Vehicle manufacturers recommend that every car owner should conduct regular maintenance of their car when they cover every 30,000 miles. If you do not cover this distance, then you should have regular maintenance every two years. You do not have to wait for two years to do the tuning up of your car, there is always an opportunity for instance, just before you take a long road trip using the car to do some tuning up.
Tuning up a car is an easy do-it-yourself project because you can break the process into small tasks, with each focusing on car parts that function independently. Before going ahead with the exercise, here is a breakdown of the parts of your car that you can replace independently, and once you have worked on the following items then you would have completed the regular maintenance.
1: Replace fuel filter
The fuel filter cleans your fuel, by preventing dust, particles, and other impurities from getting through the fuel line to the engine; therefore, you need to be comfortable and safe around the gas facility that you will be working on. Keep away anything that can ignite. Once you take care of safety, there should be no reason to worry about it. The filter is a piece of removable equipment with the shape of a fountain and getting it off, and putting its replacement intact will take a few minutes.
2: Air filter
Just like the fuel filter, the air filter also performs a purification purpose on the air getting into the car engine, as the name suggests. When the car is in motion, the filter pulls air into the engine. This air is used for the combustion of fuel, which results in the expansion and movement of pistons and eventual movement of the car. Clean air leads to complete combustion; hence, it boosts your car’s fuel efficiency and gives you a better engine performance. Replacement of the air filter is very simple; it requires you to unscrew a lid that is usually made of plastic get out the filter and put a clean one, then screw back the plastic lid.
3: Spark plugs
The engine does not have a matchbox and match stick to cause the fuel to burn and instead relies on spark plugs that create tiny sparks, which cause a fire in the engine. The plugs wear out and eventually fail. When this happens, there will be no way to start the car. Other problems will include failure to idle roughly or pass emissions.
4: Distributor cap
The spark plug relies on electric energy from the battery to create sparks and ignite the fuel. The distributor cap works by distributing the voltage from a coil to the correct cylinder where the ignition should take place. If the distributor is faulty, there will be improper ignition or complete failure. Therefore, when you are changing spark plugs, it is also important to change the distributor cap.
5: Oil
Oil changing is important for every 3000-7000 miles that the car covers. There is never a harm to include an oil change when you are performing a car tune-up. This helps to keep its replacement schedule in tandem with other replacement, or just to avoid the hassle during your trip, if the right replacement period will come due when you are away from home.
Clean oil is good for lubrication and cooling assists in proper engine function. Think of doing an oil change at a service station or repair shop where there are proper disposal channels for the used oil.
6: Engine tune-up
When you get accustomed to doing repairs on the replaceable parts, then you might consider graduating into the engine core, but still, concentrate on the light works. There are various resources online for diagnosing car trouble. So as you get comfortable under the hood, try checking them out often. As you get to know more about your car, you will also know its trouble points and this should inform you of what to check first. If you have a regular schedule of tuning up and are a good driver, there would be few instances of engine failure and repair, unless a part gets old.
Manufacturers keep changing the design of their engines and the location of the replaceable parts, such as the battery. Before following generic advice, check with your specific car model to see if the instructions are applicable. In most cases, only a slight modification of the procedure is necessary. The distributor cap may also be missing in modern cars. As parts change, there might be newer and easy-to-replace parts coming into the picture.