AUTONET TV

CLIVE, IA Winter Prep Service for Your Auto

When winter approaches in IA, CLIVE residents break out the sweaters, coats, boots and mittens. We want to be ready for IA winter conditions. Your vehicle needs to be ready for winter as well. The last thing CLIVE residents want is to get stranded out in the cold. You need your vehicle to be safe and reliable. It's a good idea to get caught up on any neglected maintenance items anytime - but the stakes are higher in cold IA winters.

There are some specific things CLIVE drivers need to do to have their vehicle ready for winter. The most obvious is having the antifreeze checked. If the antifreeze level is too low, it can't properly protect your engine, radiator and hoses from freezing. If your car does not seem to be making enough heat to keep you warm, your antifreeze level may be low or you could have a thermostat problem. Get it checked out at Acheson Auto Works in CLIVE. If you are due for a cooling system service, now is a perfect time to have it done.

In the cold months around CLIVE we always worry about being able to stop in time when it's slick out. The first thing to remember is to slow down and allow yourself plenty of room to stop. Of course, you want your brakes to be working properly. A thorough brake inspection will reveal if the pads or any other parts need replacing. Check with your friendly and knowledgeable Acheson Auto Works service advisor to see if it is time to replace your brake fluid. It accumulates water over time which really messes with your stopping power.

It is also a really good idea for CLIVE residents to have their battery tested. A battery's cranking power really drops with the temperature. If your battery is weak in the fall, it may not be up to a IA winter. There is nothing like a dead battery in a snow storm.

Which leads us to an emergency kit. You should always have a blanket or something to keep you and your passengers warm if you get stranded on a remote IA road. If you will be venturing away from civilization, pack more items such as food and water to help you survive. Keeping at least half a tank of gas is a good idea in case you get stuck and need to run the car to keep warm, which will also help keep your gas lines from freezing up.

Acheson Auto Works
8000 UNIVERSITY BLVD
CLIVE, IA 50325
515-223-4300

Fuel Saving Tip: Slow Down in CLIVE

There’s not much CLIVE drivers can do about the price of gas in IA, but we can control - up to a point - how much we use. Our driving habits can dramatically affect our fuel economy.

The first thing we can do is watch the go-pedal. Hard acceleration just sucks the gas. Gently leave stop lights and plan lane changes so you don’t need to floor it. That can save you hundreds of dollars a year in improved gas mileage.

Go a little slower on IA expressways. CLIVE drivers who go more than 65 miles an hour (105 kilometers per hour) will see their gas mileage drop dramatically. Leave early so you don’t need to rush to be on time. And cruise control is your friend – steady speeds use less gas.

Plan errands ahead. Make fewer trips by combining errands around CLIVE.

Hey at current CLIVE gas prices, a lead-foot might as well be a gold foot.

Give us a call

Acheson Auto Works
8000 UNIVERSITY BLVD
CLIVE, IA 50325
515-223-4300

Acheson Auto Works Guide to Using the Correct Fluids in Your Vehicle

Today's Acheson Auto Works post focuses on using coolant. If you pour in the wrong kind, it won't protect the cooling system and may even void the warranty. Check your vehicle owner's manual. Of course, your Acheson Auto Works service advisor will know the proper coolant for your vehicle.

Brake fluid is confusing for some CLIVE drivers. Back when we opened Acheson Auto Works, most vehicles used Dot 3 brake fluid. Now we have Dot 4 and Dot 5. Some CLIVE residents mistakenly think the higher numbers are an upgrade. You know, if 3 is good then 4 must be better. That's not how it works. They are different formulations to meet the demands of differences in brake systems. Only one of them is designed for your vehicle.

Ditto for transmission fluid. For decades there were two basic types of tranny fluid used at Acheson Auto Works: friction modified or not. With the tremendous engineering advances in vehicle automatic transmissions, there have been several new types of fluids developed to protect and lubricate them.

Nowhere are the advances in automotive fluids more evident to Acheson Auto Works professionals than in motor oil. Many new weights and formulations have been created to meet the demands of today's high-tech vehicle engine design. Modern engines have more parts and much tighter tolerances.

That's where the new grades of engine oil come in. They have to be formulated to lubricate, protect and clean all of those vehicle engine parts, big and little. The oil has to be thin enough to get into little passages, yet resistant to vaporization.

At Acheson Auto Works in CLIVE, we believe that in some ways modern automotive fluids are just as impressive as the new engines. Because weights of oil and types of coolant and transmission fluid are so carefully matched to the vehicle, make sure you always use the proper fluid if you are topping off at home.

Acheson Auto Works
8000 UNIVERSITY BLVD
CLIVE, IA 50325
515-223-4300

Automotive Detective Work in CLIVE

There's a reason we use the word “diagnose” when we talk about fixing cars in CLIVE. 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 CLIVE 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 out what's wrong with you, not for the actual cure.

The good news is that CLIVE drivers can do a lot to help out their friendly and knowledgeable service advisors at Acheson Auto Works in figuring out what's wrong with their vehicle. Again, the medical office is a good analogy. The more information you can give your doctor about where it hurts, when it hurts and how it hurts, the more quickly he will be able to help you. In the same way, the more you can tell your Acheson Auto Works service technician about when the problem occurs, what is sounds like, how often it occurs, where it occurs, etc., the more efficiently he will be able to get you back on the road.

Good preventive maintenance goes a long way to keeping your car out of a CLIVE repair shop, but if you need to get it , good communication will get you back on the road quickly.

Acheson Auto Works
8000 UNIVERSITY BLVD
CLIVE, IA 50325
515-223-4300