Maintenance routine for a long life....?

fiziksgeek · July 29, 2014

I already have over 1000 miles on my truck, and am starting to think about near and long term maintenance. I can read what the manual says, but does anyone out there have other recommendations? What fluids should I change and when? Never had a truck before, but on my car, here is what I generally did:

Oil, twice a year regardless of miles, using mobil 1 oil and filter

Air filter, engine and cabin every spring.

brake fluid every other year

drain and fill tranny every other year (every ~35K miles for me)

timing belt, water pump, coolant at 100K

turn up at 100K (plugs etc)

brakes and tires as needed.

Had almost 170K nearly flawless miles out of my 2005 accord EXL-V6 w/nav. What do I need to do to give me the best shot at getting the same out of my new Chevy..?

KMGZ400 · July 30, 2014

Follow the maintnence intervals in manual if it makes you feel satisfied.

I have driven 3 silverados/sierras over 150k, didn't do brake fluid, trans fluid, timing belt(very unnecessary on these motors IMO), water pumps, etc and they never let me down, but that's just me

EaZ8 · July 30, 2014

I already have over 1000 miles on my truck, and am starting to think about near and long term maintenance. I can read what the manual says, but does anyone out there have other recommendations? What fluids should I change and when? Never had a truck before, but on my car, here is what I generally did:

Oil, twice a year regardless of miles, using mobil 1 oil and filter

Air filter, engine and cabin every spring.

brake fluid every other year

drain and fill tranny every other year (every ~35K miles for me)

timing belt, water pump, coolant at 100K

turn up at 100K (plugs etc)

brakes and tires as needed.

Had almost 170K nearly flawless miles out of my 2005 accord EXL-V6 w/nav. What do I need to do to give me the best shot at getting the same out of my new Chevy..?

my friend put 380,000km on his 2000 accord 4cyl, his mom bought the car new and gave it to him at age 16, he beat that car daily with no issues and it was good until he had a couple no start issues with it that he didnt bother to even diagnose.

he now has a 2001 Accord v6 that his aunt gave him a couple yrs ago with only 20km on it at the time, shes now at about 180,000km he treated this one amazing, hes had a couple electricl issues, windows breaking, engine lights, SRS lights and the tranny blew, he had it rebuilt and its been fine ever since but thats only a couple months.

luck of the draw i guess.

just treat her good, do the service and you will get some good life out of the truck, trucks can take more abuse than cars.

gone_fishing · July 30, 2014

I already have over 1000 miles on my truck, and am starting to think about near and long term maintenance. I can read what the manual says, but does anyone out there have other recommendations? What fluids should I change and when? Never had a truck before, but on my car, here is what I generally did:

Oil, twice a year regardless of miles, using mobil 1 oil and filter

Air filter, engine and cabin every spring.

brake fluid every other year

drain and fill tranny every other year (every ~35K miles for me)

timing belt, water pump, coolant at 100K

turn up at 100K (plugs etc)

brakes and tires as needed.

Had almost 170K nearly flawless miles out of my 2005 accord EXL-V6 w/nav. What do I need to do to give me the best shot at getting the same out of my new Chevy..?

No timing belt on your motor so nothing to worry about.

Changing air filter earlier than needed can actually be more harmful and helpful to a motor. Filters become more efficient as they are used (trap smaller particles). Also, anytime you open up the intake system, you could potentially introduce more dirt into the motor. Better off leaving everything alone until you need. Unless your are driving in extremely dirty conditions, air filters last a long time. The manual recommends 45,000 miles for engine air filter change.

Cabin filter once year isn't a bad idea. I take mine out in the spring/fall and usually just give it a cleaning with the vacuum and re-install.

Water pump should not need replacement unless its leaking.

fiziksgeek · July 30, 2014

Thanks guys. So the 5.3 has a timing chain then? My honda had a belt, and an interference engine, so better to replace the timing belt than have a problem. It makes sense to replace the water pump while it all apart, it basically just the cost of the part, the labor is already done with the belt. Having a chain, I agree, no need to replace it unless there is a problem.

What about he differentials, stick with the manual?

Anything other commn maintenance items I am overlooking?

crushNchowda · July 31, 2014

You don't change the tranny fluid in gm vehicles until at least 100,000 miles. You don't change brake fluid until you "need" to- as in you need new hardware- do it then.

Gm coolant also good to 100k

Oil changes when the OLM says so, rotate the tires, front & rear diff every 35k w/ friction modifier (just use gm fluid), cabin filter yearly but that's more a personal preference, and that's about it until you get up to 100k+ then you can think about flushing the radiator, tranny, brake fluid.

It's a truck not a Ferrari, not to mention, they're designed to "work" and basically be driver hard, which most of us don't actually use them for.

Oh, and I have 20,500 miles on mine.