I asked specifically if they had a special machine to flush the power steering and they said "yes." What I am trying to do is see if they are just recommending things that feel they should do or want to do for profit, or if they are flat out lying on some points. If it is the former, then it is up to me to decide what I want them to do. If it is the latter, then I guess I try another dealer even if means driving to another town.

 

I checked with a few other dealers and they all have a slightly different list of things they do at 30,000 miles.

Only one of them changes the power steering fluid. Two of them recommend the injector service.

The one with the longest list does not do a transfer case fluid change, but all the others do. I think Ford has a much higher mileage recommendation for that. Should the transfer case be serviced at 30,000?

 

Use your owner's manual as a guide, throw in a good dose of your own common sense, and you should end up with a reasonable service needed list.
If there are some things you can do (want to do) yourself, there's nothing that says you can't. Just keep written record for future purposes, just in case.

These are just my personal opinions, tempered with numerous years of service management experience, and experience with my own vehicles.

Unless you're having a specific fuel injector related problem, forego the injector service, pour a can of cleaner in the tank every other oil change or 10k miles.

As for all the inspections. Well, something is either working or not.
The only visuals to keep an eye on would be, brake pads and shoes, hoses and belts, air filter, tire wear, etc.

Rotating tires, if you want to. When all is said and done through the life of a tire, after paying for all the rotations, the possible extra miles you may get from the tires kind of financially equal out don't they?
Repeatedly taking lugs on and off is asking for broken/stripped studs, or nuts put on so tight you need a 6' cheater bar to get them off, which you usually don't have in a road side situation.

Pay for or do a chassis lube job. They or you are going to inspect related parts while doing that. No need for them to add an extra line on the ticket and charge for what they're going to do anyway.

Unless there's a reason I don't know of yet, no need to 'flush' the transmission. Drain and fill yes.

Radiator, drain and fill, no flush.

Oil and filter change, yes.

There's really a line that says multi point inspection on top of all the other listed inspections?
This usually means that there's a list long enough to include every possible part on your vehicle, and their instructions are to go by this list until they find at least one, if not many items that "you really need to have fixed while you're in here" types of repairs.

The obvious maintenance items yes, the dealer created items no.

At this point, if you really have more doubts, post some specifics maybe, then responses will deal with those.

 

I'm coming up on 30K and wonder if instructions are available for the maintenance tasks. Not oil and fuel filter type changes, but the one that are more involved, like brakes, ball joints, wheel bearings, etc. Without having to buy the $2K CD service guide?

 

Holy moly At 30 k change the motor oil and see if the air filter is dirty it may not be.
I would check the tranny fluid maybe drain and replenish, depends how you drive,tow etc. PS is a waste of time. Have them check brakes. Leave the fuel filter alone.
Coolant leave it alone. Grease the fittings and rear slip joint.
When it comes down to it most garages,dealerships rip you off bad. In my opinion 30k the truck is just broke in. I've been a mech for 30 plus years at dealers also. I'm also **** about maintaining a vehicle...Best thing to do is have an old fart like me look over the truck, a good mech can smell a problem cause he knows what he's doing, not just changing everything thats changable. 30k too soon OMHO.
Always remember the rule of thumb dealers want all your money for the least amount of work. Oh and on the flushing thing they do make some pretty neat equipment for doing it now that replaces all the fluid in the system it does't filter any of it just puts new stuff in.


Dick

 

Ford has been using deposit resistant fuel injectors for a number of years and I believe that they work very well, injector cleaning IMO without a problem is just a waste of time.

Since the trans does not have a drainable torque convertor the only way to truly change the fluid is with a flush machine, if you just drop the pan and refill your are getting out less than half of the fluid so I think you are not really doing much good. Would you drain 2 quarts of engine oil, refill and call it an oil change?

As for the power steering if the fluid looks dirty than I think that changing it would be a good thing, again there is no good way to just drain it, however you can flush it rather easily without a machine.

 

The key thing about a flush machine is to make sure they have more than one machine for doing this service because,you can't mix types of atf fluid.It will destroy your tranny.Chk your owners manual for recommended fluid for your vehicle.
We had a while ago a post about dealers putting wrong type fluid in.
I don't believe in flushing trannys,it loosens up contaminants,puts stress on o-ringsand can alow these things to become dislodged within your tranny.
Change the fluid and filter.
Pwr steering forget that in my opinion
Injector cleaning forget that.
Inspecting brakes ,should be relubing caliper slides and brake shoe slides.(if not done rotor warping)

Yes I agree with 99 find yourself an old time mechanic you trust.

Rich

Rich