Good price for car tuneup? (Huntsville: neighborhood, contractor, design)

[FiveDime]

This is not a "tune up." It is scheduled maintenance. Cars don't really need "tune ups" any more, beyond replacing plugs and filters at certain intervals (which is really less-costly, more frequent scheduled maintenance). Once upon a time it might have entailed such activities as carburetor (what? LOL) adjustment, gapping the plugs, filing or replacing points, replacing the condenser, setting spark advance/ignition timing, setting valve clearances, etc. Modern cars have eliminated most or all of these chores.

[RatSnake]

Originally Posted by CoreLysium

Um, Rat, that's not totally accurate.

The water pump is replaced at the same time because, yes, the labor opening everything up is epic and the water pump is inside there. If there was an engine with the water pump on the outside, there would be no need, wait for it to fail.

I'm guessing this 100k number for the pump crept into service manuals so it would get replaced with the timing belt more often.

For my car (4-cylinder, timing belt), the H2O pump was accessible only by removing the timing belt.
This was typical for this brand ...

For my van - a V6 (timing chain), we only replace the pump if and when it fails. It went beyond 100K --- it failed at 140K - then we replaced it.

[RatSnake]

Originally Posted by FiveDime

This is not a "tune up." It is scheduled maintenance. Cars don't really need "tune ups" any more, beyond replacing plugs and filters at certain intervals (which is really less-costly, more frequent scheduled maintenance). Once upon a time it might have entailed such activities as carburetor (what? LOL) adjustment, gapping the plugs, filing or replacing points, replacing the condenser, setting spark advance/ignition timing, setting valve clearances, etc. Modern cars have eliminated most or all of these chores.

Yes - technically, it is not a tune-up.

But they do tend to be mashed together --

- maximize revenues from the car shop
- maximize your time (you took a leave anyway...)

And their intervals can intersect ... at least they do for me as I tend to schedule them together.

[CoreLysium]

Originally Posted by RatSnake

It went beyond 100K --- it failed at 140K - then we replaced it.

Ah, I thought that the 100k was just some arbitrary number (because, really, it's age should be measured in rotations, not really miles). 140k...oof, that's bad luck.

[FiveDime]

My timing belt failed at 102k miles (vs, I believe, a 90k - 100k recommended change interval). I'd say they have it dialed in pretty good.

[TC2coolmom]

Originally Posted by dan25678

My car needs its 100,000 mile tuneup. Firestone wanted about $1000 for everything. Any recommendations? Rough estimate?

what kind of car you own, I had mine at firestone and it only cost me 175.00 for everything, belts, plugs, wires, and I have a Toyota corolla . I had a great experience with both the University and Madison city location.

[dan25678]

Went with Pepboys. Estimate was $850. Plus, there's also a 10% off coupon when you sign up on their website. About $235 cheaper than Firestone. Also they said fuel system cleaning was not necessary unless really dirty.

[dan25678]

I didn't include everything in the original pepboys order. So they beat firestone's price by 5%. With the 10% off coupon, they were $150 cheaper than firestone.

[cooldiver]

Originally Posted by pyro4ik

Do you have access to Redstone Arsenal? The "NASA garage" does good work at good prices from what I've seen.

Sorry to blow the dust off of an old thread - does anybody have a phone number for the "NASA garage?"



TIA!

[RocketDawg]

The Subaru dealer - the only one in town - wants $475 to change spark plugs. That's a bit steep.