I am thinking of going to a mechanic and having the timing belt and fan belt replaced. Someone on the GQ board also recommended the water pump and timing belt tensioner. However due to the low labor charges getting a new water pump may be unnecessary for me (they only recommended it due to potential double labor charges). What else should i have routinenly fixed, looked at or replaced at 100k miles? It is a 199 2.5L 4-cylinder ford ranger and I bought it because alot of reviews said it was mechanically reliable and low maintenance. I found a good mechanic who only charges $25/hr and who only charges face value for parts, and he will let you bring in your own parts if you want. So i can get work done pretty cheaply.
Keep in mind my main concern isn’t cosmetic upgrades, and upgrades that make the car run ‘smoother’ aren’t that important either. I’m mainly concerned with just replacing parts that if they break could leave me stranded or that would do hundreds to thousands in damage if they aren’t replaced.
I did something similar in my last car. It worked-the only trouble I had after that was the clutch cable snapping, but that’s not exactly something you can predict, really.
Conventional wisdom is that you really, really should replace the water pump. The water pump is generally run off of one of the belts (varies by vehicle, I think), and they have a nasty habit of just siezing up one day. This of course shreds your brand-new belt, stopping you dead in the middle of the highway or something equally crappy.
When I had my car fixed up, I replaced the belt (I think I just had one) and the water pump, and I had them check all the hoses and gaskets for wear or cracks. These are the things that are most likely to cause your car to die, as long as your block, head gasket, piston rings, valves, etc are ok. You couldn’t really tell how those are doing without taking the head off, and they’re super-expensive to fix, so I would just let it ride. I would also have him do a load-test on the alternator (sp?) to see if it’s still ok - if it’s not giving you good juice, it’ll eventually kill your battery, so you may as well replace it.
Have them change the fluid in the transimission, and the transmission filter if it has one. This is something that is often overlooked. Just changing the fluid can often get an extra 50k or more out of a transmission.
Actually, after the maintenance schedule in the book has run out, I’ve just started it over, with the addition of what others have suggested in this thread. A compression test is a good idea too.
Someone on another thread recommended timing belt, timing belt tensioner fan belt, water pump, cam seals and crank seals. Is there anything else i should look into?
First of all, if your mechanic is good, he will tell you what you need to do at 100k miles. In fact, he won’t even go by mileage, because he can’t be sure that your previous mechanic did everything necessary at 75k, 50k, 25k, etc…
Anyway, you have the essential list so far. He should check a few other things, as well. They may not need replacing but in my experience, they sometimes do.
Radiator and coolant hoses. Check for leaks, especially at seams. Some Fords have the radiators with the aluminum core and plastic wells on the sides. The epoxy that holds these two materials together fails, usually before 100k miles, though.
Alternator and battery. Check the charging capacity of the alternator and the charge holding capacity of the battery.
Transmission, yep. Filter and fluid change.
Differential/CV joints/wheel bearings/etc. Inspect and look for wear.
What was the previous maintenance history? Do you know?
