My '98 4.6l has 199,488 miles on it, and so far it has been a phenomenal truck for the 10 years that I've owned it. However, as I rapidly approach that 200k mark I’ve started thinking about spending a little money on PREDICTIVE maintenance. Or, changing out the part BEFORE it fails. As good as I am with preventative maintenance, I know that not everything lasts forever.

Mostly, I’d like to focus on parts that will eventually fail, and when they do, they’ll likely leave me stranded. I drive long distances for work and a breakdown 300 miles from home is not my idea of a good time.

Anyway, I’m looking for input where to best spend my money to keep myself from getting stranded. My thoughts so far:
•IAC Valve
•Fuel Pump (how long are they supposed to last? This one is probably my chief concern)
•PDFE (?)
•Coils (?)

Can y’all think of anything else? What do you think of the list? Unnecessary?

Thanks!

 

By definition, changing a part before it fails is preventative maintenance. You can't predict what it going to fail.

Of all the parts you listed, I would not change any of those "just because". I completely agree and understand...no one likes to break down 300 miles from home...got it. But changing those parts at random doesn't necessarily prevent that from happening. COP's for example...too many stories around here to list of guys getting bad COPs straight out of the box, or brand new ones failing a very short time later. Fuel pump could theoretically last the life of the truck. Odds are, a bad IAC won't leave you stranded.

Your best preventative maintenance is taking care of your vehicle as you go along. Perform things (oil, plugs, fluids, etc) on schedule and use good stuff. Replace stuff when it breaks or when it's going bad to prevent ancillary items from damage. Keep her clean inside and out...that's good preventative maintenance

 

Galaxy,
Sure you can, man! There are engineers who spend their careers developing predictive maintenance schedules for places like refineries, plastics production, and breweries (among many others). I work with such people. The key to doing it is having adequate historical data. That's one of the reasons that I posted on a public forum, I hoped that people would pipe in and give their experiences with high mileage component failure.

What I'm specifically talking about is individual component failure, not entire engine shutdown. If shutdown is what you're talking about, then yes, I suppose that could be preventative. But, there are individual components that you can't do anything preventative for. So, changing a part before it fails, to prevent engine failure, isn't preventative, it's predictive. Taking action so that the part doesn't fail (whole engine), that's preventative.

Thanks for the input!

 

Preventive.. predictive
tomato, tomahto

Predictive Definition:
Predictive maintenance (PdM) techniques help determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to predict when maintenance should be performed. This approach offers cost savings over routine or time-based preventive maintenance, because tasks are performed only when warranted.

Preventive Definition:
The care and servicing by personnel for the purpose of maintaining equipment and facilities in satisfactory operating condition by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects.

I'll go with preventive. The way predictive is described would be for instance... if you inspect a part and determine that in it's condition, may only last another 2000 miles before it needs changed. When you change it, you are preventing it from failure. Like brakes or tires, after inspection you determine they have roughly 10k miles to go before they fail. So you decide in 5k miles that you will change them so that you don't risk failure.

Anyways. Tomato, tomahto

If it were me... (to each his own) I don't mind changing parts before they fail. But a fuel pump, eh.. I dunno. Like galaxy said, theres no telling when a "new" part will fail either. Your stock pump lasted 200k so far.. after replacing it, it could fail in 20k. You just never know. Just keep her running good with good fuel, the right oil and filter, pcv valve, fuel filter, 02 sensors, clean the TB and elbow along with the egr ports, differential fluids etc... all those things. At 200k maybe take it in for a motorvac service to clean things up. Can't think of anything else other than whatever you have done so far... has gotten you to an easy 200k. So keep doing whatever your doing.

 

OK...whatever. Like Toysz said...semantics. For the vast majority of us gearheads around here, what you're referring to is preventative maintenance. Big picture is you're replacing parts to prevent a break down. Regardless, I wouldn't swap out those parts based on the premises of which you started this thread.

You can't predict when these parts may (not will) fail, so why waste the money. Get your money's worth out of them and run them to failure.

 

I had a coworker who was an aircraft mechanic. He said aircraft maintenance included replacing parts after certain service hours. I don't have an airplane and don't know anything about aircraft maintenance.

Anyhow he replaced car parts before failure. It made sense to me. After all, we replace spark plugs @100k miles. I wouldn't call replacing alternator @200k miles excessive. Why not fuel pump? Anything that has a moving part and its failure will be abrupt is a candidate. I am not sure about electronic parts. They seem to fail differently from mechanical parts.

 

Out of your list, the only thing that could or would leave you stranded is the fuel pump!
If it makes you fell better, go ahead and replace it.
But the little censers and COPs aren't going to stop the truck from running. So I wouldn't bother with them.

Oh yeah,
replace the serpentine belt if you haven't yet....

Phil

 

if hes set on replacing parts before failure wouldnt the starter be something to consider?

 

How about the tranny??? A '98 with a 4R70W and that many miles is doomed any day now...and that's not sarcasm. I'd replace that sucker ASAP. That's a component that'll leave you stranded.

 

Yeah,, my sister worries about stuff like this.
She just gos out and buys a new car when she starts getting up in miles...lol
I love it,
I got her last car (2000 Grand Marquis) with 73,000 on it and haven't had to do one thing to it yet. It's a great car with only 85,00 on it now. And she always did the scheduled maintenance on it.
Got it for what they would of gave her for a trade in.

Phil

 

historical data can be flawed based on how a machine is operated and maintained. A well maintained un abused machine will have parts last much longer then one that is abused and never maintenanced.. The average person doesn't take care of there stuff. I would think guys who hang out on this board in general are the types that take better care of their stuff so it lasts longer..

 

There's one main difference between auto/truck maintenance and aircraft maintenance - a failure in an aircraft can easily kill you. Not only that, the FAA *requires* periodic maintenance, not just "suggests" it like carmakers. The only failure in a vehicle that has this real potential is brake failure, but if your E-brake works this potential is considerably reduced.