100,000 Miles Tune-Up

[edserrano]

I have a 2000 Astro that just reached the 1000,000 mile mark. My question is;
Does anybody know or can reccomend an honest dealer, garage or mechanic in Central New Jersey?
I want to have a complete tune up done but don't want to have my money stolen and doing it myself would be out of the question.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Eddie S.

[safarirod]

When my 93 Safari reached 100,000 miles, I bought it when it had 60,000 miles. It was one of the best running vehicles I have ever purchased used, that was flawless. Anyway I was looking at the owners manual and they mentioned this 100,000 mile service. I took it down to the local GMC dealer, drove it in and told the service writer that it was due, when he got a big smile on his face and couldn't control the drool coming from his mouth, this should have told me something. After giving me a ride back to work, and the driver kept saying "oh thank you SIR" I went through my day. They called the next day around noon, and sent a car to pick me up. I went to the cashiers window and the bill was "675.00" After the EMT's gave me oxygen to bring me back to reality. I asked "what the hell did you do, to warrant this kind of money" the answer I got, with an absolute serious look on his face was: we tuned it, did a wheel alignment, and rotated your tires and checked all fluid levels. I asked him what the tune-up involved. His answer, we replaced you cap and rotor, your plugs were still perfect so we regapped them, they looked like brand new, you had one plug wire that was bad, so we replaced all of them. ( the van didn't have a miss) so this blew me away. Nothing I could do but pay the bill, and never go back there again. After this long story, what I am saying is: if it isn't giving you problems, keep driving it. The Safarirod now has 250,000+ miles on it after this so called 100,000 mile rip. All I'm stressing is "be carefull"

[edserrano]

Hence my caution trying to find an honest person or establishment. The van, even though it still runs fairly well, has a slight miss and gas economy has come down. I'm sure it will benefit from a well done tune up (spark plugs, cables, etc).

[dcarlson12]

All I did was replace the plugs. The van was still running fine. I don't even know if it is necessary/recommended to replace the rotor and cap. Hope someone else can chime in here with their advise/knowledge. Because these vehicles have a computer monitoring 'everything', if you get a lot of 'misfires' I believe that would set an error code and it would turn on the 'check engine' light. Because of fuel injection, etc. these vehicles actually 'tune themselves on the go' as far as I know. I would change the fuel filter routinely, some advise every 50000 km if I am not mistaken.
The one thing they don't tell you to do is put in some injector cleaner. I put a bottle of STP injector cleaner every 10000 km. This cured a probably I had with getting a check engine light due to 'running rich'. From my research, I determined that these engines have a 'spider' which has tubes running from the fuel injector bank down to the inlet manifold. At the bottom of each of the spiders legs there is a small ball which is seated with a spring to keep the spiders leg full of fuel. My experience and advise from others is that the ball/spring assembly gets 'sticky' from gum deposits from the fuel and this causes fuel to leak past the ball even if the injector is not firing or is only firing for a short period. After I used the STP fuel injector cleaner, it cleaned the gum deposits and allowed the ball to properly seat again and my 'rich' condtion disappeared because the fuel did not then leak from the spiders leg. Never had any 'rich' condition 'check engine' light after doing this.

[mrosspa]

I've become a real believer in independent mechanics as long as they are reliable. I was hoping someone in your area had a suggestion if you weren't going to do it yourself. You may want to do some things yourself and leave others to the mechanic.

While this seems like an odd suggestion, it worked for me when trying to find an independent toyota mechanic.

There are two brothers out of Boston on NPR that have a car show. Funny guys that refer to themselves as "click and clack the tappet brothers." As much as I enjoy there show, and they do know what they are talking about, they are too far too go to. What they do have on their website is the "mechanic files. "

People are encouraged to post good experiences with mechanics in their area that they would recommend to others. While I may have had dumb luck, it worked twice for me.

There website is:

http://www.cartalk.com

From the home page, click on the tab "actual car information' from there you'll find "mechanic files"

I'd much rather have someone in your area recommend someone, and I realize this sounds ridiculous, but it worked for me.

Michael

[smokamoto]

I went to the cashiers window and the bill was "675.00"

Didn't they give you an estimate when you dropped off the van?
In my experience, $675.00 can be reached fairly soon at the stealership level. Did they service the transmission and change the rear end oil? Grease all fittings, lube all linkages/pivots? Flush the cooling system? I would hope these would be done at 100,000 miles-maybe I'm just wishing...

[thyubernoob]

My buddy and I used to own a auto repair shop here in Michigan, and it is state law to call and get the approval of the customer before any work is done, you can not just do the work and give them the bill...hope this helps someone
p.s. stay away from dealers unless its warranty work... just my opinion