Fluid Replacement Question

Mike,

Is vasoline included in the repair order cause' they're trying to bend you over and give you a stiff one. That is the most ludicrous price for a fluid exchange and a few leak repairs I've ever seen.

Doc

"MICHAEL ATKISSON" wrote

The ps pump shaft seal, the trans tailshaft seal, and oil filter adapter gaskets and seal (if they are talking about the factory one) are all very normal types of leaks for these trucks.

I wouldn't bother with "BG" treatments. Frankly, if you have even the slightest bit of mechanical know how (like you can find the right sockets and wrenches and you can turn them) you can drain and fill all the fluids yourself. Both the front diff and the t/case have drain and fill plugs, very easy to do. The rear diff in that year doesn't have a drain plug, but it's not rocket science to remove the rear cover, install a new gasket and install new fluid. If you want to install synthetic fluid, you can...but...you must not use RTV on the diff cover (it probably has a gasket anyway, some of the larger diffs still used RTV) as the synthetic fluid will eat the RTV. Plus, if you go with synthetic in the front diff, you must change up the vent to an updated vent that can handle synthetic. Again, the old black vents would react to the synthetic, and either pop out, or start leaking. You can get the updated vent at your dealership, provided the parts department has half a clue.

This is not factory....I would just toss it and try to go back to the factory set up. I can see no reason for a remote filter setup on this vehicle, unless the original owner was just too lazy to get under the truck and get at the oil filter (which makes no sense, as you have to get under approx the same area to reach the drain plug on the oil pan.

T/case fluid, I would just stick with whatever it came with. Probably ATF in that year...just double check in the owners manual.

Ian

I'm gonna take the side of the other 2 posters, they both know their stuff (Ian better, he works at a dealer!). They're charging A LOT for fixing those leaks, I had the 2 diffs, the t-case and the tranny serviced at a local dealer. Total cost, with a tire balance, was just over $300.

I will also agree with the other posters.

Changing the fluids yourself should be sufficient enough. I wouldn't do any kind of special flush, unless there was a real good reason to.

As far as synthetic fluids go, that has been a debate as old as time itself.

I run synthetic diff. fluids, simply because I have to park it (1999 Yukon

4wd) outside in -45 temp. When it is that cold, I find that the conventional diff. gets too thick, and no length of idling will warm it up. The x-fer case I run the GM fluid (the autotrac takes a special type, not sure what the diff. is.)

As far as the price go, that's a little excessive.

But, mind you, they (GM) charged me 1/2 hour to change the serpentine belt.....soooo mad.

conventional

Is it a place with a half hour minimum charge, or do they claim to have actually spent a half hour changing the thing??

I don't know... I had the truck in the shop to get a front diff. seal changed. Had a wheel alignment done, and tranny fluid done and some other stuff.

The shop called me and said the belt was done, I said ok, change it.

Even if there was a min. charge, I would have thought it wouldn't have applied, since I had a whole shopping list of stuff to do.

The book should read 1/6 of an hour to change. 10 min. tops.

No mechanic should take 1/2 hour to change one of those things.

"Chevguy" wrote

Often it doesn't, just depends on the shop and what work was being done. Let's say that you also needed the front pump seal done on the ps pump....in that case, I would not charge the .5 to replace the serp belt. Mainly, because you already have it off.

No, the book is quite fine where it is.

How long it takes is of little consequence. If the belt is sitting on the fan shroud, truck in my stall, it might take me all of 1 minute to install late model chev small block serp belt. But, that's only what it takes to actually install the belt. And I'm good.

As I'm sure you know, flat rate cuts both ways. My theory is that the person that says "it's a piece of cake, should only take

10 minutes max" should be putting the belt on themselves. If you have any excuse whatsoever why you can't do it yourself, ie: too busy, no tools, it's too cold....etc.....then just pay the bill and be done with it.

Ian

And, that's what I did.

But never again.

.> The shop called me and said the belt was done, I said ok, change it.

I agree. I had my 13 year old change the one on my '93 Dodge while I instructed him on what to do and explained things as we went. It still took under 10 minutes. I wanted to show him why I didn't want to pay $70 to have a $20 belt replaced at Jiffy Lube.