I have had my pre-owned car for about a year now and people keep telling me I need to have it serviced or tuned up. What exactly does this entail, and how often should it be done?
Generally it means changing the spark plugs, adjusting the timing, and adjusting the fuel mixture. How often it should be done depends on your model of car. The owner’s manual should give a recommendation. Some cars need a tune up fairly regularly, where others are designed to hardly ever need one.
If you don’t get it done often enough the car will not run as efficiently, and may run a little rough. Every year is probably a bit too often for most cars these days, I would think.
On the other hand, if you are one of those people that treats their car as a big mystery machine (i.e. you never check the fluids yourself, etc) then a yearly health check is definately a good idea.
Don’t forget changing the oil and oil filter.
And random parts of the engine are smacked on the side with a hammer, just for good measure.
Around here, “tune up” doesn’t include things like an oil change. “Serviced” on the other hand generally means tune up, oil change, check and top off all fluids, and a general overall inspection (examine brakes and rotors, look for exhaust rust, check to make sure all the lights work, etc).
I would hope that you get your oil changed more frequently than once per year.
“Service” and “tune up” have the same meanings here that you refer to. Maybe I just read the OP carefully.
My last post came across too snarky. Left the smiley off the end 
caffeine_overdose, what car is this? make, model & year…thanks. That makes my job easier.
Don’t forget belts, and preventative maintanance. Having a serpantine belt snap on the highway can wreck lots of stuff under the hood and cost hundreds. Much better to have a mechanic notice that it’s worn and replacing it for $50 first.
(I speak from experience).
It is a '91 geostorm hatchback handy.
I guess my real question is can I do this myself or do I need to pay a mechanic to do it for me?
Not to be snide, but if you don’t know what a tune-up is, you probably don’t want to do it yourself.
While most tune-up actions are not really complicated, there are some aspects you want to have a little experience for. Things like looking at a belt and deciding whether or not it needs to be replaced. On a vehicle as old as yours, the tune-up may also require replacement of the distributor cap and spark plug wires. Again, not difficult but if done wrong it can cause trouble.
If you have a friend who’s good with cars, see if you can get them to take a look at it and do the parts they can. Watch over their shoulder and ask lots of questions. Better yet, have them talk you through doing the actual work yourself.
I’m going to have to disagree with aramis, but this is kind of an IMHO.
If you buy a chilton’s manual (or haynes) it will tell you step by step how to do the basic maintenance on the car yourself. I think that even a relatively mechanical newbie can do a tune-up and preventative maintenance on most cars. Just make sure you have some kind of back up just in case you do screw something up, like a good buddy who knows a lot about cars or if all else fails call the local garage to have it towed and fixed. It’s pretty hard to make the car unable to run unless you do something like put all the spark plug wires back in the wrong order or disconnect the power to the fuel pump and not realize it.
My opinion - go for it.
Have it done by people who know what they are doing. Besides merely changing the spark plugs, the timing has to be adjusted and there are numerous other small things. I get my car tuned up only once a year. It’s a Honda 94, and that’s all that is recommended. However, I change the oil and filter every 3,000 miles. IMHO that’s the most important item to be done for your car.
“the timing has to be adjusted”
They should do that when you get a smog inspection. They do here in California.
Oil change topics are aplenty, but most seem to agree that doing it every 3000 miles isn’t necessary.
I just did a Geo Metro, most Geo parts are pretty expensive & for some odd reason, they put in a lot of other parts on the brakes that I thought were not necessary. Thats why you do one side of the car first, then the other, so you can see where everything goes.
Well, most people don’t live in Cal. and get smog inspections. I agree that 3000 is not absolutely necessary, but it’s cheap insurance. Some will argue that it is in heavy duty driving, and others say No. Definitely I’d change it before the 7,000 in the manual unless you do nothing but highway driving.
Why oh why would you think that?
Sorry, but a Chilton’s does not a mechanic make. Not even just for tune ups. Maybe in the old days when everything was easy to get to and black boxes were non-existent.
On a Geo Storm for example, if you strip the sparkplug threads (which is easy to do if the head’s aluminum & the plugs are hard to get to), guess what? Your 91 Geo is now junk! It will cost more to have fixed than the whole car’s worth.
Contrary to popular belief Chilton’s & Haynes are NOT really written for do-it-yourself-ers. They are written for semi-pro & back-yard mechanics who can’t afford the thousand or two that Mitchell manuals cost…
Don’t know much about the Geo, but it seems like most cars are now computer controlled. No distributer, timing is set by the computer - not much to do but change plugs and/or plug wires. Make sure all the sensors are set right and functioning properly - need a scan tool for this - not the type that just makes the service engine light flash codes.
Chilton’s/Haynes may not make ya a mechanic but for something as simple as a tune up - go for it - IMO. But if ya can not tell what a crossthreaded plug feels like - well then maybe you should not go for it.
I concur with Blown & Injected. On something like my '66 Dodge Dart, a tune up does entail adjusting the fuel mixture, timing, breaker points (well, my Dart doesn’t have those now!) and a lot of other mechanical systems that need adjustment from time to time.
On something like a Geo Storm, the timing might be adjustable, but the fuel mixture data is sealed inside a chip and isn’t something you can change by turning a screwdriver. Even the timing doesn’t move much with today’s electronic ignition systems. Realistically, the only one of the actual tune-up tasks (as opposed to basic maintenance items like belts) that remains is to replace the spark plugs, distributor cap, and rotor. This assumes your car has a distributor - some of the newer ignition systems don’t use these, either.
You’re right. Changing the spark plugs on most cars is a no-brainer. If you can change a light bulb, you can change a spark plug. The timing or vavle settings in newer cars rarely need periodic adjustment, and the fuel mixture often cannot be adjusted.
Dealers will try to sell you a $300 60K service package, but you can do most of the work yourself, and what you cannot shouldn’t cost you more than $80 elsewhere. Moreover, some of the important work that needs to be done at this interval (timing belt, transmission fluid change) isn’t even included in standard packages.
P.S. I don’t believe that stuff as to how cross-threading a spark plug will ruin a Geo storm. Any good mechanic can fix the problem in short order.
>>P.S. I don’t believe that stuff as to how cross-threading a spark plug will ruin a Geo storm. Any good mechanic can fix the problem in short order.<<
Yep, Heli-Coil will do it
Lots of GM cars starting in the mid 80’s are distributor-less computer controlled, fuel, even idle RPM’s is set by the computer