I Hate When That Happens

Frequently our phone rings and a motorist says, “my car is running lousy, how much is a tune-up?” Years ago, that was a quickly answerable question. We did numerous tune-ups. They would consist of spark plugs, spark plug wires, ignition points and condenser, a distributor cap and rotor, and a fuel filter. We would adjust the ignition timing and the carburetor. Back in the 1970’s and early 1980’s that was common. We used to perform this service every 12-15,000 miles. Then came along electronic Ignition. This eliminated the ignition points and condenser and replaced them with solid state components that would not wear, thus ensuring consistent ignition timing. This, along with other component improvements, increased the time between tune-ups to about 30,000 miles. And even then, they usually only required replacement of the spark plugs and fuel filter. Then carburetors were eliminated in the mid 80’s in favor of fuel injection. Of course, this ushered in a computer controlled vehicle with numerous sensors and actuators that control the operation of the engine. Still, theses vehicle required spark plug replacement at about 30,000 miles. Ignition wires usually lasted about 60,000 miles.

These days, things are drastically different. Gas engines still do have spark plugs, but they usually are of a double platinum or iridium design. These plugs usually last about 100,000 miles. There still are cases in which newer vehicles require spark plugs replacement at 30,000 miles. So now when someone calls and asked this question about how much does a tune-up cost, the answer can be shocking. The new design spark plugs can cost 8-15 dollars each. A fuel filter for a high pressure fuel injection system can run from 15-80 dollars, just for the filter! And if you have looked under the hood of a late model vehicle, you can understand that replacing these items on certain vehicles can be a very complex job. So when you consider these factors, replacing spark plugs and a fuel filter can run into the hundreds of dollars depending on how many cylinders your engine has and what is required to replace them. And if you would require spark plug wires or in some cases spark plug boot kits it even adds up to more. You talk about sticker shock.

The good news is, we used to do this every 30k or so. Now we have tripled the mileage that these components last. So in the long run it now probably costs less overall compared to having this service done 3 or more times in the first 100,000 miles. One other consideration, I still recommend replacing the external fuel filter every 30K, this protects the fuel injectors and the fuel pump. Experience has also taught us that spark plugs should be changed between 80-90K miles. We have seen problems with the spark plug getting corroded into the cylinder head and the plug breaking off inside the head. This can be a huge problem with added expense. We had a vehicle in recently with over 110K miles on it that one of the spark plugs actually blew out of the engine. It stripped out the threads in the head and broke the ignition coil. Now that was an expensive repair. If the spark plugs had been changed around 80k miles, this scenario could have been totally avoided. It was also a big hassle for the motorist because of this unplanned repair and the added expense.

Of course it is important to remember that a tune-up is not the cure all for all drivability problems. It is always more important to get to the root cause of an issue and address that. You would not want to have a tune up done that costs hundreds of dollars and then find out that your vehicle still runs lousy. I Hate When That Happens!