Maintenance at 13,000 miles?

[BigED]

I bought my car new and it now has 13,000 miles on it. I have changed the oil regularly and I have replaced the air filter, but other than that, I have not performed any maintenance on it. Besides rotating the tires (which I know I need to do) what other things to I need to do to at this point to keep the car well-maintained.

[99Camaro99]

transmission fluid ever 30K

Check air filter every 15K

Spark plugs wires 50K

Oil every 3K

[youngcamarokid]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by 99Camaro99:
transmission fluid ever 30K

Check air filter every 15K

Spark plugs wires 50K

Oil every 3K<hr></blockquote>

Coolant flush every 10k

Degrease it every 5k (you're engine will thank you in the long run, will look COOL!)

[SilverTAWS6]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by youngcamarokid:
Coolant flush every 10k<hr></blockquote>

I wouldn't flush the coolant every 10K. It's got the A/C Delco 150000 mile crap in there so it should be ok longer then that. I know it can't go for that long, but 10K is barely anything. I'd go for around 2 years or 30K on it and then flush. That's what I'm doing with my WS6.

Chris

[John D.]

Go ahead and change your rear diff. fluid. That way you can switch to synthetic.

[youngcamarokid]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SilverTAWS6:


I wouldn't flush the coolant every 10K. It's got the A/C Delco 150000 mile crap in there so it should be ok longer then that. I know it can't go for that long, but 10K is barely anything. I'd go for around 2 years or 30K on it and then flush. That's what I'm doing with my WS6.

Chris<hr></blockquote>

FYI my mechanic says Dexcool is sh** and tells me to flush it 10k, it gunks up real fast.

[SilverTAWS6]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by youngcamarokid:


FYI my mechanic says Dexcool is sh** and tells me to flush it 10k, it gunks up real fast.<hr></blockquote>

I drained it at around 12k (a lot of racing miles) and it was in perfect shape. I would agree that Dexcool is crappy, but 10k is a little extreme to change it at. I also had drained some in my Camaro at around 20k and it was all good. 30K or 2 years is fine.

Chris

[Dominic]

Since you haven't done anything else here are some things I recommend to prolong the life of the vehicle.

1) Change your rear diffy fluid out, 2qts, to a synthetic before 15,000 miles. Change it again at 30K, and then every 15K or 30K thereafter depending on how you drive it. Its important for breakin to get out the particles which wear off the diffy in the first 10K miles.

2) Engine oil every 3,000-5,000 depending on how you drive, oil you use, etc. If you know what you're doing and know about oil analysis then you don't need me telling you about engine oil and you already know what your "true" interval should be for the oil you run.

3) I change my coolant biyearly by going to 70/30 in the summer and 50/50 in the winter. This is as simple as draining the radiator and replacing the coolant with water for the summer (plenty is still left in the engine so it makes it roughly 70/30), and draining it again in the fall and filling with dexcool (back to 50/50 or so).

A note on dexcool:
If you flush your entire system you will find the dexcool will not fog/murk up like it did from factory. The murkyness is fine since GM adds graphite to the coolant from factory to prolong the water pump life. Completely flushing the system is not a good thing unless you trully need to do this, as it rids the system of a lot of lubricating graphite and can cause extra WP wear.

Might wanna lube up all the hinges like on doors and things, about every few oil changes. Now wouldn't be a bad time [img]smile.gif[/img]

Just try to think of things which might need doing, and check to see if they need doing. Check fluid levels and conditions and make sure everything looks in place. I always inspect my car once a year for things I might normally miss. Not to mention I inspect the entire undercarraige of my car when I change the engine oil - it gives me something to do while I let it drain right? [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Good luck.

[MustangEater8251]

I would do diffy and transmission.

Everything else in the above intervals listed above.

As for the coolant, you could probable wait till at least 30k.

I do mine yearly ~8-9k at the begining of summer, but that is just prevenitive, I am in florida, hot summer and my most my coolant system is original with 125k, and the radiator has 95k on it. Only thing that is recent is a 160* thermostat maybe 2 years old.