So my Dad told me he never changed his coolant.

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I was over there on Father's day and we started talking about his truck. He has a 2000 S10 (2.2L, 5-speed)that has about 225k on it now. He was talking about how he never did anything to this truck maintenance-wise besides oil changes and that he is shocked it still runs so well. My dad is the kind of guy that since the truck has been running so well for this long, messing with maintenance makes him worried it will mess up the truck.

Fuel filter, spark plugs, differential and tranny fluid... all from the factory. He had the stock airfilter in there until he was having trouble starting the car. A CEL popped up and it turns out it was from the ridiculously clogged airfilter. He changed it at about 200k.

I then asked him about the coolant and of course, factory fill. I really want to drain the coolant for this man but he seems nervous it will screw things up since he went so long on factory fill.
mad.gif


I just wonder what that dexcool looks like at this point. No true point to this story other than cars and trucks these days can obviously take insane amounts of neglect and keep on goin'.

If I drain this beast, I'll post pics. lol
 
Do all these items while you're working on it. Gees, that's some neglect there.

"Fuel filter, spark plugs, differential and tranny fluid... all from the factory."
 
Originally Posted By: jigen
He was talking about how he never did anything to this truck maintenance-wise besides oil changes and that he is shocked it still runs so well. My dad is the kind of guy that since the truck has been running so well for this long, messing with maintenance makes him worried it will mess up the truck.





It has been my experience that if you do any maintenance to a vehicle like this, the owner will blame you for any repairs that will be needed in the future, even if it's a year from now.
Does this describe you dad, or will you be able to do the maintenance work without fear of this?
 
It sure is. At least he is always spot on with doing his oil changes, lol.

Kruse - Yea, that sort of describes my dad. Spark plugs, differential and tranny fluid... yea, I can see him blame me if something were to happen. I wouldn't think coolant though, and I feel like that might be the first thing he needs done.
 
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Originally Posted By: jigen
I was over there on Father's day and we started talking about his truck. He has a 2000 S10 (2.2L, 5-speed)that has about 225k on it now. He was talking about how he never did anything to this truck maintenance-wise besides oil changes and that he is shocked it still runs so well. My dad is the kind of guy that since the truck has been running so well for this long, messing with maintenance makes him worried it will mess up the truck.

Fuel filter, spark plugs, differential and tranny fluid... all from the factory. He had the stock airfilter in there until he was having trouble starting the car. A CEL popped up and it turns out it was from the ridiculously clogged airfilter. He changed it at about 200k.

I then asked him about the coolant and of course, factory fill. I really want to drain the coolant for this man but he seems nervous it will screw things up since he went so long on factory fill.
mad.gif


I just wonder what that dexcool looks like at this point. No true point to this story other than cars and trucks these days can obviously take insane amounts of neglect and keep on goin'.

If I drain this beast, I'll post pics. lol



That's not good, but since he is your Dad I would not give him one of these,
mad.gif
, I would just give him a hug and give him one of these,
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
Do all these items while you're working on it. Gees, that's some neglect there.

"Fuel filter, spark plugs, differential and tranny fluid... all from the factory."


This is what I find so frustrating--I religiously maintain my vehicles and have yet to have one pass 100,000 miles without a critical failure. Yet I see people neglect theirs and they run forever. Doesn't make sense.

John
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny


That's not good, but since he is your Dad I would not give him one of these,
mad.gif
, I would just give him a hug and give him one of these,
frown.gif





Haha, yes that seems more appropriate.
 
John K - I understand, I would be frustrated too. If my dad's truck went tomorrow he would look at it as a truck he drove everyday for 10 years and got 230k out of it. Not a truck that would have gotten 300k+ with a little routine maintenance.

He's not wrong for thinking that, but I know I sleep better knowing my fluids are all relatively fresh. Then again, I am a weirdo and love doing stuff like changing my coolant lol.
 
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Originally Posted By: jigen
I then asked him about the coolant and of course, factory fill. I really want to drain the coolant for this man but he seems nervous it will screw things up since he went so long on factory fill.
mad.gif


I just wonder what that dexcool looks like at this point. No true point to this story other than cars and trucks these days can obviously take insane amounts of neglect and keep on goin'.

If I drain this beast, I'll post pics. lol
Can't wait to see it. Wondering how the recovery tank looks? IMO, if he's got no intake gasket leaks by now, he could be ok. Another guy over on the Coolant board posted pics of S10 Dex radiator and it looked great. Obviously had more maintenance though, but perhaps S10 is not so sensitive to the Dexcool phenomenon. Do a good flush procedure before refilling.

At least he did change the oil. Since he's your Dad it's ok to cut him some slack and do some maintenance for him. Nice father's day gift. lol
 
Originally Posted By: addyguy
I wouldn't want to try and take those spark plugs out after 225k...
I agree, but at least on a 4 banger they should be easy to access. Perhaps a PB Blaster soak beforehand could help.
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny
Originally Posted By: jigen
I was over there on Father's day and we started talking about his truck. He has a 2000 S10 (2.2L, 5-speed)that has about 225k on it now. He was talking about how he never did anything to this truck maintenance-wise besides oil changes and that he is shocked it still runs so well. My dad is the kind of guy that since the truck has been running so well for this long, messing with maintenance makes him worried it will mess up the truck.

Fuel filter, spark plugs, differential and tranny fluid... all from the factory. He had the stock airfilter in there until he was having trouble starting the car. A CEL popped up and it turns out it was from the ridiculously clogged airfilter. He changed it at about 200k.

I then asked him about the coolant and of course, factory fill. I really want to drain the coolant for this man but he seems nervous it will screw things up since he went so long on factory fill.
mad.gif


I just wonder what that dexcool looks like at this point. No true point to this story other than cars and trucks these days can obviously take insane amounts of neglect and keep on goin'.

If I drain this beast, I'll post pics. lol



That's not good, but since he is your Dad I would not give him one of these,
mad.gif
, I would just give him a hug and give him one of these,
frown.gif





Johnny,

You need to teach this younger generation how to be cool like you! You's an awesome guy!
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: John_K


This is what I find so frustrating--I religiously maintain my vehicles and have yet to have one pass 100,000 miles without a critical failure. Yet I see people neglect theirs and they run forever. Doesn't make sense.
John


What make/model cars have these been?

Any manual trans Honda, 4 cyl Toyota or Crown Victoria/Merc Marquis (and others I'm not as familiar with) would all go well beyond 100,000 without catastrophic failure. As long as the oil were changed per the manual in them. Most would probably hit 200,000 with very soft maintenance. The auto trans fluid would be the catastrophic culprit if it weren't changed. In fact you could buy any of the above, in good shape used, with 100K miles on them and still get another 100K out of em. Frequently another 200K. But with a coolant change or two.

Your Sonata should do fine too I bet.
 
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lol I'm really not that young, didn't mean much by the mad face.
wink.gif


Anyway he said he planned on taking it to a shop for the plugs. It would normally be an easy job but as mentioned, not something I want to mess with considering they have 225k on them.

Dex cool is an oddball. From what I've seen if it's in a vehicle that doesn't get all gunked up it looks really clean, even with a lot of miles on it. This truck should be a candidate to see if I am wrong, ha.
 
Dexcool is really hit-and miss. I've seen systems with 20k on them that were completely sludged. And I've seen systems with nearly 200k on the ORIGINAL coolant that looked fine. Could go either way.
 
Originally Posted By: Art_Vandelay
Originally Posted By: John_K


This is what I find so frustrating--I religiously maintain my vehicles and have yet to have one pass 100,000 miles without a critical failure. Yet I see people neglect theirs and they run forever. Doesn't make sense.
John


What make/model cars have these been?

Any manual trans Honda, 4 cyl Toyota or Crown Victoria/Merc Marquis (and others I'm not as familiar with) would all go well beyond 100,000 without catastrophic failure. As long as the oil were changed per the manual in them. Most would probably hit 200,000 with very soft maintenance. The auto trans fluid would be the catastrophic culprit if it weren't changed. In fact you could buy any of the above, in good shape used, with 100K miles on them and still get another 100K out of em. Frequently another 200K. But with a coolant change or two.

Your Sonata should do fine too I bet.


1978 Chevy Chevette, only 6 years old/50k miles, rusted so bad I had to junk it (I know, I know, Chevettes are cheap)
1982(?) Ford Granada, only 8 years old/75k miles, not sure why but head cracked, beginning of tons of issues, had to dump it
1998 Buick Lesabre, only 7 years old/98k miles, leaking intake gasket issue, before I discovered BITOG so I wasn't familiar with this problem. This car was total POS, had tons of issues starting at 30k miles, mechanic said to fix the gasket issue plus other issues would be thousands so we dumped it.

On all these vehicles, all maintenance listed in the manual was done as recommended.

John
 
For the Chevette and the Granada, that's low mileage for the number of years - lots of short trips in those? That did in cars a lot faster years ago than today.

As for the Buick, I can believe it. BIL has a 1999 w/100k miles on it, and he's having nothing but problems with it....
 
you should be ok with changing all the fluid out except the tranny. Leave it in there till it dies as changing the tranny fluid NOW may just kill it.

I've never seen changing coolant cause any kind of catastrophic failure, ensure he changes out his thermostat as well.
 
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Originally Posted By: Mau
you should be ok with changing all the fluid out except the tranny. Leave it in there till it dies as changing the tranny fluid NOW may just kill it.

I've never seen changing coolant cause any kind of catastrophic failure, ensure he changes out his thermostat as well.


Even for a manual trans?
 
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