Chico Auto Repair

Question When do I need to replace my battery? Answer That’s a smart question.  All batteries wear out and need to be replaced – but some are being replaced before their time.  Look, if your battery is dying and you need a jump-start, it could very well be that you have a bad battery.  But have your service center test the battery first to see if it’s bad.  The problem could be parasitic drain or a bad alternator that’s not properly charging your battery. But you also need to have your alternator tested.  A surprisingly high percentage of “bad” alternators are actually just fine: the problem is a worn serpentine belt and/or belt tensioner.  If the belt is slipping, it’s not spinning the alternator properly so it can’t fully charge the battery. So, you see a dead battery can be the result of a chain of events: a worn serpentine belt, a worn belt tensioner, a bad alternator or a bad battery.  If you ... read more

Chances are you've had the power go out in your neighborhood at some time, and you know how helpless you feel.  No lights, no microwave oven, no cold refrigerator: Yikes, it's like living in another century.  Well, your vehicle is also highly dependent on having power for it to run properly.  When your battery cables are failing, that power is not transferred as it should be. Battery cables are essentially the wires that connect your vehicle to its battery.  The positive cable supplies the power to various components that use them and the negative grounds the system to the vehicle chassis.  This setup allows you to have power throughout your vehicle. When a battery cable fails, your vehicle may not start, your starter may turn over very slowly, or you may hear a clicking noise.  And you may see your battery warning light go on. Just like a house with no power, a vehicle with no power needs to get it back for things to work the way they should ... read more

Batteries are a huge part of modern life.  I mean, how many battery chargers do you have? Of course, our purpose here is to talk about your car battery.  When people come into our service center and need a new battery, they’re not that happy about having to spend the money.  But the fact is that 70% of batteries don’t make it for 4 years. There are some things that you can do to extend the life of your battery.  First, keep it clean.  If you see it getting dirty or greasy, let us know and we can clean it off.  A dirty battery runs hotter and that shortens its life.  If your battery terminals are corroded, let us look at that too.  We can clean them, and if the corrosion has gotten into the battery cables, we can replace them. Also running your battery way down is bad for it. Things like running the headlights or watching a DVD player with the car turned off can deeply deplete your battery.  The typical battery can only take ab ... read more

CHICO folks know that car batteries wear out just like any other battery and need to be replaced. There are a couple of things CHICO drivers should know when looking for a new battery: one is cold cranking amps and the other is reserve capacity. Let's start with cold cranking amps. This can be thought of as the power output used to start a cold engine. The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on your vehicle and where you live in CA, specifically how cold it is where you live. The two factors are that the colder an engine is, the more power it takes to turn the engine over to get it started. It has all that cold, sluggish oil to contend with. The other factor is the chemical reaction in the battery that creates electrical energy is less efficient in the cold. So the colder it gets in CHICO, more power is needed, but the available power drops. So if you live where it's cold, you need a battery with more cold cranking am ... read more

Batteries are a huge part of modern CHICO life. I mean, how many battery chargers do you have in your CHICO home? Of course, our purpose here is to talk about car batteries in CHICO. When CHICO drivers come into D AND E AUTO REPAIR and need a new battery, they're really not that happy about having to spend the money. But the fact is that 70% of batteries don't make it for 4 years. There are some things CHICO drivers can do to extend the life of their battery. First, keep it clean. If you see it getting dirty or greasy, let your friendly and knowledgeable D AND E AUTO REPAIR service advisor know so it can be cleaned off. A dirty battery runs hotter and that shortens its life. If your battery terminals are corroded, let us take a look at that too. We can clean them, and if the corrosion has gotten into the battery cables, we can replace them. Also running your battery way down is bad for it: Things like running the headlights or watching a DVD player with ... read more

Car batteries wear out just like any other battery and need to be replaced.  There are a couple of things you should know when looking for a new battery: one is cold cranking amps and the other is reserve capacity. Let’s start with cold cranking amps.  This can be thought of as the power output used to start a cold engine.  The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on your vehicle and where you live, specifically how cold it is where you live.  The two factors are that the colder an engine is, the more power it takes to turn the engine over to get it started.  It has all that cold, sluggish oil to contend with.  The other factor is that the chemical reaction in the battery that creates electrical energy is less efficient in the cold.  So, the colder it gets, more power is needed, but the available power drops. So, if you live where it’s cold, you need a battery with more cold cranking amps than you do where its moderate or hot ... read more