Recommended servicing on my Elantra 2003 GLS seems dubious

Sounds more like a wallet cleaning to me. Coolant, yes. I've never changed PS fluid in cars with 200K miles, nor the other two services. What is entailed in cleaning the oil system? That is a new one to me.

Their "oil system cleaning" involves draining the oil, pouring in some kind of additive and running the engine briefly. Then they drain it and add new oil and filter - sounds right up there with Marvel Mystery Oil.

That made sense in 1959, but not so much today.

| Coolant system flush = $75 | | | The only thing that sounds reasonable is the coolant, which I can do myself. Yeah but to do it right is a pain.

| Googling this NG brings up a thread from 2006 where the majority declared | these extra services as unnecessary. I'm disappointed as until now this | shop has not tried to play this kind of game with me - perhaps the bad | economy is making them desperate. On the other hand three years have | passed, so perhaps something has changed...? | I'm surprised they didn't suggest a brake fluid flush which is actually a good thing to do every 3-4 years.

BS. Nearly all of it.

I've never flushed the power steering fluid in any of my cars. Ever. And I've never had to replace a pump due to failure, either. There are some older GM products that had steering rack issues that would somewhat abate with a flush. Power steering systems on '01 to '06 Elantras are very reliable with the possible exception of the leaks from the hoses, and a flush won't affect that.

My experience is that most fuel system cleaners pushed today are very ineffective at cleaning anything. If there are no issues with misfires or anything else related to the fuel system, there's no reason to do a cleaning.

If you've changed the oil at the proper interval and used the proper oil, there's no reason you should need a crankcase cleaning. Oils that meet Hyundai's specifications for this car have additives that help prevent them from prematurely sludging. Unless the shop has a crystal ball (or you need the service now), there's no way they'd know you'll need it at the next oil change. Additionally, I've seen none of these products that actually do a good job of cleaning the sludge out of an engine.

Coolant flush could be on point. Hyundai recommends servicing the coolant every 2 years/30k miles. I don't see where mileage plays any significant part of coolant degradation, so I just recommend a coolant service every 2 years.

. Thanks to everyone who responded and confirmed what maintenance is and is not worth doing!