Time (not mileage) maintenance schedule

FRF,

My '19 is a year old and has ~ 3,300 miles on it. I know, I know ...

I switched to full synthetic after my imaginary 'break-in' at 1,000 miles and am sticking to six-month oil changes otherwise.

Does this time-based schedule look reasonable - guessing on the analog to mileage intervals:

2nd anniversary:
- Brake fluid
- Air filter?
- Cabin filter?

3rd anniversary:
- Coolant change
- Transmission fluid
- Differential fluid?

In addition to feedback on the above when should I change plugs?

6 month oil changes might be excessive, I do annual on my low mileage vehicles or 3k miles (which is usually annual). Don't sweat the air filters too much, pull them inspect, if dirty replace. Air filter isn't going to get dirty hanging out in a garage. I wouldn't mess with the trans fluid until at least 5 years, probably more like 10 unless you hit the service mileage recommendations. These are lifetime trans with a sealed case, changing the fluid is a pain, not really a DIY thing and its resistant to degradation, same deal with the Dif.

It's great to care and be maintenance minded, but breaking seals on things like differentials and transmissions unnecasarily doesn't make sense. Most vehicles, even with 200k+ on them have probably never had the dif or transmission fluid changed. It isn't the right thing to do but the parts seem to survive.

Absolutely change the brake fluid bi-annually. It's hygroscopic and the water it absorbs will destroy your brake system. This should be done on every vehicle and isn't mileage based, even in dry Colorado I notice a change in fluid color and pedal feel every time I flush a vehicle.

B E N said:

6 month oil changes might be excessive, I do annual on my low mileage vehicles or 3k miles (which is usually annual). Don't sweat the air filters too much, pull them inspect, if dirty replace. Air filter isn't going to get dirty hanging out in a garage. I wouldn't mess with the trans fluid until at least 5 years, probably more like 10 unless you hit the service mileage recommendations. These are lifetime trans with a sealed case, changing the fluid is a pain, not really a DIY thing and its resistant to degradation, same deal with the Dif.

It's great to care and be maintenance minded, but breaking seals on things like differentials and transmissions unnecasarily doesn't make sense. Most vehicles, even with 200k+ on them have probably never had the dif or transmission fluid changed. It isn't the right thing to do but the parts seem to survive.

Absolutely change the brake fluid bi-annually. It's hygroscopic and the water it absorbs will destroy your brake system. This should be done on every vehicle and isn't mileage based, even in dry Colorado I notice a change in fluid color and pedal feel every time I flush a vehicle.

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"biannually" means twice a year. I suspect you meant change it every two years though.

either way brake fluid does not need to be changed every two years. Maybe every 4 if you want to be super detailed.

Fact is that, yeah it absorbs water over time.

there is a reason that changing brake fluid isn't in the manual until like 100k miles.


if you want to spend the time and money and make yourself feel better have at it. I suggest a mityvac pump to make it easy. Just used one on a buddies truck, totally worth the money and will probably last a long long time given it's very infrequent use

IT8NTEZ said:

FRF,

My '19 is a year old and has ~ 3,300 miles on it. I know, I know ...

I switched to full synthetic after my imaginary 'break-in' at 1,000 miles and am sticking to six-month oil changes otherwise.

Does this time-based schedule look reasonable - guessing on the analog to mileage intervals:

2nd anniversary:
- Brake fluid
- Air filter?
- Cabin filter?

3rd anniversary:
- Coolant change
- Transmission fluid
- Differential fluid?

In addition to feedback on the above when should I change plugs?

Click to expand...

i'm sorry. I gotta ask. how old are you? driven before? I'm all about maintenance, but ******** son.

two year brake fluid, air filter and cabin filter..................for a truck with 3,300 miles? umm no. at that rate you don't need to change those for LOTS of years.

3 year coolant, trans, differential change? Dude, really? on a 3,300 mile truck?

you must have both time and money to blow.

At the rate you are going I think you need to relax and get some experience. because you are YEARS AND YEARS AND TENS OF THOUSANDS of miles away from most of that.

Now what I would absolutely consider given that you obviously don't drive much. Is a battery tender. it's pretty retard proof.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00068XCQU/?tag=fordraptorforum-20

IT8NTEZ said:

In addition to feedback on the above when should I change plugs?

Click to expand...

They should go at least 100,000 miles these days, so around 2049.

txgunsntrucks said:

"biannually" means twice a year. I suspect you meant change it every two years though.

Click to expand...

Yep, every other year, my bad. Brake fluid is incredibly cheap, brake components are not. It takes 20 minutes to do a full bleed if your already in the garage working on a vehicle. Good prevention. I have dealt with a number of vehicles that have sat for a few years and the braking system is trashed, seals absorb water you add new fluid and suck the water out of them then you end up replacing master and slaves/calipers.

The factory service manual assumes a normal driving behavior of 12k miles a year. The brake fluid problem gets worse the less a vehicle is driven, with no heat to drive the water out of the fluid and no fluid movement the system turns to trash quickly. If you are driving a vehicle every day it is different. But I can afford a quart of brake fluid every couple years for the vehicles that don't get driven much. The ones that do get driven a lot are going through pads every few years and they get flushed then. If you are lazy gravity bleed the system while you are doing other stuff, works good and takes no effort, mityvac is unnecessary.

Nothing is harder on a vehicle than not driving it. And I stopped having braking component problems on my recreational vehicles when I upped the fluid change schedule.

B E N said:

Yep, every other year, my bad. Brake fluid is incredibly cheap, brake components are not. It takes 20 minutes to do a full bleed if your already in the garage working on a vehicle. Good prevention. I have dealt with a number of vehicles that have sat for a few years and the braking system is trashed, seals absorb water you add new fluid and suck the water out of them then you end up replacing master and slaves/calipers.

The factory service manual assumes a normal driving behavior of 12k miles a year. The brake fluid problem gets worse the less a vehicle is driven, with no heat to drive the water out of the fluid and no fluid movement the system turns to trash quickly. If you are driving a vehicle every day it is different. But I can afford a quart of brake fluid every couple years for the vehicles that don't get driven much. The ones that do get driven a lot are going through pads every few years and they get flushed then. If you are lazy gravity bleed the system while you are doing other stuff, works good and takes no effort, mityvac is unnecessary.

Nothing is harder on a vehicle than not driving it. And I stopped having braking component problems on my recreational vehicles when I upped the fluid change schedule.

Click to expand...

Dot 4 is incredibly cheap
Dot 4LV is not

but that is a whole other conversation.

The point of the mityvac was not having to worry about running out of fluid. when gravity feeding that can easily happen, then you get air bubbles in the system. yay

If you are one of those guys that is compelled to change your brake fluid often, rock on.

txgunsntrucks said:

i'm sorry. I gotta ask. how old are you? driven before? I'm all about maintenance, but ******** son.

two year brake fluid, air filter and cabin filter..................for a truck with 3,300 miles? umm no. at that rate you don't need to change those for LOTS of years.

3 year coolant, trans, differential change? Dude, really? on a 3,300 mile truck?

you must have both time and money to blow.

At the rate you are going I think you need to relax and get some experience. because you are YEARS AND YEARS AND TENS OF THOUSANDS of miles away from most of that.

Now what I would absolutely consider given that you obviously don't drive much. Is a battery tender. it's pretty retard proof.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00068XCQU/?tag=fordraptorforum-20

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Haha. I am old enough to know better I guess.

Battery Maintainer: The 2019 Raptor is my wife's so it stays local. I drive it when I can on the highway and get up to temp and keep it on a Deltran battery maintainer. My 2018 911 C4S is on a CTEK battery maintainer. I DD my 2018 M3 so there is no need for anything there.

Hydrophilic Properties: I bring up brake fluid changes every two years because the fluid is hydrophilic as it attracts water. I suppose the other fluids like the transmission is not.

smart man. I'd say you'd be OK going 4 years between brake fluid changes. you aren't racing or anything like that.

but I get it. it's just fun to do some stuff and keep up on it

B E N said:

Yep, every other year, my bad. Brake fluid is incredibly cheap, brake components are not. It takes 20 minutes to do a full bleed if your already in the garage working on a vehicle. Good prevention. I have dealt with a number of vehicles that have sat for a few years and the braking system is trashed, seals absorb water you add new fluid and suck the water out of them then you end up replacing master and slaves/calipers.

The factory service manual assumes a normal driving behavior of 12k miles a year. The brake fluid problem gets worse the less a vehicle is driven, with no heat to drive the water out of the fluid and no fluid movement the system turns to trash quickly. If you are driving a vehicle every day it is different. But I can afford a quart of brake fluid every couple years for the vehicles that don't get driven much. The ones that do get driven a lot are going through pads every few years and they get flushed then. If you are lazy gravity bleed the system while you are doing other stuff, works good and takes no effort, mityvac is unnecessary.

Nothing is harder on a vehicle than not driving it. And I stopped having braking component problems on my recreational vehicles when I upped the fluid change schedule.

Click to expand...

Hey raise your hand if you have ever in your life owned a vehicle that you had to replace your daily driver calipers because of too long of a change in brake fluid.

Yeah me neither. Shit I don't even know anyone that has ever happened to. Brakes are one of the most reliable things on a vehicle. You could put snot in the the brake lines and that shit would stop (exaggeration).

I'm ******* 41 years old and literally just did a brake flush on a truck for the first time. And that was only because I was helping a buddy who happened to want to change his calipers. I've owned probably 20 vehicles, do tons of my own maintenance. And never had any inkling of any reason whatsoever to need to change the brake fluid. hahahaha Is it easy, yeah it's easy. Will I do it in the future, maybe. But if I do it, probably at my trucks 5 year mark or so. It's because I feel like it, not because I feel it absolutely needs to be done.

The fact is people on a site like this are picky as **** about their truck. Probably moreso than 99% of the population. ( you are on a ******** website just to talk about your truck and how much you love it and love taking care of it, this is you. think on that)

So it's pretty easy to say that some people here do all sorts of maintenance that is not required yet or even is NEVER required (sealed differential). And they do it just because they love to do it.

They love to quote what the manufacturer states for some things, but ignore others. (not changing spark plugs until 100k is a good example here) Or not changing differential fluid AT ALL.

I quoted your post but this is directed to EVERYONE.

Enjoy your friday folks.