Preventive Maintenance: Why Your Car Needs It

Quick Summary

Small, scheduled services like oil changes, fluid checks, tire rotations and battery tests cost far less than the breakdowns they prevent. Colorado adds extra strain through subzero mornings, thin mountain air, long downhill grades and the state's traction law, so local drivers benefit from checking batteries, coolant, brakes and tire tread before winter. Following the owner's manual, and the severe-service schedule when it applies, keeps a vehicle safer, more reliable and worth more at trade-in time.

So the first real cold snap every year, usually sometime in November, our phones at AutoTrek kind of light up with people whose car wouldn't start in the driveway. When we get it in the shop it's almost always a battery that had been cranking slow for weeks, which is pretty much the whole argument for a preventive maintenance car routine in one story.

We've been selling cars on the Front Range since 1996, and most of the big repair bills we write up started as something small that just got ignored a little too long, like pads squealing at every stoplight on University since Labor Day.

What Preventive Maintenance Actually Covers

Honestly it's not fancy. It's just doing what's in the owner's manual on time (by miles or by months, whichever comes first) instead of waiting for a dash light, and the bit nobody reads is the second, tighter schedule in the back for severe conditions.

Funny enough, that severe list describes a normal Denver-area driver pretty well, since it usually includes short trips, towing, dusty roads, stop-and-go traffic and mountain driving, and a commute up Santa Fe plus a few ski weekends checks more than one of those boxes.

How Colorado Driving Raises The Stakes

We get the cold and the altitude and the hills all at once in Littleton, and we've noticed the same model just tends to need things a bit sooner here than it would in some flat, warm place.

Cold Mornings And Tired Batteries

The numbers on cold are kind of brutal. AAA's battery research says a battery loses about 35 percent of its strength at 32 degrees and about 60 percent at zero, while a cold engine can take up to twice the usual current to turn over.

AAA figures the average battery lasts three to five years, so if yours is three or four winters old we'd load-test it in October or so, before it gives out in a parking lot at Keystone.

Thin Air, Cooling And Power

Air pressure's lower up here, which drops the temperature coolant boils at, so we pay more attention to the radiator cap and hoses and what shape the coolant's in. Old coolant loses its corrosion protection too, and when people stretch that interval it's the radiator and water pump that end up paying for it.

A naturally aspirated engine makes less power in thin air too, so on that long pull up I-70 toward the tunnel the engine and transmission are working harder than it feels like from the driver's seat, and clean oil and fresh transmission fluid help a lot there.

Mountain Grades And Brakes

We see a lot of cooked brakes from people riding the pedal all the way down past Georgetown. A lower gear lets the engine hold some of that back, but pads, rotors and fluid still wear out faster on mountain roads than on errands around Southglenn, and there's no way around it.

Brake fluid also soaks up moisture over the years and that lowers its boiling point, so we like to check it at a regular visit before somebody heads over Vail Pass for a summer trip.

Tires And The Traction Law

Colorado's traction law can go into effect on any state highway, and when it does you need winter tires, all-weather rated tires, chains or an approved traction device, or 4WD/AWD with mud-and-snow rated tires and at least 3/16-inch of tread.

CDOT lists a $100 fine plus a $33 surcharge for not complying and more if your car ends up blocking a lane, so tread checks and regular rotations kind of do double duty: they keep you legal and they keep the tires wearing evenly.

A Preventive Maintenance Checklist For Colorado Drivers

When a car comes in for a regular visit our techs go over the oil and filter, every fluid (coolant, brake, transmission and power steering each have their own interval in the manual), the engine and cabin air filters, tire pressure and tread, and the wipers, belts, hoses and bulbs.

Around here a few of those matter more than people think, like the dirty air filters we pull off cars that spend time on the gravel toward Deckers, subzero-rated washer fluid from about October to April since the summer kind can freeze, tire pressure that drops with the temperature, and alignments after a freeze-thaw stretch of potholes, which usually shows up as the car pulling or the tires wearing funny.

Why Preventive Care Pays Off

A coolant service costs a fraction of a warped cylinder head, and pads replaced on time mean you aren't buying rotors and calipers along with them.

Records help later too. Buyers and appraisers pay more for a car with organized service history, and our trade-in value tool is a good way to see where your car stands once the paperwork is in order.

Keep Your Car Mountain-Ready At The AutoTrek Service Center

Our car service center is at 8161 S Grant Way in Littleton and works on all makes and models, with techs doing maintenance, diagnostics, repairs and tire and wheel work like rotations, balancing and alignments.

Try to get in before the first big storm, and you can schedule service online and we'll check the battery, fluids, brakes and tires, and if an older car is costing more to keep running than it's worth, our no-haggle pre-owned SUVs and trucks are right down the road.

Frequently Asked Questions