2013 Tahoe..Preventive vs Reactive

[TNJYOUNG]

Thinking my truck needs many things to be “as new”.

Curious as to what all of you think should be done as preventive maintenance vs what you would just wait till it breaks to fix. For example: replace shocks/struts at 100k miles or wait till they break? Replace upper and lower ball joints, or wait till they break?

I don’t want to just dump money into the truck, but sometimes it is cheaper to do preventative vs reactive.

Br—

 

[swathdiver]

Thinking my truck needs many things to be “as new”.

Curious as to what all of you think should be done as preventive maintenance vs what you would just wait till it breaks to fix. For example: replace shocks/struts at 100k miles or wait till they break? Replace upper and lower ball joints, or wait till they break?

I don’t want to just dump money into the truck, but sometimes it is cheaper to do preventative vs reactive.

Br—

A little bit of both for us Jason. I don't have pockets deep enough to replace parts at X number of miles. My oil cooler lines are weaping and my dipstick tube is cracked. Those parts are in the garage and frankly I'll procrastinate as long as possible before doing those repairs.

 

[Doubeleive]

I do "all" my fluids annually, regardless of miles driven
I did all 4 of the 02 sensors at 100k (which is what they are rated for)
my shocks/struts almost made it to 100k they had to be replaced
I am at 115k and just had a very thorough front end inspection-got a clean bill of health so no worries about ball joints, etc at this time
radiators I replace at 5 years as a general rule of thumb I live in California so the heat kills them
batteries barely make it 3+ years around here as well
my vehicle is a 2012 so I just purchased all new heater hoses and "t"' connectors to put on this spring, this is a problem area for these trucks sooner or later those "t"'s get weak from the heat and break so this is a preventive maintenance for me
I added a bigger external trans cooler and deep trans pan to keep the trans temps down, a cooler trans will last longer "heat kills"
I also upgraded the electric cooling fan system to dual 700w fans (rpo k5l) some vehicles come with that option already mine did not so I added it
I am planning on wrapping the fuel rail with heat wrap to help prevent any possible "vapor lock" that generally only occurs at higher elevation but better safe than sorry and it just applies to my general "heat kills" thing.
I also get under the truck and check visually for any leaks or missing parts about once a month, sometimes one thing can lead to another so I try to stay on top of it.
I plan on driving this for many years so anything I can do to help make it last longer is money saved down the road.

 

[TNJYOUNG]

I do "all" my fluids annually, regardless of miles driven
I did all 4 of the 02 sensors at 100k (which is what they are rated for)
my shocks/struts almost made it to 100k they had to be replaced
I am at 115k and just had a very thorough front end inspection-got a clean bill of health so no worries about ball joints, etc at this time
radiators I replace at 5 years as a general rule of thumb I live in California so the heat kills them
batteries barely make it 3+ years around here as well
my vehicle is a 2012 so I just purchased all new heater hoses and "t"' connectors to put on this spring, this is a problem area for these trucks sooner or later those "t"'s get weak from the heat and break so this is a preventive maintenance for me
I added a bigger external trans cooler and deep trans pan to keep the trans temps down, a cooler trans will last longer "heat kills"
I also upgraded the electric cooling fan system to dual 700w fans (rpo k5l) some vehicles come with that option already mine did not so I added it
I am planning on wrapping the fuel rail with heat wrap to help prevent any possible "vapor lock" that generally only occurs at higher elevation but better safe than sorry and it just applies to my general "heat kills" thing.
I also get under the truck and check visually for any leaks or missing parts about once a month, sometimes one thing can lead to another so I try to stay on top of it.
I plan on driving this for many years so anything I can do to help make it last longer is money saved down the road.

This is very helpful and EXACTLY what I was looking for

 

[Derick]

I usually do suspension in full. You can split up the front and the back, but joints are ~30 bucks each...and shocks are like ~60 for billsteins...so its not super expensive. Some oddly expensive parts though: tie rod ends. I was balls deep into a front end job, and found one of my outer tie rod ends was toast...ran to oreilly and it was freakin 90 bucks, and no cheaper on rock auto. BTW, get your stuff at rockauto, 5% coupon code in the vendor section.

 

[intheburbs]

Replacing fluids at the proper interval is probably the single biggest thing you can do to make your truck last. My Denali just rolled 100k - I did a trans flush, both axles and the transfer case. My Suburban is at 190k, and will get the same treatment this year when it rolls 200k. Since the Suburban has the hydroboost brakes, I also regularly change the power steering fluid.

I did struts/springs and shocks on the Denali also, not because it was riding poorly, but because the set of 4 was only $200, and I wanted to play with some new tools. Coming up on 100k on my Bilstein 5100s on the Suburban, but I'll probably just wait until I see some bad behavior to replace them.

I've had no issues with my transmission and I tow a lot, including the Rockies, so I saw no need for any additional cooling. Also never had any vapor lock issues, and I've had it as high as Pikes Peak in Colorado, and 115° ambient temperatures while offroading in Canyonlands (my avatar pic).

Suspension pieces get replaced when I find play when doing my tire rotations. I think I've replaced 3 of the 4 ball joints on the Denali. The Suburban is still gtg. I also make sure I regularly lube the chassis and suspension zerks.

The serpentine gets replace whether it needs it or not, every 75k. It's cheap and easy insurance.

Will be doing the spark plugs in the Denali when it gets warmer. It's running fine with the original plugs, but again, it's $50 for a new set and I like to play with my tools.

Emissions stuff, like O2 sensors, I'll just wait til I get a CEL and a code.

I'm also fortunate that I have a large fleet of vehicles, so neither of these trucks is a daily driver. If something goes wrong, I can usually wait a couple of days to fix the problem myself.

 

[homesick]

I feel like thi is gonna be a silly question, but is there a list someplace of ALL the scheduled maintenances?

joe

 

[TNJYOUNG]

I feel like thi is gonna be a silly question, but is there a list someplace of ALL the scheduled maintenances?

joe

Yes, in the owners manual. But thinks like hoses, control arms, struts/shocks, ball joints are not listed.

 

[TNJYOUNG]

I usually do suspension in full. You can split up the front and the back, but joints are ~30 bucks each...and shocks are like ~60 for billsteins...so its not super expensive. Some oddly expensive parts though: tie rod ends. I was balls deep into a front end job, and found one of my outer tie rod ends was toast...ran to oreilly and it was freakin 90 bucks, and no cheaper on rock auto. BTW, get your stuff at rockauto, 5% coupon code in the vendor section.

LOL!

 

[TNJYOUNG]

Thank you everyone!