Mid-life suburban maintenance?

[Derick]

Recently I did a bunch of suspension work, and brake work. I'm looking to do the rear pads, and replace the shocks as well with the order I just put in at rockauto.

My question is, I'm at 143K. What kind of maitenance should I do on the offense?

Suspension is good to go, brakes will be good to go... I need to do a coolant flush, and a brake bleed, but I'm just curious to see what happens to these as their lives go on.

 

[07Burb]

sway bar end links
ball joints
tie rods
plugs
wires
..................

 

[Derick]

sway bar end links - DONE
ball joints - DONE
tie rods - just replaced the driver outter, the others looked OK
plugs - need to do, have parts, but my hands cant get in by the firewall
wires - same as plugs...
..................

 

[07Burb]

for the plugs closest to the firewall you may need to go in through the wheel well.

 

[Derick]

for the plugs closest to the firewall you may need to go in through the wheel well.

Thanks for the hint. I wondered about those as I was working on the suspension bits over the last week, I looked up and saw easy access to the plugs. Thought, hmmm this might be the way to do it.

Had to go in that way on my old explorer v6 so I've done it before....

 

[the blur]

I sold my Denali, 199,500 miles. Original spark plugs !!!
Ran amazing, & the guy is still driving it.

 

[07Burb]

I sold my Denali, 199,500 miles. Original spark plugs !!!
Ran amazing, & the guy is still driving it.

wow....no way in the world I'd run plugs that long. I've always been a proponent of preventative maintenance whenever at all possible rather than run it til something breaks. That's pretty crazy.

 

[MichaelSE]

wow....no way in the world I'd run plugs that long. I've always been a proponent of preventative maintenance whenever at all possible rather than run it til something breaks. That's pretty crazy.

Agreed.. with 200k miles, the electrodes have got to be worn out. Eventually they'll fail and start causing misfires, only thing is you can't predict when. Best to change high mileage plugs while they're still firing fine.

 

[MichaelSE]

Edit: Double post

 

[the blur]

I'm not arguing with you. All I'm telling you is my OEM plugs went 200,000 plus miles. This is not the olden days where I changed plugs & points every 25,000 miles.
And this Denali motor ran amazing till the day I sold it. The only reason I sold the Denali, is the trans was slipping; the interior was falling apart, the front axle bearing was noisy again, hubs are a PITA.
I wish I pulled the motor for a rat rod..

 

[Derick]

Hubs are a pita? They're just bolt on... Pita because of all the stuff you have to disconnect first?

 

[Doubeleive]

that #8 spark plug is EASY if you just use a series of adapters, I used a couple of adapters a small socket wrench and a breaker bar over the small wrench came out like butter.

 

[07Burb]

Hubs are a pita? They're just bolt on... Pita because of all the stuff you have to disconnect first?

My thought, too. The only other caveat is they can be a pain if you let them go too long and they get rusted in there real good. If you let them go for 100,000+ miles and several years you're gonna be in for a few headaches but nothing a pry bar and a BFH can't handle. Pretty straight forward job, though.

 

[Derick]

My thought, too. The only other caveat is they can be a pain if you let them go too long and they get rusted in there real good. If you let them go for 100,000+ miles and several years you're gonna be in for a few headaches but nothing a pry bar and a BFH can't handle. Pretty straight forward job, though.

You wanna see some PITA, check out a mitsubishi montero, early/mid 2000s. OMG brakes and hubs are next to impossible. You're definitely going to lose and/or break something.