Doing your own tune-ups and general maintenance on your car can not only save money, but be more beneficial than having someone do it for you. There are many things involved in tuning up your car to keep it in peak condition and running well.The first thing you will have to do is purchase the materials and supplies needed for the tune up. These include: a case of motor oil, spark plugs, an oil filter wrench, radiator fluid, brake fluid, and finally steering pump fluid. Most of these supplies can be purchased at a local hardware store or an auto parts store such as Pep Boys. To purchase these things you must first find out what kind of car, year, and engine size you have, then be sure to t ...view middle of the document...
Use the oil filter wrench you purchased and loosen it. Using a rag unscrew the filter the rest of the way by hand and allow the filter to fall into the drain pan below. After the rest of the oil has drained take the new filter and smear a small amount of fresh oil around the gasket. Place the filter back into place and tighten it only using your hand. If at this point you use the wrench removing the filter next time may be extremely hard or even impossible. Now you can fill your crankcase, be sure to check the dipstick after every quart making sure you do not add oil past the line that says full. Adding to much oil to your car can be just as dangerous as not having enough.The next important step in tuning up your car is installing new sparkplugs. To do this you first need to disconnect the negative battery cable, if you don?t an unpleasant shock may result. Next twist the sparkplug wire to loosen it, and pull up and remove the boot from the plug. Now using your spark plug socket, remove the spark plug from the bore, and replace it with the new one. Again you need to make sure that you only tighten the spark plug by hand and do not use the socket, using the socket to tighten can make spark plugs snap during removal the next time. Slide the wire back onto ...
