Toyowest Automotive

602-274-3600

What's a Tune up?
A tune up on today's high tech vehicles is much different from vehicle's manufactured twenty plus years ago. Vehicles of the past that came with a carburetor rather than today's sophisticated fuel injection systems required frequent tune-ups that consisted of replacing key ignition system components, such as sparkplugs, distributor cap and rotor sparkplug wires and points and condenser if equipped. as well as cleaning the choke linkage and adjusting the carburetor air/fuel mixture which was prone to become dirty with carbon and fuel gum and varnish resulting in poor idle stalling hesitation hard starting and overall poor drivability performance. Another routine requirement for these vehicles was frequent valve adjustment (some as much as every 15,000 miles) as well as air and fuel filter replacement and a complete inspection of all drivability related components.

The development of electronic fuel injection eliminated the carburetor which led to the evolution of what we have today. Today’s high tech systems depend on precise feedback from various sensors as well sophisticated ignition systems

 And the development of long life platinum and iridium sparkplugs.

 

 These types of sparkplugs have dramatically increased replacement interval. These advancements in ignition systems technology were mostly due to the accuracy of fuel injection delivering the correct amount of air fuel mixture to the engine. As these electronic advancements improved mechanical engine technology improved as well leading to more efficient running engines resulting in less internal wear and tear, smoother running high output engines that have good performance with good fuel mileage and lower emissions all with less mechanical maintenance such as valve adjustment requirement.

Today's modern vehicles are very sophisticated with on board computers monitoring all engine parameters and constantly adjusting for optimum performance. Tune-ups today may be even more critical than vehicles of the past mostly due to the fact that because the engine control computer has the ability to constantly adapt and adjust engine parameters you may not even know there’s a problem until it’s too late and the computer can no longer compensate sometimes leading to expensive repairs.

The biggest misconception with today's vehicles is most believe that tune-ups are not required because they never break down, this simply isn't true. Most believe because engines have long life sparkplugs they don't need any form of tune-up. Proper maintenance is the key trouble-free operation and today's vehicle's require a competent experienced technician to inspect and perform routine maintenance to keep your vehicle running the way it was designed.

Things like sensors and actuators must be checked with a scan tool for proper operation as well as fuel system components like fuel delivery, fuel pressure and injector performance. Battery and charging systems play a major role now because proper voltage and current flow are essential to computer operation. Ignition system, emission control devices and engine mechanical operation all play a unique roll on overall engine performance. If your vehicle has more than 30,000 miles we recommend having a competent experienced professional inspect the electronic fuel injection system. Periodic scan tool evaluation can identify potential problem areas early before they become costly. Routine inspection will pay you dividends in miles of trouble free operation.