Generic maintenance intervals

[tyrguy]

Over the years we have developed some generic maintenance intervals to use on most vehicles. We have revised them as time goes by to reflect changes such as extending oil changes or extended coolant. Here's what we are presently recommending. Our POS system, Winworks Autoshop allows us to set up these intervals so that as a vehicle hits these mileages it automatically recommends them and when we do the service it automatically resets the recommendation in the future. Thoughts?

Oil changes:  semi syn  4K,  full syn  8K

Alignments: 12K

Tire rotations  5K

Brake flush  30K

Auto trans svce  60K

Man trans svce  60K

Coolant flush  60K   [older type coolant] 30K

Cabin air filters  30K

Fuel filter   30K

Fuel injection cleaning  30K

Spark plugs  copper 30K,  plat, irid 60K

Drive belts  80K

Coolant hoses  90K

Timing belts   90K

 

 

 

[Jeffrey]

We use pace software and try to customize as much as possible. I do agree to some of your generic but I strongly disagree on others. Cabin air filters should be done 1 year or 15,000 miles, They get moisture in there and start growing mold. Go ahead and smell one of those next time you take it out. I also try to use the carbon impregnated one whenever its available. I also disagree on the auto trans fluid, We recommend a change at every 30,000, you cant get to all the fluid and more and more vehicles are making the filters non replaceable. We also recommend synthetic fluids everywhere except brake fluids. How about CVT trans? How often should that fluid be changed? That is something we are researching but would appreciate any feedback. We feel strongly about preventive maintenance and agree that even if the interval is too long its better than not doing it at all. We also learned from experience that if a trans hasn't had a fluid change in 90,000 its best to leave it alone. keep up the good work Tyrguy !

[tyrguy]

We used to be at 30K on the trans fluids but felt that with many of the OEMs having no recommendations on that service we would increase it to 60K. We use 60K on the CVTs as well.

If you used a modern trans flush machine it will totally swap out the old fluid with new.

I don't believe that "90K leave it alone" theory. Maybe that was valid in the past [I personally don't believe it was] but on today's vehicles, a flush can never hurt. At least that's what the trans shop that sells us all our rebuilt units says.

 

 

[Jeffrey]

I have personally seen transmissions fail shortly after replacing the fluid on a high mileage trans. I make the customer sign a statement that we advised against it and its their own risk. Recently a customer had the fluid changed and an inline filter installed. After 1,000 miles we changed the filter and fluid again. Good plan I guess. The problem with high mileage trans fluid is new fluid will loosen the wear debris and it clogs the filter. We are currently looking at a trans flush machine but we want one we can circulate the fluid with that will also filter it. Then I would put in new fluid and circulate it through the filter to remove debris. Of course the question comes up will the machines filter remove debris before it gets in the trans filter? I am not a trans guy but would really like to know the truth about replacing trans fluid and flushing !!!

[tyrguy]

What we have seen is that someone with a high mileage trans that is already having issues will come in and request a fluid change to try to correct the problem. The service will be done and the trans will fail shortly thereafter. The service didn't kill it. It was already on it's way out.

 

[Jeffrey]

Thanks for the input and discussion we are going to use more generic maintenance items in our recommendations. This will help simplify our tracking and I believe will help our customers to better maintain their vehicles. Right now we are missing quite a few maintenance items just because we don't have the time to research each vehicle. 

[jfuhrmad]

How do you guys determine your intervals?  They seem much much shorter than the manufacturer suggested intervals.  Coolant on most Chevy's is 150k and most of the time brake fluid still tests good at 100k.  I would like to get to shorter intervals because I think the manufacturers are pushing it, but I haven't found much out there to support shorter intervals other than what appears to be guesses.  Any thoughts would be appreciated.