Castro Valley Auto Repair

Ford ended Mercury production in 2011, but there are still plenty of Mercury vehicles on the roads. At Adams Autoworx in Castro Valley we continue to support Mercury owners, whether you own a Mercury Grand Marquis, or the Mercury Sable, or the last Mercury model – Milan. Our nationally ASE certified technicians will diagnose, and repair any problem your Mercury might present. As your Mercury ages, regular oil changes and regular service grow in importance. Oil change not only prolongs engine life, but also gives us an opportunity to find developing problems – we perform a free digital vehicle inspection with every service or repair. You will receive an electronic copy of the result – so you are always up-to-date on the overall condition of your Mercury. Whether you drive a Mercury Montego or a Mercury Mountaineer SUV, our technicians will provide your vehicle with everything it needs to serve  you faithfully for many years. Any repairs we perform on your vehicl ... read more

We are big fans of Subaru vehicles, but they occasionally come with an issue or two. The 2011 Subaru Forester has two engine oil issues that owners need to be aware of:   first and foremost, the engine can consume too much engine oil while operating, the other issue is oil leaks. Excessive oil consumption is a known problem for a number of vehicles, and unfortunately, 2011 Forester is one of them. It can be 1 - 2 quarts between oil changes, but sometimes as many as 3-4 quarts. If you own a 2011 Subaru Forester, we highly recommend checking engine oil levels every 1000 miles and topping it off if necessary. This will keep your vehicle from depleting the engine oil. Oil leaks are always a concern, and unfortunately older Subaru vehicles are oil leak prone. An oil leak can be particularly dangerous if your Subaru also has a tendency to excessive oil consumption. If the two are combined, and the owner does not monitor engine oil level, the vehicle may run out of engine oil &nda ... read more

Seeing a telltale sign of something dripping on the garage floor or in the driveway is not a happy occasion. Fortunately, most of the time it's merely water condensation from your vehicle's air conditioning system. So if the fluid you see is colorless, odorless and not oily, it may not be a problem. However, there are some brake fluids that are clear as well, so to be 100% sure, have your vehicle checked out at Adams Autoworx in Castro Valley and we can tell you with 100% accuracy the nature of the fluid – better safe than sorry. What Else Could be Leaking? Typical vehicle has a surprising number of fluids, here are some that might be dripping on the floor of your garage:     Coolant leaks: Depending on the vehicle make, the engine coolant color will vary, but any of these colors can indicate engine coolant: green, orange, yellow, turquoise, pink, blue or purple     Transmission fluid leaks will results in following colors on the floor o ... read more

At Adams Autoworx in Castro Valley we are pleased to offer full range of automotive services including Bridgestone tires. One of the bestselling tire brands in California, Bridgestone offers wide selection of quality tires for every possible use – from off-road fun in the desert, to winter tires for those Sierra Nevada ski trips. Founded in 1931 in Japan, over ninety years Bridgestone has grown to become one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world. With production facilities in 24 countries, including United States, Bridgestone is a truly global company. At our Castro Valley auto care facility we offer wide selection of Bridgestone tires. Whether you drive a light truck, SUV or a passenger car, we have Bridgestone tires that will fit your needs. Our friendly service advisors can match the tires to the type of driving you do – simply let them know if you are buying tires for a commute car, SUV that is used to ferry kids to afterschool practice, or a vehicle that tak ... read more

Adams Autoworx in Castro Valley offers new Tesla sound dampening tires. Naturally, the most popular are the original equipment (OE) Michelin, Continental and Goodyear Tesla tires. At Adams Autoworx we can provide your Tesla with tires that exactly match factory specifications. In addition, most tire manufacturers can now produce Tesla tires, so we can offer tires from other tire manufacturers that carry the T0, T1, etc. designation, and have the special sound dampening foam. When you drive a Tesla, you will be buying tires more frequently than for an internal combustion engine vehicle, mostly due to high torque, regenerative braking, and additional weight ( due to the battery pack). As a result, you will spend more money on tires over the lifetime of the vehicle, on the other hand, you can experiment with different tire manufacturers to find just the right tires for your Tesla. Our Castro Valley tires shop offers not only a wide selection of Tesla tires, but also friendly customer s ... read more

If you are new to the world of electric vehicles, brake cleaning seems like a joke fashioned by die-hard ICE (internal combustion engine) enthusiasts. Well… not quite. If you own a Tesla in the “cold weather region”, it’s recommended – by Tesla - that you get the calipers cleaned and lubricated every year or every 12,500 miles. So why does your Tesla need brake cleaning?  Because EVs use brakes infrequently. Most of the braking is done by the energy recovery system, and so your brake pads don’t get used much, and are likely to last around 100,000 miles. Awesome – you say - we save on brake pads replacement. True indeed, but as a result, brake pads, calipers, and brake rotors get very little exercise, and so if you live in a climate with snow, salt, year round rains, brake rotors are going to rust, get gunky, and calipers might get sticky. Internal combustion engine vehicles do not face these issues, because brakes are used hard every day ... read more

By now Prius vehicles are everywhere, yet only 20 years ago they were a novelty. They are reliable, and with proper maintenance can last 300,000 miles or more. During that time you will need to replace a few components, one of them being inverter. Toyota issued a recall for inverter related problems, and many vehicles had the work completed. Yet, many have sustained thermal damage before the recall, and may have to have inverters replaced. Inverters also fail due to age and use. The indicators of a possible inverter failure include hybrid system warning and power steering warning coming “on”. Naturally, at Adams Autoworx in Castro Valley we recommend that you visit a professional mechanic to diagnose the root cause of the problem. At our Castro Valley auto care facility we use state-of-the-art digital diagnostic equipment, and our technicians are nationally ASE certified – they will find the root cause and will get your vehicle diagnosed and fixed right – the ... read more

Fall Tune Up Even though the traditional tune-up is a thing of the past, at Adams Autoworx in Castro Valley we still recommend getting a vehicle checkup before the Fall driving season. Even though most modern cars are self-tuning ( computers adjust timing, air intake, richness of the air-fuel mixture, etc.  on-the-fly), there is still a lot to be said for having a professional mechanic inspect your car before the rains and the cold weather. It's always a good idea to check the condition of the car battery, as the cold weather makes a weak battery more likely to die, or often not be able to hold enough charge to start your car. We also recommend a visual inspection of the tires, to make sure there are no bald spots, and that the tread depth is sufficient to evacuate water and prevent hydroplaning.  While the car is in the shop, we also recommend brake inspection ( unless you had one done very recently ) - wet asphalt extedends the distance it takes to stop your vehicle ... read more

Tesla Outproduces German EV Makers - Again! Tesla is an the unquestioned leader in the electric vehicle market. German auto makers have been promising to outproduce Tesla in the EV arena – for many years now. Volkswagen in particular has been promising to wrestle EV leadership away from Tesla. Well... once again Tesla comes out on top. So far this year, Tesla produced 890,000 electric vehicles, according to Bloomberg News. That’s more than the combined EV production of BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Porsche. German manufacturers are struggling with software problems that delay introduction of new models. This is not surprising – modern vehicles, and especially EVs, are “software on wheels”, while traditional auto makers have very limited software design and production experience. Tesla, on the other hand, greatly benefits from Elon Musk’s experience – he started out as a programmer. And he runs Tesla like a software company – frequent p ... read more

Even though it’s still wet and dreary on May 8th, eventually the sun will come out. So it’s a good idea to have your car’s ac system checked out and topped off if needed. Plenty of vehicles still use the old R134a refrigerant, though many newer vehicles require the new R1234YF refrigerant. There is no single cut-off date; different brands picked different years to switch to R1234YF. These refrigerants are not interchangeable - your vehicle will either use one or the other. To simplify your life, at Adams Autoworx in Castro Valley we offer both refrigerants – when you bring your vehicle for an a/c checkup, we will look up which refrigerant your vehicle requires, check the ac system for leaks, and top it off if necessary. The new R1234YF refrigerant systems require different fittings, and the machines have on-board sensors to make sure correct refrigerant is being used. R1234YF was formulated to be environmentally friendly, and we don’t want to cross contam ... read more