What's a tune up?

On Jul 17, 10:01 am, Don Stauffer in Minnesota <[email protected]>
wrote:
> What is involved in a tune up at a shop these days?  They seem to want
> a fortune to do it. Is it really anything other than new plugs?  They
> say they check the timing.  But with modern crank angle sensors why
> would the engine go out of time?  They say they "clean" the fuel
> system. Is this other than running a can of cleaner through the
> system?
>
> I notice a drop of about 3mpg in the past five months or so. I have
> not changed plugs for 70K miles, so just considering replacing plugs,
> but the car has 130K, so maybe I should bite the bullet and get a
> tuneup. There are no signs of the engine warning light being on except
> at startup.
_____________________
Hello! Just getting back from 1968 here. Just finished the points,
spark plugs, adjusting the spark timing & the dwell, putting in new
oil & filter & replacing fuel filter & checking the float bowl on a
'65 New Yorker.

It's easy here in '08, what with electronic fuel injection & variable
valve timing. Not much to a tuneup for cars less than 15 years old.
New plugs after 50,000miles, Air filters every 5 - 15,000 miles
depending on what you drive, and oil changes can be spread out to
5,000 instead of 3,000 miles. Ran OBD-II and no red flags.

As far as cleaning the fuel system goes, if you suspect it's never
been done on a car with that much mileage,(what's the year & make
btw?) I'd go with a throttle-body cleaning(properly done) and a new
set of plugs. Also, check the spark plug wires. Very often after-
markets will outperform the originals especially if they're more than
10 years old and/or have 100,000miles on them.

Valve timing(crank angle) and ignition timing are two different
things. On a car from 1990 & up, ignition timing is electronically
controlled and almost never needs human intervention. Was the drop in
MPG sudden, or spread out over several months?

-CC

On Jul 17, 11:11 am, ChrisCoaster <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Jul 17, 10:01 am, Don Stauffer in Minnesota <[email protected]>
> wrote:> What is involved in a tune up at a shop these days?  They seem to want
> > a fortune to do it. Is it really anything other than new plugs?  They
> > say they check the timing.  But with modern crank angle sensors why
> > would the engine go out of time?  They say they "clean" the fuel
> > system. Is this other than running a can of cleaner through the
> > system?
>
> > I notice a drop of about 3mpg in the past five months or so. I have
> > not changed plugs for 70K miles, so just considering replacing plugs,
> > but the car has 130K, so maybe I should bite the bullet and get a
> > tuneup. There are no signs of the engine warning light being on except
> > at startup.
>
> _____________________
> Hello!  Just getting back from 1968 here.  Just finished the points,
> spark plugs, adjusting the spark timing & the dwell, putting in new
> oil & filter & replacing fuel filter & checking the float bowl on a
> '65 New Yorker.
>
> It's easy here in '08, what with electronic fuel injection & variable
> valve timing.  Not much to a tuneup for cars less than 15 years old.
> New plugs after 50,000miles, Air filters every 5 - 15,000 miles
> depending on what you drive, and oil changes can be spread out to
> 5,000 instead of 3,000 miles.  Ran OBD-II and no red flags.
>
> As far as cleaning the fuel system goes, if you suspect it's never
> been done on a car with that much mileage,(what's the year & make
> btw?) I'd go with a throttle-body cleaning(properly done) and a new
> set of plugs.  Also, check the spark plug wires. Very often after-
> markets will outperform the originals especially if they're more than
> 10 years old and/or have 100,000miles on them.
>
> Valve timing(crank angle) and ignition timing are two different
> things.  On a car from 1990 & up, ignition timing is electronically
> controlled and almost never needs human intervention.  Was the drop in
> MPG sudden, or spread out over several months?
>
> -CC

Don't know. Checked in February, again in early July. Change was in
the intervening months. It was ignition timing the ads for tuneups
referred to. My impression is same as yours- little likelihood it
really needs to be checked.

Not a whole lot involved in tune-ups these days. Without knowing the
year, timing is probably not adjustable. Change the plugs. Change the
gas filter every 20k miles. Air filter when needed. Ignition wires are
change for preventive maintennance or if you have a miss and you done
the above. With 1300k miles on it, and if you never have, don't fool
with cleaning the injectors. It can open the proverbial "can of
worms." (cause more problems/break garf loose from lines and clog up
injectors/some automakers say don't clean)

On Jul 19, 10:52 am, [email protected] wrote:
> Not a whole lot involved in tune-ups these days. Without knowing the
> year, timing is probably not adjustable. Change the plugs. Change the
> gas filter every 20k miles. Air filter when needed. Ignition wires are
> change for preventive maintennance or if you have a miss and you done
> the above. With 1300k miles on it, and if you never have, don't fool
> with cleaning the injectors. It can open the proverbial "can of
> worms." (cause more problems/break garf loose from lines and clog up
> injectors/some automakers say don't clean)
____________________
Actually I would LIKE to change the fuel filter in my 2005 Malibu(see
related post this n.g.) which is approaching 28,000mi, but the
brilliant engineers at GM installed it INSIDE the gas tank with no
specified change interval! The labor to empty & drop the tank,
install the filter, and re-hang tank would never be made up in fuel
savings no matter how long I own this car.

My mpg on that car is dropping an average 2mpg per year since buying
it new in '05.

-CC

In article
<[email protected]>,
ChrisCoaster <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Jul 19, 10:52 am, [email protected] wrote:
> > Not a whole lot involved in tune-ups these days. Without knowing the
> > year, timing is probably not adjustable. Change the plugs. Change the
> > gas filter every 20k miles. Air filter when needed. Ignition wires are
> > change for preventive maintennance or if you have a miss and you done
> > the above. With 1300k miles on it, and if you never have, don't fool
> > with cleaning the injectors. It can open the proverbial "can of
> > worms." (cause more problems/break garf loose from lines and clog up
> > injectors/some automakers say don't clean)
> ____________________
> Actually I would LIKE to change the fuel filter in my 2005 Malibu(see
> related post this n.g.) which is approaching 28,000mi, but the
> brilliant engineers at GM installed it INSIDE the gas tank with no
> specified change interval! The labor to empty & drop the tank,
> install the filter, and re-hang tank would never be made up in fuel
> savings no matter how long I own this car.
>
> My mpg on that car is dropping an average 2mpg per year since buying
> it new in '05.
>
> -CC

Why do you think that changing the fuel filter would result in -any-
fuel savings, increase in fuel economy or solution to your dropping 2
MPG per year dilemma?