Engine Tune Up Video
http://youtu.be/slYwuR8Iu6o
Hello. Dallas Council again from AAMCO Transmissions of Venice, FL and today, we’re going to talk about what it takes to do a good and complete tune up on your car. This may vary depending on the age of your vehicle and the type of ignition system that you have but today I’m going to cover what is involved in a good tune-up on electronically-controlled vehicles the OBD-II system which is from 1994 to 1995 up until the present day.
So the very first thing that we’re going to talk about is your vehicle spark plugs. Every vehicle no matter the age, no matter the ignition system, is equipped with a spark plug. We are still using them today. At some point in time, we may stop using them as technology continues to advance but this is applicable on every vehicle and unfortunately, a lot of people think that a tune-up just consists of replacing the spark plugs. What I want to tell you today is there’s a lot more involved in order to do a good and complete tune up.
So, next up is the ignition wires or cables. These are important to replace as far as the tune up because this is what the electricity actually flows to, to create the spark for the spark plug to then combust in your engine. So these receive and fire as much as a spark plug, if not more, so always important to replace them as part of a good and complete tune up.
The third component is what they call the ignition coil. This is an electronic piece that creates a spark that travels through the wires or cables that I just showed you, also ending at the spark plug to make spark to combust in your engine for it to run.
There are actually two different types of systems. This is called a remote coil system. So in other words, this coil runs all six. In this case, it’s a six-cylinder. All six spark plugs and the cables travel to the spark plugs.
The second kind of system and it’s a system that we are now seeing more and more on late model vehicles is an individual coil for each plug. These are a lot more costly to replace. Not always is it necessary to replace them as part of every tune up. These actually sit on top of the spark plug. No matter how many spark plugs you have It’s called a coil over plug system so this sits on top of the spark plug. This is what generates the spark and it does it individually for each cylinder. We do see these failing. We only recommend to replace these and the remote coils at the time that there is a failure in this area.
So that is not necessary to do as part of a routine in basic tune up. What is necessary is always the cables I just showed you, obviously the spark plugs. We’re normally recommending that at that same interval and time, you replace your fuel filter, air filter, if you have not done it recently; and we also recommend that you do an induction system service, which essentially gets rid of all that additional carbon that’s built up in the engine which is what causes your spark plugs to miss and fail to begin with.
So you always want to make sure that you are at the very least putting an additive in the fuel tank. Definitely recommend doing a good and proper induction service to make sure that you’re not having issues with the spark plugs at a short amount of time than when you should be.
So again the misconception is that a good tune up costs 40, 50 bucks and only consists of replacing the spark plugs. In reality, it’s a bit more expensive because there are more components involved. So always better to do it right the first time than having to repeat and do it a second time.
So again, Dallas Council, AAMCO Transmissions of Venice. Thank you for tuning in. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the field below. If you have a video you would like to see us do, also leave that at the comments section. We want to answer any question that you have and make videos that help you out. So thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.
