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Hello all,
i recently bought a 2012 TL 3.5L V6 67k milesand i was wondering if there was any sort of recommended service checklist? for instance, new brake pads every 50k miles, timing belt at 100k miles, etc.
i took my car to the dealership due a seemingly minor transmission issue and they had a whole list of items i "needed" to repair. brake pads, spark plugs, fuel injection service, alignment, and a few other things.
was hoping to find a list to see when these things typically need to be done. also, (i know this is a broad question) should i find a trusted mechanic to do these things? or just go with the acura dealership (vandergriff acura in arlington tx).
Some of those things may be needed like pads and alignment but they are likely upselling you. Your car has a maintenance minder and unless it is telling you its time to replace or are having a specific problem then its not necessary. You can find it in your cars manual on page 540. Here is a link to the manual. Page 540 will tell you what to do. Other than that what you get done is optional and not what I would describe as needed. Stuff like fluids I wouldn't hesitate to do if its been a while but spark plugs I wouldn't worry about at 67k and same thing for fuel injector service. Stuff like alignment and brake pads can be verified by driving the car and visual inspection. Trusted mechanic is very ideal especially compared to a random place dealership or not that you don't have a relationship with.
Yeah, it sounds like they're probably trying to sell you services that you don't need.
The spark plugs shouldn't need replacing until 105K, which is the recommended interval by Acura. The service manual is very clear on that. Shame on them for recommending it earlier. I change mine a bit more frequently, closer to 60K or so. But it's not required.
Like dopeboy said, the alignment may or may not need to be done but it can usually be diagnosed by driving on a non-slanted road and making sure the car drives relatively straight. Some roads are slanted to the passenger side of the vehicle to assist in draining water or allowing the car to drift to the outside of the road to avoid head on collisions by accidentally drifting into oncoming traffic. You'll want to test the alignment by driving on a "flat" road that doesn't slant. If it doesn't pull one way or the other, and you don't see abnormal wear on the tires, chances are it doesn't need an alignment. Also, an alignment is unlikely to be needed at that mileage unless the previous owner hit a curb really hard or a really nasty pothole.
Fuel injection "service" is usually a complete crock. Most cars never need any sort of fuel injection service. At most, use a top tier fuel like Shell, Chevron or Exxon Mobil and occasionally put some B-12 Chemtool in the tank to maintain the system. Otherwise, any fuel injection service a shop tries to sell you is worthless.
Unless you're mechanically inclined, it may be difficult to diagnose brake pads. They're supposed to have a little piece of metal that causes squeaking when the pad material gets low. However, not all brake pads have it, and even if they do, it sometimes doesn't result in any squeaking. As such, it's sometimes not apparent that the pad is shot until you hear a "grating" noise from the pad backing (metal) scraping the rotor, at which point you have to resurface your rotors or get new ones. From what I understand, the maintenance manual simply states to "inspect" brakes, since driving style will dictate wear, not time. If you drive highway all the time for example, they might last 150K miles. If it's all city, they might need replacing at 40K miles. If you are somewhat mechanically inclined, you can remove the wheel and inspect the amount of pad material remaining by looking in the top of the brake caliper:
I just dont trust B-12 Chemtool that much to put it my gas tank. You have the most polar solvent when it gets on plastics rubbers it starts to eat it away. It is like 30 pct acetone. I wouldnt take diluted nail polish remover and toulene in my gas tank. However that is just me.
Top tier defnition on gas actually lower the amount of detergents and cleaners in gas. If company was putting 4x times amount in their premium fuels and then the top tier says you only need 1/4 of it to be defined as top tier, what happened they removed the extra. Actually it was the case with most companies.
@dopeboy thanks for posting the manual - learned a lot by reading that. and thanks to all for the great, detailed responses. very helpful. unfortunately i am not mechanically inclined and feel like a 16 y/o girl taking my car to the shop.
result of the transmission diagnostic: they recommended "transmission service" which sounded like draining the fluid, flushing it and refilling it with fluid. 200 bucks out the door. no mention of the torque converter. i feel 'ok' about that solution because a. it drives a lot better and b. i've read on this forum this has been the typical response from dealers as a good step 1, so to speak. no mention of installing an upgrade to the transmission and i neglected to ask. :/
anywho, i plan on getting a 2nd opinion on the brakes and foregoing "fuel injection service" and waiting for spark plugs until 105 along with the timing belt/water pump (that is if i own the car that long).
Some of those things may be needed like pads and alignment but they are likely upselling you. Your car has a maintenance minder and unless it is telling you its time to replace or are having a specific problem then its not necessary. You can find it in your cars manual on page 540. Here is a link to the manual. Page 540 will tell you what to do. Other than that what you get done is optional and not what I would describe as needed. Stuff like fluids I wouldn't hesitate to do if its been a while but spark plugs I wouldn't worry about at 67k and same thing for fuel injector service. Stuff like alignment and brake pads can be verified by driving the car and visual inspection. Trusted mechanic is very ideal especially compared to a random place dealership or not that you don't have a relationship with.
if possible get the quote for the work and post it here
Having the PDF version of the manual is very handy. I downloaded it on my iPad and open via the Acrobat Reader app. That way, I always have it handy and can search within it as well.
I just dont trust B-12 Chemtool that much to put it my gas tank. You have the most polar solvent when it gets on plastics rubbers it starts to eat it away. It is like 30 pct acetone. I wouldnt take diluted nail polish remover and toulene in my gas tank. However that is just me.
Top tier defnition on gas actually lower the amount of detergents and cleaners in gas. If company was putting 4x times amount in their premium fuels and then the top tier says you only need 1/4 of it to be defined as top tier, what happened they removed the extra. Actually it was the case with most companies.
Well, I'm not even convinced it works. The only reason I use it is because a few YouTube videos that compare various cleaners shows it as being one of the more effective ones. I maybe throwing caution to the wind but I'm not convinced that low concentrations of acetone are dangerous. Back when gas was like, $4 a gallon, I used acetone in my 3G TL for almost a year in an attempt to get better mileage. There was some chemical reason that it was supposed to help, although it never really made a noticeable difference. Anyway - I never experienced any adverse effects.
I personally think that simply using top-tier fuel is sufficient to keep a fuel system up to par. I only use the B-12 once every 6 months or so for good measure. I also add some marvel mystery oil once every 6 months as well. I'll probably stop using the MMO though. It turns the insulator on my spark plugs red But my piston heads are sparkling clean. I use a boroscope every 10K miles or so and take a look at 3 or 4 of them. They're completely carbon free.
02-20-2018, 08:47 PM
But my piston heads are sparkling clean. I use a boroscope every 10K miles or so and take a look at 3 or 4 of them. They're completely carbon free.
