Spring and Houston Auto Repair

The word “tune-up” still gets used every day, but the job it describes has changed a lot since the carburetor days. Decades ago, a tune-up meant replacing a big list of parts that physically wore out on a schedule. Today, engines are controlled by computers, and many of those old parts do not even exist anymore, yet the need for regular attention has not gone away. What a Classic Tune-up Used to Include If you go back a few decades, a tune-up was mostly about the ignition and fuel delivery systems. Engines relied on mechanical distributors, carburetors, and a handful of parts that slowly drifted out of adjustment or just wore out with mileage. A car that was hard to start or ran rough every couple of years simply needed its “tune-up.” A typical old-school tune-up often included new spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor, setting ignition timing, adjusting the carburetor mixture and idle speed, and checking or replacing the air and ... read more