better mileage .A clean fuel system saves money for San Diego drivers at CA gas stations. We guess you could say it all starts and ends at the pump. One of the most important things San Diego residents can do to keep their vehicle fuel system clean is to buy good quality gas. Major brands have detergents that keep gum and varnish from rapidly building up in the fuel system.So buying cheaper gas in CA can actually be more expensive for San Diego drivers in the long run. Now, most cars on CA roads are more than five or six years old. That means they've had time for some dirt ... read more

Shopping for tires in San Diego can be bewildering because there are many choices. Let's simplify. There are four main classifications of tires, each designed for different purposes.First off, there are summer tires. Those who buy summer tires in San Diego are looking for maximum summertime performance. The rubber is a little softer to help stick to the road on fast corners on CA roads. The tread has wide blocks at the shoulder to stiffen the tire in turns. The tread design can handle rain but really isn't set up for snow and ice. Next comes winter tires. San Diego people buy winter tires because they still like performance driving when it's cold and slippery on CA roads, so they need a tread design that'll really bite into ice and snow. The rubber compound is formulated to stay pliable when temperatures drop below 45 degrees F/7 degrees C so they get great traction even on dry roads. On the other end of the winter tire spectrum are tires designe ... read more

The simple fact is that 70% of car batteries fail within 4 years. They just need to be replaced at John's Automotive Care when they are no longer able to hold a full charge.Batteries are a big ticket item for most San Diego drivers and it’s tempting to put off buying a new one as long as possible. But a battery that cannot hold a full charge requires the alternator to work extra hard, causing it to wear out prematurely.Your John's Automotive Care service advisor can test your battery to see if it should be replaced. Testing is a good idea for CA drivers because a battery might still be good, but become dead because of a bad alternator or even a worn serpentine belt and tensioner. John's Automotive Care6267 Riverdale StSan Diego, CA 92120619-280-9315http://www.johnsautomotivecare.com  

Hey San Diego! Let's talk about one of our CA summertime must-haves: your car A/C. It's real easy for San Diego drivers to take their car's air conditioner for granted. Just push the right buttons and out comes cool, dry, clean air. But your air conditioning system needs attention from time to time to help it keep its cool. Do you hear loud noises under the hood when you turn on your air conditioner? Do you only get cool air sporadically? If so, it is time to get your air conditioner checked at John's Automotive Care in San Diego. When most San Diego folks hear the words "air conditioning problems." it sends a shiver up their spine. That is because the air conditioning system is fairly complex. It has a lot of parts and when it's broken, it's hard to repair.What things can San Diego drivers do to prevent air conditioning breakdowns?A common cause of air conditioning failure is leaks. Wat ... read more

There's a reason we use the word “diagnose” when we talk about fixing cars in San Diego. 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 San Diego 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 effort to figure ... read more

The price of gas and the uncertain economy are both causing CA residents to review their finances. More and more San Diego drivers are opting to keep their vehicles longer and put off purchasing a newer car. It is estimated that two-thirds of the vehicles on the roads of North America today have over 75,000 miles/120,000 km on them. And the average age of vehicles is now over eleven years. That translates to some car care issues that many San Diego men and women haven't dealt with in the past. Older vehicles simply have different maintenance requirements than newer ones. Learning those requirements presents a challenge for people in San Diego because many owner's manuals only publish maintenance schedules up to 60,000 or 90,000 miles (96,000 or 145,000 km). Vehicle owners have to keep good records and be more involved in planning preventive maintenance if they want to keep their vehicles on the road. First of all, any service in your owner's manual that comes with a ... read more

Tires are an expensive purchase, so knowing when tires should be replaced is important for San Diego drivers. Tires will just wear out with normal use. The depth of the tread on your tire determines how well it will stop, start and steer – especially in wet conditions. 4/32th of an inch (3.2 mm) of tire tread is considered a safe amount of tread.Uneven tread wear can be a symptom of other problems, and simply replacing your tires will not prevent the same uneven wear from happening to the new tires. At John's Automotive Care in San Diego, we can inspect your tires for excessive or uneven wear. Unusual wear may lead to further inspection of steering, suspension or alignment problems. We can help with necessary repairs and with getting you the right tires for your needs.Give us a call.John's Automotive Care6267 Riverdale StSan Diego, CA 92120619-280-9315http://www.johnsautomotivecare.com

As San Diego consumers, we live in a disposable society. It's amazing all the stuff we throw away.New stuff comes out so fast in CA, 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 San Diego 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 it really that bad fo ... read more

Have you ever had an experience like this in San Diego, CA? You drive through the one of those automatic car washes. When you get to the end, where the dryer is blowing, your Check Engine light starts flashing!You fear the worst, but within a block or two, the light stops flashing, but stays on. By the next day, the light is off.You wonder; "What was going on?" Well, it's actually a good lesson in how the Check Engine light works.Your air intake system has a sensor that measures how much air is coming through it. When you went under the high-speed dryer, all that air was blasting past the sensor. Your engine computer was saying, there shouldn't be that much air when the engine is just idling. Something's wrong. Whatever's wrong could cause some serious engine damage.Warning, warning! It flashes the Check Engine light to alert you to take immediate action.It stopped flashing because once you were out from under the dryer, the airflow returned to normal. Now the eng ... read more

San Diego residents' vehicles have to operate in a wide range of CA temperatures which requires the engine coolant to be able to perform 'no matter what.' Think for a moment about the environment where the coolant does its thing. Very hot, high pressure, corrosive...And all the while, it has to protect the components of the cooling system from corrosion. These components are made from steel and aluminum, plastics and rubber. The coolant has to be formulated to protect against corrosion for all of these different materials. That's why vehicle manufacturer’s recommend different types of anti-freeze for our San Diego, CA, vehicles.There are several different 'families' of anti-freeze available to us here in San Diego. Your owner's manual will tell you what kind you should use. Of course, the automotive professionals at John's Automotive Care will know the right kind for your vehicle.It's important to stay on top of this because coolant system failure is the most comm ... read more