Regular Preventative Maintenance for Your Car

[guiseppewv]

I am interested in knowing what types of general preventative maintenance (should be applicable to all cars) the automotive gurus on here perform on their cars and at what intervals. I figure everyone knows to change your oil, oil filter, and air filters at regular intervals. I am asking because I am tired of being told that I need to do X, Y, and Z to my car when I take it in for an oil change and I always feel a twinge of guilt that I decided not to do something, in terms of maintenance, that I should be doing to my car.

Tire rotations?
Tranny flush and fill?
P/S flush and fill?
Brake fluid flush and fill?
Radiator flush and fill?
Cleaning corrosion off of battery contacts?
etc....

Is there a benefit to doing a radiator flush and fill (or any of the other flushes and fills) at a car shop vice doing it yourself at home?

Thank you!

[mechmike0034]

Follow the owner's manual recommendations for services and intervals - NOT the "dealer recommended" schedule (that is designed more to to make dealers more money than to protect your vehicle...)

My wife is driving a 2003 Buick Rendezvous - the only new vehicle I have ever purchased. It currently has ~160K miles on it. It has had two sets of tires, two sets of brake pads, two air filters, one thermostat/coolant change, and one serpentine belt. Period. I change the oil using 5W30 Mobil1 and an ACDelco filter when the GM oil life monitor says it is time to do so. It uses no oil between changes, drives as well as it did when it was new, and gets 25 MPG consistently on the highway.

Beware of flush chemicals and additives for automotive fluids. 95% of these are snake oil, plain and simple. They either don't help, or can cause damage (engine, transmission, and engine coolant "flush chemicals" are the worst culprits, and A/C "stop-leak" will destroy an automotive air conditioning system...) to expensive components.

If you don't add any type of "additive" that didn't come in your vehicle from the factory you never have to worry about chemical compatibility issues.

Fluid exchange is cool - there are machines out there that do this for engine coolant, power steering fluid, and automatic transmission fluid - but don't introduce any additional chemicals, additives, or conditioners that are not specified by the vehicle manufacturer.

I don't have a problem with changing brake fluid when changing brake pads, even when it is not on the maintenance schedule. Even if you don't change all the brake fluid, any tech worth his salt will pinch off the flex hose with a special tool and open the caliper bleeder screw before pushing the caliper piston back in while changing brake pads. The fluid in the calipers is at the lowest point in the system, which is where any moisture in the system collects. It also is subject to the most heat, which breaks down the fluid and the rubber caliper piston seal. Expelling that fluid rather than pushing it back through the anti-lock solenoids to the master cylinder goes a long way towards maintaining good pedal feel and the prevention of internal hydraulic system corrosion.

The biggest problem with fluid service at home is proper disposal of the old fluid.

[Daedalus]

My wife is driving a 2003 Buick Rendezvous - It currently has ~160K miles on it.

Wow! Is your wife in sales?

I buy my tires from Costco and they rotate them for free every 5000 miles.
I change all fluids every 2-3 years, except for engine oil, which I change every 3-6 months, depending on the vehicle. I go by time, not mileage, as I only drive about 8000 miles a year spread over 3 vehicles. I have record-keeping software for car maintenance that makes it easy to see when things were done and what's due soon. Excel works just fine too. Just this year I picked up a few MityVac fluid evacuators which make maintenance a little easier. The one-man vacuum brake bleeder is nice.

I don't pay for fluid exchanges (I think "flush" is often misused for these services), so I rely on more frequent changes to "rotate" through power steering, coolant and auto trans fluids, which can't be completely drained easily. E.g., when I evacuate my trans fluid, I only get a little more than 1/2 of the fluid out of the system. Drain and refill 2x and I have about 80% new fluid in there. Do this regularly (every 9 months, depending) and you ensure the fluid is relatively fresh at all times. Exchanging fluids regularly makes a huge difference to the longevity of various systems. Anywhere there's fluid, there are rubber seals, and seals deteriorate in the presence of moisture. I even replace the AC oil and drier every 4-5 years.

There's a hazmat collection center near me, so I make a run down there about once a year to drop off auto fluids, old paint, cleaners, dead batteries, etc. Also, in my state any place that sells motor oil has to accept old oil as well.

[clutchy]

i've had very few problems with any of my "recent" cars.

I had a honda w/ 210k on it that needed very little if anything done to it.

I have a 99 maxima w/ 180k on it. Just yesterday i went and bought new pads and rotors and was going to switch them out after my wife said the tire people said she needed new brakes. I pulled one wheel off and shockingly there was plenty of pad. Pulled the other wheel off and same thing.

bunch of crooks.


all i really ever do in preventative is oil, air filter, tires(barely) and that's pretty much it.

[guiseppewv]

Daedalus: Which MityVac(s) do you have?

[mechmike0034]

Wow! Is your wife in sales?

Nope, but her round-trip commute is ~60 miles... My wife's car gets the easiest duty there is - 25 miles of interstate per trip. Temperatures stay constant, batteries live a long time (forgot to mention I replaced the battery once in my original post), tires wear well with periodic pressure/wear checks, etc...

I buy my tires from Costco and they rotate them for free every 5000 miles.

Me, too - Michelin from Costco is the way to go IMHO...

I change all fluids every 2-3 years, except for engine oil, which I change every 3-6 months, depending on the vehicle. I go by time, not mileage, as I only drive about 8000 miles a year spread over 3 vehicles. I have record-keeping software for car maintenance that makes it easy to see when things were done and what's due soon. Excel works just fine too.

Yep! I agree in your instance that time versus mileage is the ticket.

Just this year I picked up a few MityVac fluid evacuators which make maintenance a little easier. The one-man vacuum brake bleeder is nice.

I have a Mity-Vac hand vacuum pump / kit for this as well. Great tool.

I don't pay for fluid exchanges (I think "flush" is often misused for these services), so I rely on more frequent changes to "rotate" through power steering, coolant and auto trans fluids, which can't be completely drained easily. E.g., when I evacuate my trans fluid, I only get a little more than 1/2 of the fluid out of the system. Drain and refill 2x and I have about 80% new fluid in there. Do this regularly (every 9 months, depending) and you ensure the fluid is relatively fresh at all times. Exchanging fluids regularly makes a huge difference to the longevity of various systems. Anywhere there's fluid, there are rubber seals, and seals deteriorate in the presence of moisture. I even replace the AC oil and drier every 4-5 years.

Again, agreed - I would be doing this much more often were our annual mileages more similar. Highway trips get fluids up to temperature quickly which boils / evaporates moisture off.

I don't mess with the A/C unless I have to open the system, but I won't open one without putting a new drier on it.

Something else I didn't put into my original reply - keep in mind that quick lubes and chain service centers tend towards the cheapest filters available. Use OE or better.

[Daedalus]

Daedalus: Which MityVac(s) do you have?

For a long time MityVac was known for its hand vacuum pumps. My kit is no longer sold, but is most like the 8500. Besides brake bleeding, a vacuum pump can be used to test various things under the hood. Last week I diagnosed and fixed the EGR system on my truck using this thing. At the very least, it can be used as a vacuum gauge, which is an essential diagnostic tool for overall engine health. It's very useful, and a good concept, but using it to move fluid is a lot of work since each pump only moves a small amount of air.

Now their product lines have really exploded. For evacuators, I wanted multiple units so I wouldn't have to clean them out when switching fluids. These I bought a few months ago:
7300 and 7201.
The 7300 is an evacuator only, and uses compressed air to create a venturi vacuum (~22 inHg) to suck out the fluid. You run the air long enough to create a vacuum in the chamber, and then you can seal it off and disconnect the air hose. I use this for motor oil.
The 7201 uses a large pump (like a bicycle pump) to evacuate and refill fluids. I like this unit more than the 7300, though I did have some issues with the thing not holding pressure, which it needs to do when refilling (otherwise you have to keep periodically pumping). It held a vacuum just fine since the vacuum helps keep the seal compressed. After tightening down the cap repeatedly I think I have it fixed, though now I'm concerned the o-ring might not last long. They do sell replacements, and MityVac sent me a seal kit for free when I emailed them. This one I use both for draining and refilling trans fluid since refilling the trans is a little harder on most cars than refilling motor oil.

I also needed a brake bleeder so I got the 6835. For years I used the hand vacuum but it eventually got to be too much of a chore. The little cup doesn't hold enough fluid, plus my hand would get tired after doing the 1st caliper. This one's my favorite 'cause it made the most annoying job the easiest. Most 1-man brake bleeders let too much air in around the screw threads, but with a vacuum it doesn't really matter. Plus this thing has an auto-fill bottle for the reservoir so you can fill it up with clean fluid and then go to town on all 4 corners without having to stop. It uses a venturi vacuum on shop air like the 7300.

If I only had a couple cars I'm not sure I would have spent the money on the evacuators, but I thought about how much time they would save me over the long term, and I could justify it.

Other MityVac products I have are the 4525 cooling system test kit and the 5532 digital compression tester. Both of these are good products. Compression testers are nothing special, but the cooling system tester is a fairly specialized tool that's hard to substitute for. It's another tool I ended up appreciating a lot more than I thought I would. But additional cap adapters for it are freaking expensive.


BTW I used to buy most of my tools from www.thetoolwarehouse.net, but I have found much better deals recently from tooltopia.com, especially their daily and weekend deals.