Has anyone taken their truck for the Dealer's 30k Mile maintenance? Is this a waste (should I go to PEP Boys and have them change fluids - oil, tranny, front&rear diff., etc) instead?

The dealer told me it would be $400, which includes tranny filter&fluid change, oil change, rotate tires & "inspect" a whole bunch of other things, which included the differential fluid. For $400, I'm surprised that they'd only "inspect" and not change the Diff. fluid since I was under the impression that it is a must to flush the Diff. every 30K.

A while back (before I owned SUV's) a friend of mine went a good 60K on his Pathfinder w/o changing the differential fluid (it was his first SUV) and he found out the hard way which cost him $$$$.
(ouch!)

Anyone have thoughts or experience?

Thanks,
Ash

 

So Does this mean that nobody has gone to the dealer to get their rig serviced?

 

WHEN YOU HAVE A GARAGE ,TOOLS AND BE ABLE TO DO IT. KEEP THE MONEY IN YOUR POCKET AND DO IT YOUR SELF .

 

I have the garage, the tools and the know-how (even the correct grammar! :P) but what I DON'T have is time now-a-days. It's easier for me to drop it off somewhere and entrust a shop to do it right rather than spend a few hours under my truck.

 

I would also like some others thoughts on this subject. I got 29736 on my truck today and was thinking about the 30,000 mile maintenance. If I do not take it to Ford for the work and do it myself does that void the ESP warranty. I think I remember hearing somewhere that you must have Ford do the regular maintenance in order to meet ESP requirements. What do you all think? Also, I would like to hear more (have read some on past posts) about your experience with synthitic oil and tranny fluid. Is it worth the extra costs? My truck is driven very conservatively and the most off road it ever sees is maybe a grass/gravel parking lot at the lake. I do plan on keeping the truck far beyond the 100,000 mile range and just want to keep it in the best condition possible, but dont want to spend $$ unnecessarly. Any input would be GREATLY appreciated.

Alan M.

 

This is what the Moss-Magnuson in my opinion was written for. No, unless Ford is going to service it for free, they cannot make you bring it to them for the service. You may be forced to have the service done, but they can't dictate where unless they do it free.

That being said, the 30k service isn't much. The tranny service is probably the toughest and it not that bad. If you dont' want to mess with it, have someone do it. Usually the deealer will only flush the tranny and not drop the pan and replace the filter.

As for the rear diff., you don't have to servcie it unless it get's into a situation that may cause contamination like burying it in mud or water. It DOES have synthetic in it from the factory.

One thing I havent' done with mine yet and I may have someone do is the fuel filter. In some states that's part of emmisions test too.

Read the owners manual about what is done at a 30k. You'll be hard pressed to find $400 worth of anything but the book labor rates for checking this and that.

 

Thanks for the comprehensive response! The $400 did seem very steep to me - I didn't think it was worth it. I called PEP Boys and they quoted me $120 to drop the pan and change the trans filter/fluid.

Question - if I want to go synthetic in my trans, is it imperative that they get 100% of the existing fluid out? I've heard that it's near impossible to fully drain the system, since we have the cooler and all. Maybe I've understood it wrong, but I was wondering 'bout that...

Thanks again!

Ash

 

If I remember right, you have the 4X4 tranny pan dont you? If I am right, did you do this basically for the additional tranny fluid? Also, is the AMSOIL ATF worth the $$. The drivetrain of my X it totally stock. I would like to do a couple of thing like the FIPK and better flowing exhaust, just havent gotten around to doing it. The stiffer anti-sway bar that you have sounds pretty worthy also, but we'll see. Back to the point, was it a total pain dropping the tranny pan or was it pretty straight forward? I am considering doing the maintaince myself, but if I have to raise the transmission two inches off the mounts while twisting my arms to the top of the motor block and standing on my pinky toe of my left foot I would probally leave it to Ford. Finally, did you have to refil the transmission fluid through the trans dipstick spout? And last but not least, how the heck to you get the picture of your truck at the bottom of your signature? Thanks for your time.

 

Whew, I've got work cut out for me so let me try to get them all.

On the tranny.
I got the 4x4 pan for the drain plug primarily. The extra capacity isn't much but it can't hurt. If I could have gotten the same pan just with a plug I would have.

If you just drain, (both the pan and TQ) you cna't get all the ATF out. I est. that I got all but about 1.5 quarts. There is ATF in the clutch packs, cooler lines etc. that you can't get without a flushing machine which is a pretty good idea but not 100% necessary. Most synthetic ATF is fine mixing with reg. ATF.

As for Amsoil vs. Mobil 1 vs. $4 a gallon ATF from Walmart, I don't think you'll notice any difference in regular driving. I think it's all in the protection and longevity of the internals. As I was installing the shift kit, I dropped the VB 3 times and each time refilled the pan with 2 gallons of regular, $4 a gallon ATF from Walmart. ONce i drained everything and refilled everything with Amsoil (and yep, it goes in the dipstick tube so have a good funnel) I can't say I can tell a difference at all. I don't have a tranny temp gauge so I don't know if maybe it's a little cooler but I have to say, even after driving it a lot, I could drain the ATF and it was nice a warm at best. It felt good because it was a little chilly out when I did it.

Droping the pan isn't bad at all. You'll loossen the front 4 bolts and leave them in. Remove the most of the others leaving 3-4 to kep the pan from falling of course. The holding the pan up, remove all the remaining bolt on the rear and sides ane let the pan drop in the rear. This is where it can get messy. ATF pours out from the rear of the pan and you may need to loosen the from bolts so it can fall more. You'll see how far you can go with it. It won't hurt the lip of the pan either. You just lower the rear of the pan unitl your ready to drop the rest of the bolt and drop the pan. Do it slow so you don't spil ATF every where. I bought a mortor mixing tub from Home Depot (a tip from here) for about $5 and it works great! It's just the perfect size to catch anything comming off the tranny. Also get 2-3 cans of parts cleaner or cheap carb cleaner to clean up with. You'll get ATF all over your hands and arms but it's easy to clean up and leaves a healthy moisturized glow (just kidding, it cleans off easily)

And as for the picture, I think you can right right click and choose "view source" and see the code for the entire page. Dig through and you'll see the code where I linked an image. I'd post the exact code, but some family just showed up visiting for the weekend so I ran out of time.

Hope I got it all.

The tranny service isn't bad at all. I had a blast, but I was also dropping the VB (several times) to install and tweak the shift kit.

Oh, for an idea on $$. Filter is about $25 bucks or so. Autoparts stores carry them and they are the exact filter that Ford uses. Dealer wanted about $6-$8 more which may very by dealer. It's a Duetsch filter. Amsoil ATF full retail will run in the $120-$130 range. I bought a prefered customer membership and it was about $100 or so and I bought a little too much. I bought 18 quarts and only used 14 I beleive. Regular ATF which is fine, would run about $4 a gallon so about $20. I paid full pop retailfor the 4x4 pan which was about $45. You can order it from Ford Parts Online which is a Ford dealer in Weatherford Texas and they quoted me $31 but I waited to long and needed it to quick.

Oh, and about $1.19 a can for 2-3 cans of cleaner to clean the floor, the pan, and the drain pan once you empty it!

Hope that helps!

 

Thank you very much for you input. It is always very appreciated. I do have one question. I know as soon as I see your response, I will slap myself on the head and say "Damn, I knew that", but I just can find the term in my brain right now. But what is the 'VB' you were talking about droping down. Again, thanks for your time.

 

Oh ya, VB = Valve Body, actually the accumulator valve body. That's where most of the goodies go for a shift kit.

If you drop your pan, it's the one mounted side to side at the front of the tranny behind where the filter neck slides up in, that is in a 4R100 anyway. Has 14 bolts and is about 4" x 10" or so.

 

Once again, thanks for the reply. Just like I said, slap to the head saying "I knew that".