5 Things Colorado Drivers Should Check on Their Car This Spring
Colorado winters don’t just end. They leave damage behind. Months of freeze-thaw cycles, magnesium chloride on the roads, and tires grinding through ice and snow take a real toll on your vehicle. As temperatures start climbing across the Front Range, that damage doesn’t disappear, it just stops being obvious.
If you haven’t visited a tire shop in Colorado or had your car looked at since last fall, here are five things worth checking this spring.
Essential Car Checks For Your Vehicle Before You Hit The Road
1. Wheel Alignment – Blame the Freeze-Thaw Cycle
Colorado’s spring freeze-thaw cycle is among the most pothole-prone weather patterns in the country. Water seeps into pavement cracks, freezes, expands, and breaks the road surface apart. By spring, I-25, I-70, and most Front Range streets are riddled with the results.
One hard pothole hit can knock your alignment off. A full winter of them almost certainly has.
Denver7 reported drivers experiencing flat tires on I-70 from a single pothole that formed within minutes. If that’s what one pothole does to a tire, imagine what a full winter does to your alignment.
Signs you need a wheel alignment service:
- Your car pulls slightly left or right
- Your steering wheel sits off-center
- Your tires are wearing unevenly on one edge
A tire that should last 50,000 miles can wear out in 20,000 when alignment is off. It’s the most common winter damage nobody thinks to check.
2. Tire Pressure – Altitude and Temperature Swings Make This Tricky
Most drivers know cold weather drops tire pressure. Colorado makes it more complicated.
Tire pressure changes roughly one psi for every 10 degrees Fahrenheit. A spring morning in Denver can be 20 degrees. By afternoon, it’s 60. That same day. Add altitude changes on top, driving up to a mountain pass can increase your tire pressure by 2 to 3 psi on the way up and drop it again on the way down.
Most drivers set their pressure in autumn and forget it until a warning light comes on. A tire pressure check and full tire inspection now can reveal:
- Uneven tread wear from a winter of misalignment
- Sidewall damage from pothole impacts
- Pressure readings that are off due to temperature and altitude swings
3. Brakes – Mountain Driving Is Harder on Them Than You Think
If you made any trips up I-70 this winter, ski weekends, mountain drives, crossing a pass, your brakes worked harder than they would have in a flat-state winter.
Here’s why Colorado is different:
- Descending steep grades puts enormous stress on pads and rotors
- Thinner air at altitude makes brake components run hotter on long descents
- Heavy stop-and-go traffic on I-25 and Colfax adds to the wear year-round
Don’t wait for squealing or grinding. A brake service in Colorado is best done before the problem announces itself, and definitely before summer mountain trips begin. Catching worn pads now costs a fraction of what rotor replacement costs after you’ve waited too long.
4. Undercarriage and Wheels – Magnesium Chloride Is Still on Your Car
This is the one most Colorado drivers overlook entirely.
Denver and most Front Range cities don’t use traditional road salt. They use magnesium chloride, a liquid deicer sprayed directly onto roads before and during storms. It works well. It’s also highly corrosive.
What makes it worse than regular salt:
- It’s hygroscopic as it actively holds moisture and keeps corroding long after roads dry out
- It attacks brake systems, axles, fuel lines, and ball joints
- It etches the finish off aluminum wheels
- It accelerates rust on your undercarriage, where you never look
A December 2025 report from KKCO11 News highlighted how mag chloride etches aluminum wheels and accelerates rust underneath vehicles, damage that most drivers don’t notice until it’s expensive.
If you haven’t had a thorough undercarriage wash since the last snowstorm, mag chloride residue is likely still doing damage right now.
Scheduling a preventive maintenance inspection that includes your undercarriage, wheel wells, and brake components is one of the smartest things you can do this spring.
5. Battery – Colorado Cold Takes More Out of Batteries Than Most People Know
Car batteries lose up to 60 percent of their strength when temperatures drop below freezing. Colorado’s sharp overnight lows and 40-degree single-day temperature swings put real strain on batteries that milder climates simply don’t.
Many Colorado vehicles run AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) batteries, which are more sensitive to extreme temperature swings than standard batteries. If yours falls into that category, a spring check is even more important.
A battery that survived a Colorado winter may still be on its way out. The failure usually comes on a hot July afternoon in a parking lot, or on a cold morning next November when you’re already running late.
A professional auto repair shop (hey! That’s us) can test your battery in minutes. If it’s showing weakness now, replacing it before next winter is far cheaper than dealing with a breakdown when temperatures drop again.
Time to Get Your Car Spring-Ready at Coloradoland Tire and Service
Your car absorbed a winter of freeze-thaw potholes, magnesium chloride exposure, mountain braking, and temperature extremes. A spring inspection is the least it deserves.
ColoradoLand Tire and Service, part of The Tire Store network, has eight tire shop locations across Colorado: Castle Rock, Arvada, Littleton, Denver, Lakewood, Burlington, and Lamar.
We handle wheel alignments, tire inspections, brake service, battery checks, and full preventive maintenance.
Find your nearest location to schedule service today.
Meta: Colorado winters are tough on your car. Learn the 5 things every Front Range driver should check this spring and keep your vehicle road-ready all season.