Car is running perfectly at 103000 miles.Gas mileage is excellent. Is manufacturers suggested tune up required or is that risking problems? i.e. If if ain’t broken don’t fix it
Manufacturers have not recommended or required “Tune-Ups” for many years. Those words have no real meaning, they mean whatever the shop you are in wants them to mean…
However, Honda’s have some critical maintenance issues that are best not ignored. Replacing the timing belt and water pump, anti-freeze flush and fill, transmission service, ignoring these things can send your car to the bone-yard…
If they are SCEDULED as per your ownwer’s manual then they are NEEDED. For instance spark plug changes are specified at certain intervals, since these affect fuel economy and emission compliance.
I would do all those things in the MANUAL, but ignore (refuse)stuff the DEALER tries to sell yo on, that are NOT in the manual.
In addition, as pointed out above, transmission fluid changes should be performed more often than most manuals recommend, at about 30,000 miles intervals to maximize transmission life.
For reliable and least expensive overall operation yes scheduled tuneup(maintenance required). You can take the approach wait and see, but it may leave you stranded on the side of the road or with expensive repair bills.
You don’t mention year of Honda Accord however newer 4 cylinder ones have a timing chain that does need replacement. All 6 cylinder ones and I believe before 2003 require timing belt changes at the 100k point.
It’s also quite likely that the car is not running as well as you perceive it to be. One becomes acclimated to a performance drop-off much like one becomes accustomed to weak shocks or struts.
About 4 months ago I did some maintenance on my son’s Dodge Caliber (2.4, AWD, 45k miles) and this car ran great, got about 25 MPG on the road, had no codes present, etc.) and he could see nothing wrong with the filters, spark plugs, etc.
So much for the untrained eye and perception.
The following week we went to Utah in it and it got anywhere from 29 to a shade over 30 MPG during the entire trip; figures which I believe are higher than the EPA rating.