No address when fails

 

I was thinking the same thing while ordering parts to rebuild my engine. Mine has 400k miles so I'm sure it has been changed but don't know when. I'll only be using it to haul locally so I decided to let it run till failure being that it's really easy to change out later. If I were hauling more than an hour away from home I would change it out. Just not worth getting stuck too far away for a $100-$200 part.

 

IMHO, what you replace at 135K is different from 400K...but for the 400k engine, for me it would depend on how many of those miles I put on it...

 

I would not change the water pump unless it was leaking or failed. I would not change the hoses unless they are leaking, or have signs of physical damage. I would not change a working thermostat unless you wanted one that opens at a different temp.

I bet your last car was a euro, bmw or benz. (Why I will never have another bmw (engine), Is IN THE OWNER'S MANUAL, it has ALL SORTS of ridiculous preventative maintenance. One of the examples it tells you is to replace "the entire cooling system", I think it's every 3 or 4 years or 60 or 80k miles. According to the owner's manual, for a 20 year old 3 series, you are supposed to spend about $3-$5K PER YEAR on PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE. If you replace it before it breaks, or don't follow the owner's manual's suggested maintenance schedule, then they can keep a BS higher reliability rating.

We don't do that in here. 135K is LOW mileage. If someone pulled your engine and knew it was running good with that mileage, its not even worth rebuilding, and would just drop it right in, expecting it to last another 150K miles.

Preventative maintenance on your truck is in your owner's manual. The fluids and filters are about the only thing you want to replace routinely. The spark plugs and wires, the OBVIOUS, easy, common items. Everything else should have signs of (major) wear or damage before you start spending a ton of money replacing things that are working fine. There are a few other problems with your pickup that you could replace based on some build issues, like the plastic coupler at the firewall for the heater core, or the clutch pedal bracket, but where ever you got the idea from, to do that on this pickup, you should unlearn that.

 

Yeah the waterpumps are a crap shoot, like fuel pumps and the 4l60e transmission. Their time may be up around 100k mark, or perhaps they go to 250k before giving up. Fluid maintenance has a lot to do with how these things last.

You could change a waterpump on one of these trucks just about anywhere with a few hand tools.

 

If anything get a GM part not some bunchescheapjunk.com part

 

Interesting thread. My truck is '03 in great running shape with 125k miles. I changed out the water pump, after (one time) noticing a few drops of coolant on the garage floor. I watched it over the next couple of weeks, and no more leaks, but I replaced it anyway. I try to anticipate problems and PREVENT as many as possible. One thing that's pretty much guaranteed is that when one of these maintenance items decides to fail, it will be at a very inconvenient time.

I replaced my starter and alternator last year, simply as preventive medicine. They were both working fine. I also replaced all idler pulleys for serpentine belt, and the belt too. And oh yeah, I change my oil & filter way more than 'necessary' as well. Heck, I change all the fluids way more than necessary, LOL.

One of the ONLY times I ever broke down, was when I had a '97 K1500 with 5.7L. I was on a 600-mile trip, and about halfway, the water pump let go. Luckily there was a Chevy dealer nearby, and I got there without overheating, but it cost me almost $600 to have the water pump replaced. I could have done the job myself for about $50, and I wouldn't have had to spend half a day in the dealer's waiting area. This was 15 years ago. I imagine a water pump job at a dealer now would be pushing a grand.

 

I think the dealer saw your plates and made an easy $400 labor. A lot of shops take advantage of people out of state and in need of help. I have been lucky one time at a Ford dealer and they did wire troubleshooting that would have taken me days to find and only cost a couple hundred bux. It's kind of like finding a decent police officer, it's rare but happens once or twice in a lifetime.