Maintenance Schedule for Fluids

Hey Guys, I have a 2013 Rock Warrior with the 5.7L Flex Fuel. Sitting at 55,000 miles. Took it in for an oil change today, and the place where I have it serviced "recommended" some new fluids. I am not sure what part of this was an upsell, justified, needed, or not to worry about.

Trans Fluid Exchange: $188
Cooling System Fluid Exchange: 138
Transfer Case Fluid: $110
Diff Fluid Exchange: $90
Diff Fluid Exchange: $90
Brake Fluid Exchange $90
Power Steering Fluid Exchange: $105

All in with taxes damn near $900 of fluids. What stands out in terms of must have, and when. Is there any on here that seem unneeded or too expensive? I want the truck to last me several years yet to come. Any input or prioritization of this list?

 

Trans Fluid Exchange: 90k miles
Cooling System Fluid Exchange: 100k miles
Transfer Case Fluid: 30k, 60k, 90k...
Diff Fluid Exchange: 30k, 60k, 90k...
Diff Fluid Exchange: 30k, 60k, 90k...
Brake Fluid Exchange: Every 3 years or 60k
Power Steering Fluid Exchange: 100k

Unless you are towing quite a bit. Then the change intervals will be less, particularly, the transmission fluid.

 

By the way, most of the prices are absurd. The transmission fluid and coolant are not bad but the rest are crazy!

 

Thanks for the feedback. I see I am nearing the scheduled times for a few you listed. I will look into those at other providers. $900 for fluids, just shocked me a bit.

 

IIRC my dealer said the 30k fluid changes will cost about $100

 

that's where they make money..those "fluids" changes

 

Watch a few YouTube, grab a couple of tools, order fluids of eBay....

....... and get intimate with your ride.

You could cut the cost over a half.....

 

I would not bother with transfer case unless you put a lot of miles on in 4wd which most people don't. I changed on Tacoma at 50k and fluid looked like it just came out of bottle. I drove at least the 10 miles per month in 4wd. Even then I might have had 1k max.

 

Duiuuudeeeeee. Let me give you a push-start. Here is one video off YouTube.

https://youtu.be/Q2Aq3rqsxJo

Unless you have a gold spoon, cut your fingernails and get personal.

Me personally changed every gad Darn fluids in my truck to have a peace of mind at the end of the day!!!

 

And that's why they are called stealerships.
I just bought my 08 last may, not sure of the maintenance done, I changed all fluids (except brake fluid).
I'm guessing I spent around $225.
Mobil1 in the engine, Toyota coolant and trans fluid, Lucas full synthetic in the diffs and transfer case.
And I know they are full !

 

wow...$900. that's why i do all my own. 5 gallon bucket of synthetic gear oil is around $200. that's almost three changes of both diffs and transmission. 4 gallons of toyota red should be about $60. $50 for each oil change with mobil1 synthetic...havent' looked into tranny yet, but appears i could do three changes for the price of one at your shop :O

 

do. it. yourself.

 

I know this post is ancient but ide like to just say that first off this is a great post and you guys are absolutely right. You can do it yourself however just would like to say that when I worked at Toyota dealership in Utah they taught me how to do “transmission flushes” and the master tech explained to me that it’s better to use this machine to flush out the old transmission fluid than to just “drain and refill”. So I’m suggesting on some transmissions it may be benificial to bring it to a dealership/shop because we would hook it up to your transmission oil cooler hose inlet/outlet and while the truck was idling I could see all the black oil used coming into the machine and the new red oil going into it. My point is not to say you can’t find a cheaper way to do this yourself but that it may be slightly more efficient to to the transmission “flush” at a shop. Because in some situations you may be draining and refilling only part of what’s in your transmission. Again I’m not saying you can’t have success yourself but just do your research and check a service manual to make sure you put in the right amount and correct type also. You may find the oil is cheaper but use what is supposed to be In there and look up what the right oil is for your vehicle.

for engine coolant (antifreeze replacement I use a nice little tool that helps bleed the air out of the whole system. Its a kit you can buy for like $30 bucks at a parts store. It looks like a yellow funnel with varius different radiator cap fittings. You just attach the funnel to your radiator after you’ve drained out all the old coolant when you’re ready to refill. You just attach the funnel, add coolant in the radiator/resivore till it filled to the full line and you leave some coolant in the funnel too. you just idle the truck. What’s cool (har har) about it is you get to see the bubbles coming up through the funnel and when it’s all bleed properly you won’t see much anymore and you just remove the funnel and add the radiator cap back on after you turn the truck off.
https://www.lislecorp.com/specialty-tools/spill-free-funnel-606

 

I agree that transmission flush cannot be done at home since a "drain & refill" will only get a portion of the oil out; just the way the transmission works.
Differential and engine oil is easy to do at home.
Brake fluid is another one that I would rather have the dealer do.

When you get multiple services done at the same time, as in the original OP's case, you can ask for a discount, because these services all include "wait time" for the oil to drain. If you do multiple concurrent, the tech can be busy with the next one while the first one is draining, so more efficient use of time. i.e. if each takes 30 minutes, 6 services can be done in one or two hours kind of thing; no need to pay for 3 hours of labor.

 

Well said I agree!