Lowell's North Lime – Lexington's Favorite Mechanic

Most car batteries last for approximately 3 to 5 years under normal conditions. As the temperature drops or rises, however, you may experience extra strains on your battery.

Extreme Cold

The near-zero temperatures this week can take quite a toll on your vehicle’s battery.

Not only is your engine harder to turn over when it is extremely cold, but these temperatures can mean that your lead-acid battery is only operating with about half of its normal power output.

A weaker cold-weather battery, coupled with a stubborn cold-weather engine, can make it a lot harder to get your car started. So a battery that starts a car fairly well at normal temperatures suddenly stops operating as the temperature plummets.

At lowell’s, we see a lot of no-start or slow-to-start issues when cold weather strikes. If you notice that your car is struggling to get started, it may be a signal that you need to replace your battery.

Extreme Heat

Your battery actually gets a lot stronger in extremely warm weather, but that extra energy comes at a price: The accelerated chemistry inside your battery in hot weather can shorten your battery’s life.

The evaporation of the fluids (acids) inside of your battery under extreme heat can corrode many parts of your starting and charging system. If you see a lot of bluish-white gunk on or around your battery, that’s a sign of excessive evaporation.

What you can do

As your battery ages, it is a good idea to have it checked a few times a year to ensure that it is putting out the appropriate level of power. Have the battery terminals cleaned and battery cable ends replaced if you see excessive corrosion around the battery.

If you typically drive a lot of quick trips, consider mixing in a few longer drives. Very short trips often don’t recharge the large amount of energy used to start your vehicle. Over time, this quick-trip deficit can place ever-greater strains on your battery, and can shorten its life considerably.

Also, consider unplugging accessory cables (like phone chargers) when the vehicle is not in use. Faulty or low-quality chargers can drain your battery when not in use.

Suddenly finding a dash warning light can create a lot of anxiety while driving. What does that light mean? Can I still drive? And how much is this going to cost me?

We know that those lights can be scary, and we’re ready to help you figure out what your particular warning light means.

maintenance required

The good news is that the light which comes on most frequently – the ‘maintenance required’ or ‘MAINT REQD’ light – is relatively mild.

The maintenance required light simply indicates that you are overdue for an oil change. On most Toyota or Lexus vehicles, it comes on automatically 5,000 miles after your last oil change.

And while oil changes are your most important regular service, a maintenance required light isn’t usually something which you need to address right now.  Simply schedule your next oil change at your earliest convenience. When we change your oil, we’ll reset your maintenance required light, and you should be ready for the road.

more serious lights

While the ‘maintenance required’ light may not be that serious, other dash warning lights should be addressed as soon as possible. Depending on your vehicle, these may include your ‘check engine’, ‘ABS’, ‘VSC’, and / or ‘TRAC’ lights. If any one or combination of these lights comes on for your vehicle, get your vehicle checked out right away.

Unfortunately, these aren’t lights which can be diagnosed over the phone.  The underlying problem might cause permanent damage to your vehicle, or it might not be serious at all.

The safest policy is to have us check out your vehicle’s computer to determine the condition that is triggering the light to come on.

checking codes

Using a laptop computer and Toyota’s TechStream software, we will check your vehicle computer for any recorded or pending conditions which could trigger your warning light. The vehicle computer will often store special codes which point us toward the vehicle subsystem which is reporting a problem.

These codes are relatively easy to obtain: we can pull the codes here at lowell’s, or there are a variety of aftermarket devices which can also get them. (If you ever use one of these devices, make sure to preserve all of the details; many devices will clear out the traces of trouble codes and make them difficult to properly diagnose.)

By themselves, these codes don’t tell us very much. They are akin to telling your doctor about a pain in your throat. The pain gives a doctor an idea of where to look next, and what kinds of tests (pulse, blood pressure, body temperature, throat cultures, etc.) might be needed to determine the specific problem behind the symptom. In this example, further testing might reveal that a strep infection is behind the throat pain.

In a similar fashion, the codes stored by your vehicle’s computer provide symptoms which require further testing in order to pinpoint your car’s specific malady. For example, a P0304 code can tell us there is a misfire on cylinder #4, but it doesn’t tell us the specific source of that misfire (further testing might show that the ignition coil for that cylinder is bad).

Our technicians will test the various subsystem components which could trigger a particular code, and we’ll identify the specific problem.

getting back with you

Once we’ve determined the problem, we’ll get with you to discuss its severity and the cost of fixing it. Sometimes, we’ll tell you that the problem doesn’t really affect the proper functioning of your car, and you can continue to drive with the warning light. (Note, however, that driving with a constant warning light can cover up any new trouble codes which occur.)

In any case, whenever you have a warning light, be sure to have us check it out, so that you can know whether the problem is severe or not. We’ll be glad to give you that peace of mind!

When I first started driving, my dad asked me the same question over and over about my car.

“When’s the last time you changed the oil in that thing?”

‘That thing’ was my first car, an avocado-green 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass. My dad wanted me to change its oil and oil filter every couple of thousand miles. I have to admit that I wasn’t the most diligent oil-changer, which was why Dad stayed on me about changing it.

As a typical teenager, I dismissed the question as an annoying intrusion on my newfound car-centric ‘freedom’. But even into adulthood, I was never all that concerned about how often I changed my oil.

It really wasn’t until I bought lowell’s that I understood the true importance of Dad’s question.

A regular oil and filter change is the single most important thing you can do to help keep your car’s engine running longer.

Why your oil matters

Fresh oil keeps internal engine parts clean and lubricated, which prolongs the life of your engine.

Oil breaks down with exposure to the high temperatures of your engine. As it breaks down, your oil stops absorbing dust, moisture, and other contaminants. That means the oil won’t lubricate as well, causing engine parts to wear out faster.

What can go wrong

Because old oil stops lubricating as well, your engine parts rub together. This increased friction causes the parts to wear out faster and makes your engine hotter – which causes your oil to degrade even faster, triggering a downward spiral of deteriorating oil, heat, and engine wear.

Eventually, the oil can break down into sludge – a sticky, tar-like substance which clogs narrow passageways inside your engine – and oil can’t get where it is needed inside your clogged engine.

The increased heat and friction in your engine can also cause your engine to seize and need to be replaced.

What we do

We drain the old oil from your engine and replace it and the oil filter. We use only genuine Toyota oil filters with a double-stage filtering element and an anti-drainback valve.

We also perform a free Courtesy Check – a visual inspection of your belts, fluids, hoses, lights, tire pressures, and tire wear – with each service, which allows us to identify small problems before they become big problems.

What we do with the old stuff

We’ve contracted with a recycling service to pick up your old oil and oil filters. Once the dirt and other contaminants are removed, most of your old oil can be re-refined into high-grade motor oil.

When we recommend it

Our oil change recommendations depend on the type of engine your car has.

For engines using conventional motor oil (5W-20 or 5W-30 grade oil), we recommend changing your oil every 3,500 miles or every 6 months, whichever comes first. This applies to almost all 2009 and earlier Toyotas, and many vehicles made between 2010 and 2013.

For engines using full synthetic motor oil (0W-20 grade), we recommend changing your oil every 5,000 miles or every 6 months, whichever comes first. This applies to almost all 2014 and later Toyotas, and many vehicles made between 2010 and 2013.

So… When’s the last time you changed the oil in that thing?