Regular upkeep

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Aleaf.CRX

Aleaf.CRX

Well-Known Member
Hey, I wanted to do some simple things to keep my car working better for longer. I know changing the oil regularly and such is good, but I want some more in depth things. My car has broken down since I got it about every month from the day the last thing was fixed. I wanted to know if there was simple tests and things to make sure major things are working well. Thanks. (Sorry for being such a newb lol.)
 
do the basics and change plugs,wires, oil filter/oil (as you know), I also suggest changing your fuel pump every 3 years
 
K, cool, thanks. I've change all the electrical things up there, including plugs, wires, dizzy, cap, battery, etc. as you probably remember my bitching about it lol. How much would a fuel pump be for my car???
 
fuel pumps are actually kind of expensive, your looking at $150-$200
 
and change your timing belt every 40k miles or so. and change the fuel filters like every 3 years also
 
Yeah, I thought maybe it was around there. I'm sure mine's stock and it seems fine. Question though, if you don't change out your fuel filter, can it fuck with the idle at all?
 
it can but not likely, most of the time when its a bad fuel filter it will stumble when you try to pass ppl and stuff like that
 
loss of mpg, loss of power, but the kicker before it goes completely bad is it will stall when given gas and what I mean is you give it gas and it takes a few seconds to engage.
 
Hmmm... what about when it cranks but has a delayed start when just starting it up normally and it's low on gas.
 
Why's that? I try to keep the meter up when I have money...but I've been waaay broke lately. Luckily, I get paid tomorrow.
 
its' because the fuel pump on "in tank" pumps are cooled by the fuel in the tank. when johnny-racer runs around all day at 1/4 tank, blipping the throttle at every light, bouncing off the rev limiter at every shift, his fuel pump takes a beating. the hotter the pump gets, the lower its' life expectancy.
 
because the fuel is sucked from the tank through the pump to the engine, running the car low on fuel will cause dirt to get sucked into your fuel pump thus causing a bad fuel pump.
 
um.... if you have dirt in your fuel tank, you've got a lot worse problems to worry about than a bad pump. I won't say it's impossible, but it's highly unlikely. Water however..... running low on fuel lets more air into your gas tank at any given time. all that air contains moisture, which condenses, turning back into water. the problem with water is that it's heavier than fuel, so it sinks to the bottom of your tank, the fuel rises to the top. all that water in there can cause corrosion in your tank, or stalling when you got very low on gas and some water got picked up by the pump, but for the most part, it's never noticeable unless you live in a VERY humid climate and the vehicle is very old. the problem like previously stated, is heat, not "dirt." the water I wouldn't worry about if i were you, everyone's got some, most never have any ill effects.
 
well not necessarily dirt but its not uncommon for their to be debris in your fuel tank, especially when its an 89
 
agreed, but even so, heat is the reason you don't want to run low on fuel, all the other reasons are miniscule in comparrison.
 
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