What Exactly is a Tune-Up?

Unfortunately, on modern vehicles, a "tune-up" is almost anything you want it to be. Years ago, a "tune-up" was a fairly well defined procedure. Back in the days when cars had carburetors and distributors with points and condensers, a tune-up involved replacing the points, condenser, spark plugs, air filter, and possibly the distributor cap, rotor and ignition wires. The carburetor had mixture and idle speed adjustments that needed to be set, and the point dwell and ignition timing had to be adjusted. On many vehicles today, there are no carburetors, distributors, distributor caps, rotors or ignition wires, let alone points or condensers. So, if you go to a shop and ask for a tune-up, what are you going to get?

Oftentimes, a motorist will take their vehicle to a shop and request a "tune-up" because the car is exhibiting some kind of symptom. This is a big red flag for a knowledgeable service advisor. If you ask for a "tune-up," a service advisor who knows his job is going to ask you why you think you need a "tune-up." (See "What To Tell The Shop About Your Car's Problem.) The reason is that if a "modern day tune-up" is defined as spark plugs and filters, chances are a "tune-up" is not going to fix a problem.