40K Service on 3 Yr Old Mountaineer V8

I scheduled some service on my 2003 '03 Mountaineer V8 that will be 3 years old on Sept 15th. I've never done anything under the hood except oil changes, a fuel filter at 30,000 miles and an air filter.

The dealer suggests a tranny flush ($139) and a coolant drain and fill ($40). Or they can do a full coolant flush for $90, but he said that the drain and fill (leaving some new coolant diluted with some old coolant) is probably just fine at 40K miles. He said the differential doesn't need service until 60K.

What do you guys think of both what was recommended and the prices quoted? Seems about right and I've been OK with this dealer before, but I don't want to overpay or underservice!

I think you should ignore the dealer and do whatever the owner's manual recommends. Do whatever you can yourself - grease the headlights and rewind the rubber band :O) - and have anything else done piecemeal. If you go for a scheduled maintenance package, it will cost $10,000,000,000, and they'll likely do stuff that doesn't need to be done and neglect stuff that needs to be done.

Don't forget to check the lugnut torque. I never trust a dealer to get this right.

I agree and DO do it piecemeal, although I cannot do it myself. The owner's manual is vague on servicing the transmission, but here in the steep hills of Pittsburgh you are a fool to just ignore it.

Sounds about right for having it done at the dealer. It's also about all you would need to have done at that mileage so I'm sensing an honest dealer.

In addition to the cooling system and trany services, I would have the wheels rotated, balanced, and have the front end aligned, if you haven't had it done in three years.

Good luck,

Steven

Why should he have the front end aligned without any indication of a problem?

I've never had my front end aligned on my 92 XLT. Tire wear is perfect on my Michelin LTX ATs. Isn't he simply taking a risk that the dealer will make a good alignment bad?

Does Ford recommend tranny service for this vehicle at that interval? Does anyone know what the manufacturer recommends for differential service for this vehicle?

1. I've had the vehicle aligned and tires rotated on a regular basis.

1. The business with the tranny service is yet another reason people get disgusted and go Japanese. Here is what I mean: The service manual says to have the tranny serviced at 30,000 or 40,000 miles (I forget) if you have one of the following transmissions: (Then it lists 4 or 5 different tranny designations by letter/number combo). How the heck am I or anyone else supposed to know WHICH tranny is in my vehicle? And it doesn't say what to do or when to do it if you have NONE of those trannys. Along with that they have info for diesel engines (not even available in Explorer/Mountaineer). So the bottom line is that they wanted to chisel yet another nickel by printing ONE UNIVERSAL service manual for the entire Ford line. That leaves little ol' me, the "average Joe", with the feeling that there is no real schedule specific for my vehicle. Of course I could listen to the dealer and pay thru the nose for a whole list of "inspections" and premature fluid changes.

Why can't they just say to change the tranny fluid at XX,XXX miles, like Toyota does? Hmmm...???

Try this....

for recommendations on what service you need. I didn't have a chance to play with it a great deal but it seemed to change the schedule for various abnormal conditions. Also its specific for your vehicle. If you don't drive in one of those abnormal conditions listed, your probably going to get the idea your dealer is being over zealous with the service recommendations.

Enjoy.

That doesn't work with WINDOWS that has the security update.

Darn. I've got XP with all the updates but service pack 2. I've got to Ghost my drive before I load that mother. Anyway .... try changing your Internet Explorer security options to a setting of "Medium". Thats my default and it works fine. When I crank the security to "Tight" its a no go. I bascially don't see any year, model, etc options. Must be some script on that page thats trying to run. Don't forget to set your security back to where it was after your done.

Darn. I've got XP with all the updates but service pack 2. I've got to Ghost my drive before I load that mother. Anyway .... try changing your Internet Explorer security options to a setting of "Medium". Thats my default and it works fine. When I crank the security to "Tight" its a no go. Don't forget to set your security back to where it was after your done.

Thanks! Now it worked. Says no tranny change until 150K. Well, I did have it changed at 38K and probably will do so every 30-40K as long as I keep the vehicle. While I do not drive under "severe" conditions, I guess living in Pittsburgh (steep hills all day long) qualifies as "severe" for the tranny!

It is very frustrating that dealers want to do maintenance that isn't listed in the Ford maintenance schedule and then they don't do some things that are listed. Then if you need a warranty repair they say the warranty is void because you didn't do something on the maintenance schedule! What to do, argue with them?

You have to be vigilant. Years ago, I received a promotion for 30,000-mile scheduled maintenance on my 92 XLT from my Ford dealer. It had so much stuff that was left out (or inappropriately added), I decided to investigate this for the newspaper I was working for. I checked similar promotions for my colleagues' cars of different makes and models. I found the same thing again and again. In some cases it was because the hire marketing firms to hawk generic service plans.

You can see the story here, if you like:

("Car maintenance fraud").

Here's a newer version I did last year for another publication.

Note a dealer's effort to change the timing belt on a customer's Pathfinder at :60,000 miles instead of the recommended 105,000 miles. Just as you said, after the customer refused, the dealer gave her a receipt with a warning that failure to follow recommended service procedures can invalidate the warranty!!!!

For my 92, I decided to get all the Rotunda tools and the Haynes and Ford shop manuals and do every bit of maintenance myself, including repacking the wheel bearings, greasing the driveshaft slip yokes (all three!) and all the other stuff. And I'm no auto repair expert. I saved money, and I know it was done right. And beyond that, it gave me a great feeling of accomplishment!!!!!! I've done it twice now, for 30,000 and 60,000 and all the lesser service in between.