This is another in the long line of “Oh God My Car” posts, although I haven’t had one in a while.
Lately, I’ve noticed that the minivan is running a bit rough and has no get up and go. The old girl has about 120,000 miles on her, so I decided it was time for a tune-up. When I bought the van, I asked the dealership how long to go before doing that kind of thing. With all of the “You never need to do maintenance on this Cadismack V2750 Vorquart engine” commercials, I wanted to make sure I didn’t follow my old habit of doing a tune-up every twenty to twenty-five thousand miles if it wasn’t necessary. They assured me that I could go at least 100,000 miles before I had to change the plugs and wires and such.
I must have ‘Sucker’ tattooed on a place that’s only visible to auto dealers.
Here’s what the six plugs looked like after 120,000 miles:
As you can see, I may have waited a wee bit too long in replacing them. I’ve never had plugs get that rounded off.
Replacing them was easier than I thought. Like all Chryslers, the minivan has a “cab-forward” engine compartment, which basically means that the engine compartment is shrunk and rotated 90 degrees. Getting to the back three plugs basically meant I gave the engine a big bear hug and worked by feel. The guy at the auto shop where I bought the replacement plugs and wires actually suggested loosening the motor mounts and tilting the engine forward. Since I’m a little black rain cloud and I didn’t feel like explaining to Irish Woman why the motor to the van was on the ground under the van, I decided to just get up close and personal with the top of my engine and practice seeing with my fingertips. But after figuring out where everything was, I got them in and out pretty quickly. I’m glad I let the car sit for about 12 hours before I did the work, or I’d have been searing oily dirt into my chest in a festive pattern.
While I was at it, I changed the oil. I’d gone about 8,000 miles on this oil change, and since I was dirty and greasy already, why not? I may go back to the old standard of doing an oil change every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. This oil was quite black, and I need to baby this motor as long as I can.
My 86 year old neighbor came over to see what I was up to*, and he commented that it was the first time he’d seen anyone under the hood of their car on our street in a long time. He also marveled at how tightly everything was packed into the engine compartment.
So what did I get for my $75.00 worth of parts and a couple of hours of my time? I got back a lot of power in my engine, lost the hesitation that the car developed in the past month or so, and got back a pretty smooth running engine. I also saved about $200 by doing it myself, so the Scrooge Olafsen in me is satisfied.
So, here’s hoping that with a little elbow grease and a little time, I’m doing enough to keep that bucket of bolts going for another fifty to sixty thousand miles. My best case scenario for this is that I keep it running well enough, long enough, that I give it to Girlie Bear to take to college. I have no illusions that she’ll want a rusty old rattletrap of a 10-year-old mini-van, but it’s better than walking.
*Watching me do stuff seems to be a favorite pastime among the older gentlemen in the neighborhood. Landscaping, carpentry, cleaning nasty old stuff, home improvements, and automotive maintenance all get an audience. If it’s something that takes a while, eventually someone brings a cooler of beer and maybe even a lawn chair to sit and watch me. They’re all old enough that I don’t ask if they want to lend a hand, but since they all built the houses in the neighborhood, I can go to them with my “OK, WTF was the builder doing when he …..” questions. And it’s good to occasionally be offered a chance to sit and listen to them tell stories about their old cars, building the houses, and the projects that their wives have thrown at them over the years.
DaddyBear’s Den 
Bryn, North Wales, UK
/ May 21, 2012100,000 miles on spark plugs? Okaaayy……
Now that I’ve picked my jaw up from floor level, I think that the longest I ever left plugs in a car was 25,000 miles, and they were rather tired at that point. Granted, its been 15 years since my move to diesel, but I have difficulty believing that plug technology has improved that much in that time – if someone other than a salesman knows different, please educate me…..
Just checked the plug service intervals on my Suzuki RF900R – inspect @ 4000, replace @ 7,500 miles.
Oil is another matter. I have found that if you use a good semi- or fully-synthetic oil with a good filter, even my 9,000 rpm red-line bike is good for 6000 miles. The diesel car, which spends most of its life between 1000 and 3000 rpm is happy to do 15,000 miles between changes. Current mileage on the old girl is approaching 170,000…
DIY rules!!!!!!!!!!
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daddybear71
/ May 21, 2012According to this and a few other sites, 99k is when you initially need to replace the plugs and wires. I’m about 20k past that.
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daddybear71
/ May 21, 2012Sorry – here’s the link – http://www.driverside.com/service-schedule/detailview/dodge-grand_caravan-2006-4805-11516-30892&mileage=99000
And yeah, my first few cars I was religious about changing the oil at 3k to 5k, and replacing plugs and wires every 20k or so.
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Bryn, North Wales, UK
/ May 21, 2012Amazing….. the only other factor I can think of other than improved quality plugs is that large, low revving, low compression engines are gentler on the plugs than a typical small & high-revving european engine.
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daddybear71
/ May 21, 2012Possibly. Idle is right around 1000 RPM. It cruises in the city between just shy of 1500 and 2500 RPM and on the highway at about 3000 to 3500 rpm. I don’t think I’ve ever had it above 4000 when accelerating hard. It’s a minivan, not a sports car or a coupe, after all. But oh yes, an irresponsible car is in my future, some day, once all the grandkids my four year old is going to give me no longer need transport.
Sigh, who am I kidding? I’m doomed to dad-mobiles…… 🙂
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Bryn, North Wales, UK
/ May 21, 2012Dad-mobiles… that’s what I thought until my beloved said “Oh go on, get one”… of these.. http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/bikereviews/searchresults/Bike-Reviews/Suzuki/Suzuki-RF900R-1995-99/
15 years old, and it can frighten me badly if don’t treat it with great respect.
Of course, she is strangely evasive regarding why she substantially increased my life insurance cover at the same time…. maybe she thinks 49 is old enough……
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Evyl Robot Michael
/ May 24, 2012I just replaced rings and bearings in my driveway. I threw some plugs in to. ‘Cuz, you know – may as well at that point. I haven’t blogged about that yet though. Maybe I should fix that.
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PhillipC
/ May 25, 2012Don’t forget to see what the replacement interval for the timing and serpentine belts are. Either one of those go and you’re stranded, and with the timing belt getting it to run again can be iffy. And change brake pads early enough that you don’t have to do the rotors, too. Found that one out the hard way.
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Anonymous
/ May 27, 2012Just catching up here; good words Philip. Re: keeping the old ones going… It doesn’t take a lot to siphon out brake fluid and replace it; same with power steering fluid. You’ll be surprised at how fast it gets dirty again but eventually you’ll freshen it up and thats a good thing. I’ve also had some good luck recently with spraying down the airflow sensor (up by the air filter plenum) using the Correct Stuff and cleaning the butterfly and its bypass passage (closer to the intake manifold) Simple stuff and cheap but it pays off…
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Jennifer
/ May 27, 2012The old men may not have the strength to lend anymore, but they often have a lot of knowledge and memories. Even if they are making half of it up, it’ll pass an afternoon.
BTW-Our driveway has seen all kinds of fluids from all sorts of automotive work. Funniest car interaction had to be when I was replacing the transmission out of our old convertible in the church garage (they had a lift) and the associate pastor wondered in to find my feet sticking out from under the back end of the car. He leaned in and inquired as to my status. I explained that since I wasn’t strong enough to lift the 90lb transmission up to the car, it was easier to place it on my chest and lower the car to it.
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