2014 EL Scheduled Maintenance

[Plati]

I've got 68K miles on my EL and I thought I better be doing some scheduled maintenance on things that are easily overlooked. I'm NOT talking about oil/filter changes, air filter, brakes, tires, fluids etc.. I'm talking about coolant, transmission, front & rear axle, transfer case ... kind of thing.

So I looked in my Owners Manual and to my surprise ... not sure I need to do anything. The first big item seems to be spark plugs at 97.5K. Engine coolant at 105K. Then at 150K ... ATF & filter, front & rear axle fluid, transfer case fluid, serpentine belt. I'm SHOCKED. Is this really true? Just drive & enjoy?

I seem to recall reading on here things like "holy crap you have 120K on your transmission and never changed the fluid .. its too late now dont touch it". Is that with older vehicles but not Gen 3?

 

[Adieu]

97.5 and 105k lol, they're just trying to keep you visiting their dealerships

Do both of those at the same time obviously

 

[Black]

Since the introduction of the platinum plug 100k has pretty much become the standard interval.
I don’t like the idea of something heat cycling that many times especially if dealing with aluminum blocks.
Spark plugs are cheap I swap them at 50k. Especially in these trucks where the swap is super easy. Unlike boxer engines or others where motors have to be unbolted and jacked up for plug swaps.
Same with differential, transfer case, and transmission fluids. Most of those are called for at 100k as well. Though I think the 15-17s don’t call for transmission fluid till 150k.
But like plugs fluid is cheap and easy to do.

 

[deweysmith]

I seem to recall reading on here things like "holy crap you have 120K on your transmission and never changed the fluid .. its too late now dont touch it". Is that with older vehicles but not Gen 3?

That’s never been absolutely true. What happens is your transmission wears and the friction material from that has worn off the clutches is suspended in the fluid. The clutches become so worn that they don’t quite lock anymore, but since there’s so much friction material in the fluid, they still mostly work. Someone starts complaining of mild slipping, harsh shifts, and the answer comes, change that fluid!

They do, and all that friction material that was keeping a mostly dead transmission limping along is now gone. The new fluid may improve things a bit depending on HOW worn it is, but most of the time it kills it pretty instantly.

Bottom line: if you aren’t seeing any problems but you’re well past the scheduled replacement time, have no fear. You’re probably fine to change it. If you’re experiencing problems and haven’t changed it as scheduled and are WELL beyond that window, yeah. You’re gonna have a bad time, but a bad time is probably coming down at you no matter what, it’s just a matter of when.