Tune - Up

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quiet gal

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How would you know if your car or van needs a tune up?
What are the clues that I should be looking for?
 
u should tune up every 30,000 miles

also suggust read your auto manual booklet they'll tell u how many miles u should do this, and that, the oil change, etc.. so forth
 
If your car is still under warranty, you can get it checked for free at the dealership. :thumb:
 
DeafSCUBA98 said:
really?
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Yes, most dealerships offer free check-ups and repair as long as the car is under their warranty and that it hasn't been voided by you doing the repair yourself. For instance, if you buy a new car with a one-year warranty... it will be good for that one year. However, if you have an oil leak or a belt break... and you fix it yourself, then the warranty is void. After that, you can't take it in to get fixed. The same goes for computers. Some computer companies void the warranty if you download other programs for your own leisure... such as Ad-Aware or Spybot. :roll:
 
Tune up?

Tune up? Are you outdated? Today's cars is automatically tuned up on its own or you could say "On the Fly" meaning that the engine computer tunes it up automatically at specific temperature, speed, etc, etc to get maximum mileage. The only thing you need is replace sparkplugs and cable if needed. That is basically what most mechanic charges you for that! Yeah, computer took over already! You could buy spark plugs that would last 100,000 miles, and probably will be the last time you'd ever replace on that vehicle anyway.
Change oil at 7,500 miles is fine if your driving on highway, and "clean" road. 3,000 miles if your driving dirty, or dusty road, or excessive stop n go traffic. Today's oil is far better than it was 30 years ago.

DHB
 
Well, oil itself just need to be changed every 6k, while filter need to be repaced every 3k.
 
quiet gal said:
How would you know if your car or van needs a tune up?
What are the clues that I should be looking for?
Click to expand...
It depends on the age of your car, and the recommendations of your manual.

Diehardbiker's post is correct.
 
Jtm said:
Well, oil itself just need to be changed every 6k, while filter need to be repaced every 3k.
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How do you replace a filter more often than the oil? When you pull the old filter out, the oil flows out too. :confused:
 
VamPyroX said:
Yes, most dealerships offer free check-ups and repair as long as the car is under their warranty and that it hasn't been voided by you doing the repair yourself. For instance, if you buy a new car with a one-year warranty... it will be good for that one year. However, if you have an oil leak or a belt break... and you fix it yourself, then the warranty is void. After that, you can't take it in to get fixed. ..
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My hubby has always done all the maintenance on our vehicles, and it never voided any warranties. The only thing that voids warranties is if you make unauthorized modifications to your car, such as lowering the suspension, "souping up" the engine, etc. Replacing a belt is no big deal.

Of course, if the dealer offers free services you should take advantage of that. :) Most "higher end" cars offer some free services.
 
Reba said:
How do you replace a filter more often than the oil? When you pull the old filter out, the oil flows out too. :confused:
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drain it out into clean pan or container, after you replace the filter, pour it back in.

But, I would rather blow extra cashes to replace oil tho. Sometime peopel can be too conservational. :dunno:
 
Jtm said:
drain it out into clean pan or container, after you replace the filter, pour it back in.

But, I would rather blow extra cashes to replace oil tho. Sometime peopel can be too conservational. :dunno:
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Why would you want to pour used oil back in?

We always change the oil and filter at the same time.
 
My Ford Explorer 96 V8 - I bought 8 spark plugs and wires. Now, I have a hard time to take a spark plug out because it is too tighten. I turned my socket on right like unscrew the light bulb or screw. How can I take it off?

Also, should I put some oil at the end of the new spark plug?
 
My friend helped me to remove the old spark plugs because some area were difficult to reach the plugs. You would not believe it. He broke the spark plug when he tried to unscrew it. We got stuck with this problem. I knew that it was a big trouble for me because it was going to be a very expensive at a Ford repair shop. We went two different Ford repair shop. One told me that it would cost 1,500 dollars to remove the broken one by opening a mainframe. 2nd shop, it cost 1,100 dollars. A friend of his told me that all we have to do is to turn the key on for a few seconds. The broken spark plug is out of the motor instead of inside the motor. He heard a small sound - pop we knew that it got out. Then, I had to buy a special drill to take the broken spark plug's metal ring. The drill is called "screw extractor." It was huge successful. I was so relieved that I did not pay a thousand dollar. I paid the drill about four dollars at a small auto part shop.

A Ford dealer warned me not to start up the motor. It turned out that he probably does not want me to know that there is another around it. I am not mad at all. Suppose that a small thin rod of the spark plug fall down into the motor, that's out of luck. This time my plug (metal rod) did not fall into the motor. Whew! Just to let you know in case if you broke yours.
 
webexplorer said:
... Then, I had to buy a special drill to take the broken spark plug's metal ring. The drill is called "screw extractor."
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Yes, Hubby has a couple of those that he uses.

When he has a stuck spark plug, he uses a little 3-in-1 oil on the plug and lets it soak in to loosen it.
 
NO OIL!!!! There is some of cream you could buy from auto part store specifically designed for this. Normally we should have loosen and retight spark plugs once a while, but this rarely happens. Today, with platinum spark plugs, it can last 100k miles without compromising the quality! Today's engines is FAR superior than it was 20 years ago.

webexplorer said:
My Ford Explorer 96 V8 - I bought 8 spark plugs and wires. Now, I have a hard time to take a spark plug out because it is too tighten. I turned my socket on right like unscrew the light bulb or screw. How can I take it off?

Also, should I put some oil at the end of the new spark plug?
Click to expand...
 
When I had my 'straight 6' chevy nova, it was easy to do the tuneups myself. Nowadays the engines are designed to be serviceable by only the dealers and or mechanics who will be happy to bleed your wallet dry.

Richard
 
That is mostly not true. It may be true back in 80's but not anymore. You could hook up your PC to your car to find out whats problem, and the cost is around 150 dollars for the software and the chiip to transfer data from vehicle to PC.
My two vehicles is late model and I can do some maintenace and fix around. Not a plm. The reason you can't tune up your car is that it has automatic tuning and there is NO need to adjustment. THe advantage of automatic tune up is that it can tune to specific degrees depending on the temperature, speed, etc and adjust them immediately to match best performance and fuel economy. You don't even realize this.

Nesmuth said:
When I had my 'straight 6' chevy nova, it was easy to do the tuneups myself. Nowadays the engines are designed to be serviceable by only the dealers and or mechanics who will be happy to bleed your wallet dry.

Richard
Click to expand...
 
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