Posts by dakotaridgeauto

It’s just common sense that your vehicle will drive better if all the wheels are lined up with each other and the road the way the engineers intended.  When they’re not, that is called being out of alignment.   Here are some signs that your alignment has problems. •    Your steering wheel isn’t straight…

You may have heard about an important part of your vehicle’s engine called a timing belt. Many know that if that belt breaks, it can cause some very serious engine problems. Not all vehicles have them, and the ones that do generally have smaller engines.  The timing belt keeps the engine synchronized so that every…

While many vehicle components are complex and consist of many mechanical and electrical parts, one isn’t complicated but still important: your engine air filter.  (And, we should point out that the engine air filter isn’t to be confused with the cabin air filter.  The cabin air filter cleans the air that goes into the passenger…

Steering a vehicle these days doesn’t take much effort, but if you got behind the wheel back before power steering was invented, you’d need to practically have the strength of Hercules to turn the wheel. The first power steering systems widely available changed everything.  Chrysler introduced its Hydraguide power system in 1951. The “hydra” was…

Your vehicle’s engine runs hot.  It should, since it’s a series of little explosions that create the power that gets you going where you want to go, enter your coolant sensor to save the day, and your vehicle.  To keep the engine cool, engineers have designed wonderful cooling systems that use liquid coolant, hoses, and…

When driving in Littleton, CO, and stepping on your brake pedal, you want to feel confident that your vehicle will stop.  If your brakes aren’t working right, it’s a risk to your safety and the safety of others on the road.  After all, you’re driving a machine that weighs thousands of pounds, and you have…

If you’ve noticed your vehicle is hard to start, stalling, or has lost power, the culprit may be a part with an odd name: the MAF sensor.  You may have never even heard of an MAF sensor, but it must be working correctly, or you may be experiencing some fairly significant engine issues. All vehicles…