This spring break I decided to bite the bullet and go on and give my car a complete tune-up. I have had enough of the 12 mpg in the city. Right now it has 81K miles on the origional spark plugs. I also have an exhaust leak to find somewhere. Its pretty bad when the motor is cool but after it has run for a bit, it dissappears. I am assuming that it is because the metal has expanded due to the heat and sealed the leak, wherever it is.

So with an entire tune up, I should replace:
1. Spark Plugs
2. Spark Plug Wires
3. Oxygen Sensors
4. Fuel Filter
5. Flush and Change Radiator
6. Clean Fuel Injectors (probably at the dealership or some other qualified person)


Before I change the plugs and sensors, I might consider running some sea-foam through my motor just to clean everything out of the carbon that I am sure has built up. Does this seem like everything I should do? I really hope that I can improve on my gas mileage considering I also do a lot of highway driving to and from college.

 

Good stuff. Get a new pcv from the dealer while you're there, they're cheap (don't go to Autozone for those).

 

Id replace the opti too while your at it.

 

I wouldn't touch the opti unless it starts giving you trouble. Definately check out the water pump and make sure it's not leaking though. Only other things that I can think of would be to put a new belt on the car and replace the air filter.

 

Ok, well I recently replaced the belt and the opti and waterpump seem to be good. I have a K&N air filter so it doesn't need cleaning, considering I got it about 2k miles ago.

 

Ok, just wash and reoil the filter then. I usually clean mine every 6k miles or so, but then again, mine is on the bottom of the car.