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Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Your Car From 1999 Or After Doesn’t Need A Tune-Up

Most people who drive learn the essentials of driving, traffic, car maintenance, and road rage skills from their parents. That’s what parents are for: to pass on their wisdom as well as their bad habits. We also pick up bad or outdated information along the way, like the requirement to change our oil every 3,000 miles. Or the belief that cars need frequent tune-ups.

If your car is more than 15 years old or so, yes, you do need to tune it up. That includes adjustments of parts that newer cars don’t even have, like the carburetor, and replacing spark plugs and the condenser as they wear out. Spark plugs in newer cars, meanwhile, last for up to 100,000 miles.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My 2000 Chrysler T&C .. 150,000 miles. No tune ups. BUT oil change 4,000 mi. & Injector cleaner every spring. Runs like new.

Anonymous said...

The 120k service for my car really puts a dent in the wallet, but it's been through 2 of them and is still running well. I do synthetic oil and filter change every 10k miles, just like the manufacturer recommends.

There's plenty of life left in a well built and well maintained used car. In this instance, I bought it 6 years old at 70k miles for less than half its new price. I've definitely made out better than the two suckers who sold her.

Anonymous said...

Good luck removing a spark plug after 100,000 miles

Anonymous said...

Sheesh...I replace my plugs every 50k and ignition coils every 100k...otherwise no gas mileage....I guess the writers of this article want gas going up instead of the down trend we are finally seeing