Question about getting a tune up..

[yuppicide]

Girlfriend has 2008 Pontiac Vibe. 73,000 miles on it roughly.Took it in for an oil change recently at a quickie lube place.. and they changed the air filter and cabin filter.He told me the power steering fluid needed flushing? I declined. Is that true?Power Steering fluid wouldn't have anything to do with a car running a little differently than normally does at idle, right?Now while I was there he said some gasket was only hand tightened, probably whoever did my last oil change. He said if that came off my engine could have blown up.So anyway, my girlfriend says since oil change the following:The pedal vibrates a little and sometimes makes a different noise when idling or going to park than the car normally would.I'm heading to Niagara Falls this weekend.. it's a 7 hour drive. I am off all day on Friday and we're due to leave at 4pm.Do you think a tune up is something I should look into?What might I expect to pay for a tune up and what kind of parts?

[jake75]

It has been a long while since I have had a car with over 40,000 miles, but my guess is that on today's cars a so called tune up is just an attack on your wallet. New spark plugs might be appropriate if the originals are still in there. The hand tightened gasket probably referred to the oil filter. It didn't come off so you are o.k. I don't have any knowledge of the need for a power steering fluid flush. Question - when did the Vibes change over to electric power steering?

[tribalman]

Quote, originally posted by yuppicide »Girlfriend has 2008 Pontiac Vibe. 73,000 miles on it roughly.my 04 is about the same milage.Quote »He told me the power steering fluid needed flushing? I declined. Is that true?haven't had to change mine yet. still looks good. then again, as jake is questioning i thought 05 and up were all drive by wire.Quote »Power Steering fluid wouldn't have anything to do with a car running a little differently than normally does at idle, right?shouldn't. while reading this it is technically possible http://auto.howstuffworks.com/steering4.htm cause the pump is dependent on the engine.Quote »Now while I was there he said some gasket was only hand tightened, probably whoever did my last oil change. He said if that came off my engine could have blown up.also going off what jake said, if the mechanic was calling the filter the gasket, it should only be hand tightened. well, a little past, but not heavily torqued on at all. i just changed my oil yesterday, tightened on the filter by hand. always have.Quote »So anyway, my girlfriend says since oil change the following:The pedal vibrates a little and sometimes makes a different noise when idling or going to park than the car normally would.since you said the air filter was changed: how dirty was the old one that was replaced? cause if it was really bad and now it's good, the engine/computer might be relearning based on the new higher airflow. when i put in my CAI i remember my car sounding really different. once it learned the higher airflow sometimes at idle i notice it drop lower than what it used to which for me causes some rattle. really weird. only at 700RPM though, guess that is the car's resonance. if i put the car into Neutral, rpms go up, rattle goes away for me.Quote »I'm heading to Niagara Falls this weekend.. it's a 7 hour drive. I am off all day on Friday and we're due to leave at 4pm.Do you think a tune up is something I should look into?What might I expect to pay for a tune up and what kind of parts?um... only thing i would possibly do also would be a radiator drain and fill depending on when it was last done. also, when were the brakes last checked/changed?

[yuppicide]

I don't remember the last time we had brakes done. I do remember shelling out like $400 once. I did them at Midas I believe, so they'll have a record.The air filter was pretty dirty, but not so dirty I couldn't recognize what it was. I think the cabin filter was dirtier.I think I'm going to open her up today and verify he did put a new oil filter on.. same with cabin filter. Just to make sure.. because it was like $103 or $105 with tax or some crap like that for both of those and an oil change. The guy told me it looked like the original cabin filter that came with the car, but I said no it was changed once before.

[joatmon]

I'd look in hte owners manual service schedule to see if they mention power steering fluid flush. You can download a PDF of the owners manual for any Vibe from http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=1010 I have over three thiems that mileage on my 03, and haven't flushed the pwer steering fluid yet. Some folks say it can accumlate moisture. At 78K miles, the things that are worth considering are new spark plugs, changing the coolant, changing the tranny fluid. Nothing you mentioned sounds so imminent that will cause it to explode on the way to Niagra Falls.Niagra falls .... Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch ...The vibration she says is new, is that something related to the car moving or braking (and then potentially a brake/wheel problem) or is it there even when parked (and then more likely a rough engine kind of issue) ?Remote, but theoretically possible that the computer just needs more time to adjust to being able to breathe again, it may have compensated for a nasty engine air filter, and is now getting more air than it is used to.

[yuppicide]

Thanks again, guys.I had the trans fluid flushed and changed.Will look into spark plugs next.Will have free inspection on brakes where I got them done.

[yuppicide]

Are spark plugs easy to get at on a Vibe if I want to try changing them myself? I read online about doing it and maybe I can save a bunch of money. Going to go see what a shop would charge me to do it and weigh it vs doing myself.

[yuppicide]

$100 - $200 bucks with labor he says. He'll might also have an idea of why it idles the way it does, but I forgot what he said, so he'll take a look. I like the guy, because he doesn't seem all business just to get me in. We were talking about the beach and stuff one day and just calling on the phone he actually remembers who I am by the car.

[djkeev]

I'm sure they replaced your filters.As mentioned, with greater airflow it could be relearning.Check that all sensor wires were plugged back in on the air intake system. Sometimes they get unplugged during maintenance. The car will revert to "limp mode" and run on basic preset settings but not run properly.You are early for spark plugs if you have the iridium plugs in the car, they'll do 100,000 miles.Dave

[yuppicide]

I at least wanted to check for myself.. just to make sure I got a new one. I did. Next time I'll just do the cabin filter myself and save $19. That sucker couldn't be easier to get at!Actually same can be said for both filters.