I feel reinforced and vindicated in my quest to replace as many high wear parts as I can afford.
I recently replaced my waterpump, hoses, thermostat and housing, temp sensor, serpentine belt, tensioner and idler pulley, and coolant reservoir. People I know, no one here, vocally anyway thought I was crazy to replace all this stuff when some of it wasn't broken. The water pump was leaking, along with the sensor.
Well, recently my son who lives in Phoenix had his battery light come on and the mechanic where he works told him the alternator was not long for this world. Well wouldn't you know he was dead along the road about two weeks ago. They replaced it and told him that his belt wasn't in good shape either. I had to badger him to change it, which he did. This morning he calls me on his way to work saying his power steering went out all of a sudden. I told him it sounds like a belt broken. Sure enough it's no where to be found. He had to have it towed to work and of course he was late only to find out his tensioner pulley and idler pulley were the cause. So, I guess you know the moral of this story. Now I understand that money is an issue lot's of times. But sometimes you can't afford not to either.
That's just my little pearl of wisdom, for tonight. LOL

 

It's not crazy it's just thinking ahead of the Box. I try to do the same thing.

 

I just believe that all these problems I read about everyday, will eventually happen to me if I just drive it till it does.

 

I am a firm believer in preventative maintence and replacing parts before they fail. On our race cars and trucks we touch every nut and bolt every week between races just to make sure nothing is coming loose. Not only that gives you some time to look around underneath to see if there are any issues developing that could cost you a win or to prevent a DNF.

That is why I change my own oil in everything I own just to take a quick look at everything underneath. Not only that but I dont trust anyone enough to let them do it should they take short cuts or round off a drain plug bolt or something dumb like that using the wrong tool for the job.

My thought is fluids are cheap compared to the down time and replacement cost of hard parts. I change my oil every 3k miles I know probably too soon but I should send a sample into blackstone and see what they say. I change my trans fluid every 30k. Front end, rear end and transfer case fluids every spring. Knock on wood never been stranded on the side of the road yet.

Just my .02

 

Preeeeee-cisely!

Wayne, I tried to rep you for bringing up the subject of preventive maintence, but I guess I musta' already, 'cause it won't let me.....

Anyhow, kudos to you, if not reps!

Pop

 

Thanks Marv!

 

I tried to rep you too Wayne but I'm in the same boat as Pop, repped you not long ago. Very important story there and can't agree with it more. Inspection time is this month for me and I'm getting my truck ready for the winter, new belt, hoses, brake rotors, brakes(lifetime at Auto-Zone), fuel filter, oil change to synthetic, everything.

 

Thanks Mike! sounds like your well on the road to being ready for winter. CNN says we're going to get a severe winter here in Kentucky. Hope they're wrong. I'll be using my 4x4 if it is, as I don't have limited slip and can't get anywhere in 2x.

 

If we have another winter like we had last year, my 4x4 will be working hard again. We had record snow storms last year and it was brutal, downright brutal. I got around but was more scared of getting hit by somebody else. I hope thats not the case for this year.

 

Yeah, me too. Let's hope.

 

Ya lets hope not, Want to Ohio last year for famly Christmas get togather just befor Christmas about a week or two can't quite remember but that big storm came in the day befor I planed to come back home. WV closed the turn pike down from the Ohio border all the way to charleston WV that night. Opened it back up the next morning and on are way back we stoped at the tamerak rest area and there was 28" of snow in the parking lot.

 

Sounds like a great idea I think I will try following suit after I make sure my present problem was fixed by my IPR cleaning.

 

if your truck is paid for, go ahead and act like you have a small truck payment. take like $200/ month and set i aside for maintenance and repairs. make up your priority list of things you want/need to fix/change and fix them as the money is saved up.

$200/ month is a heck of a lot cheaper than a truck note. and $2400/ year should be plenty to keep you rolling reliably.

Do as i say not as i do