How to Avoid Falling for Unnecessary Tuneup Specials

Sure, you can find a great price on a tuneup special. But does your vehicle really need the services the shop is selling?

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Car Manuals
• Car Mechanics
• Car Repair Estimates
• Car Repair Shops

1. Find out what components are inside your vehicle to tune up. Computer-controlled ignitions have made adjustments to timing and idle speed obsolete, for example, and late-model cars have no points or condensers.

2. Read the eHow entitled "Tune Up a Car" and your owner's manual to get an idea of what your car needs and when it needs it.

3. Check the regular maintenance schedule in your owner's manual to see what's supposed to need attention when.

4. Assess the general condition of your vehicle to spot problems.

5. Ask what jobs the shop's special covers.

6. Decide whether you're better off with the shop's flat-fee tuneup or another type of service - say, an annual safety check, or maybe an engine diagnostic check or emissions-control test (called a smog check in some states).

7. Make your deal for the correct kind of service based on what you've determined above.

Tips & Warnings

• Your vehicle is unlikely to need its fuel injectors cleaned at every tuneup, experts say, although some shops suggest it more often then needed because it can be a quick, profitable job for them.
• Never go into a shop and ask them to "do whatever it needs" unless you want to be taken for a ride.

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[pressa]

on 2/2/2009 02/02/2009 My wife took our car into a quick lube and they sold her a new air filter that replaced a two day old air filter that I put in. Beware of up-selling and scams. I am not ASE certified but I know what a brand new air filter looks like.

on 11/22/2005 Most newer vehicles (1994 and up) don't need tuneups until 80,000 miles, and the fuel injection system needs to be cleaned at this time.

-ASE certified mechanic