30K mi maintenance suggestions?

[J Piroth]

Looking for advice from some more knowledgeable than myself. (Which seems to be most on this board.)



My 2001 4X4 ST just passed 30K miles. (I've had it for four years, but we use my wife's company car for long trips, so it took a while to hit 30K and it's mainly around town driving.) I'm going to bring it in for the scheduled service, but I wondered if there was anything else anyone here would recommend having done as well.



I've changed the oil & filter every 3K miles, changed the air filter twice, changed the fuel filter once around 12K and the brakes have been completely redone in the front. (Plastic pistons in the calipers warped, locked down on one wheel and caused me to have to replace both calipers, rotors and pads.)



I'm interested in improving performance and fuel economy (I'm only getting 13 MPG around town.) as well, but I don't want to do anything that'll cause damage down the road or require lots of additional maintenance. The Xcal2, air intakes and exhaust work sound great, but I don't know enough to know what kind of impact that has on the truck over the long haul or whether they require more maintenance once they're in.



Any advice would be great.

 

[Allen Brandt]

I think you may be over due on flushing the cooling system, and I also flush the brake system every 2 years. Changing to full synthetic oil may get you an additional .1 or .2 mpg. Also, check your tire pressure (I keep mine at 35 psi). In my 2001, I'm getting a consistent 15 mpg locally and around 17 at freeway speeds (also 4x4).



Also, many here (including myself), also either flush the transmission fluid or at least, drop the pan and replace the filter.

 

[shawn stonbraker 2]

Piro, Those aftermarket "Mods" will do alittle in improving your vehicles performance. Unfortunately you have a SUT that isn't going to get great gas mileage unless you drop a 4 cylinder in it and even then, who knows.



As for the maintenance, definately either get the tranny flushed or do the filter change. Doing it yourself isn't to hard. (filter change) I posted a project on how to do it and also put in a drainplug. I put one in and now just change the fluid in the tranny every 10k miles because it's easy to do. Just pull the plug, let drain and refill. I do it when I change the oil out in the engine.

 

[TrainTrac]

stonemiser,



When you originally changed the fluid and filter in your tranny (when you did the plug project), did it completely flush all of the fluid from the tranny, including the torque converter? Just curious, because I want to do mine and convert to synthetic fluid.



Thanks.

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

Get SCT XCalibrator 2 from Wayne Foy, and have him give you a program for better gas milage & one for performance unless you do some towing then get a program for towing. The unit saves the OEM program out so that if you need to take it into the dealer you can set it back to the OEM program.

 

[shawn stonbraker 2]

Train, no it didn't. I think there is about 12 quarts in there and that only changes about 4 of them. That in my opinion is where the drain plug comes in handy. If you like you can change the fluid every time you change the oil or sooner and the tranny oil will eventually become pretty good and should stay at a good level that you shouldn't have to flush the system. Just change the filter every 30k miles and still have pretty good fluid in there. I may be looking at it the wrong way but I'm sure someone will correct me on it.:lol:

 

[J Piroth]

Thanks for the advice everyone. One question on the transmission fluid/filter change (and the necessity for a drain plug).



Ford's maintenance schedule doesn't recommend changing the tranny fluid or filter until 150K miles. Why the emphasis on changing it so much earlier/more often?

 

[Allen Brandt]

Piro: First, the transmission requirements are a bit strange. For severe use, it's 30K, but normal it's 150K. For example, oil changes are 3K vs 5K, but the transmission fluid change is far longer.



The Trac's transmission seems to be the weakest link in the entire drive train, so spending $100 or so every 2-4 years is a bargain compared with a $3500 repair. Do a search on this site for some scary comments on the transmission.