Anyone proactively replace parts?

[Fredrickson]

When I was a sales rep, making actual in-person sales calls and spending way too much time in a car,
I called on trucking fleets.

I had several accounts that would change out parts.. starters, water pumps, bearings, hoses, etc.. at specified mileage, regardless of condition, based on failure data they had on the fleet as a whole.

Do any of you replace parts at a periodic interval because you heard, or you know, the expected life span was X miles, and want to fix it before it's a problem.. or do you just wait until there are signs of wear and failure? (not including oil changes, and things like that)

It came up in conversation the other night, so I thought I would pose it to this audience of esteemed individuals.

 

[Booyah45828]

Depends on what it is and the situation.

If we're talking IDI engines solely, no. I replace things as they break on that old ****.

In the shop:

Tune ups on gas engines would nearly always happen at a mileage interval, and we'd always replace wires, filters etc. all at the same time, problem occuring or not.

Same with every timing belt gets changed at a specific interval, and when you do that we change all tensioners and idler pulleys, water pumps, serpentine belts, hoses, etc. Anything that could wear out before the next timing belt replacement and cause the new belt to fail, got replaced.

But I've never sold someone wheel bearings or ball joints at a timed interval, or really anything else for that matter. It was always wear/maintenance items and their associated parts.

But I understand how fleets would want to do it at a specific mileage/hour. In their eyes, it's going to fail regardless, and when it fails on the road, not only would it cost more to replace it then vs in the shop, you also might lose any revenue the load was going to make. Kind of a double whammy if you will. Do that a few times and it gets expensive quick. Much more then what you'd "lose" by replacing the parts early.

 

[david85]

I change parts when they start making funny noises.

 

[Kevin 007]

Yup I try to stay ahead of things if I catch some early signs of failure. Not so much by mileage.

And with powerstrokes, things like cam sensors, gp relays etc, I just replace whenever I get a new to me truck, if they are showing signs of acting up or not.

 

[nitroguy]

Yep!

I regularly remove and replace my oil before the entire pan drips out. Usually it's just a quart or two low, but I change it all anyway every 3-5k miles.

 

[notenuftime]

I take care of mine, it's my only vehicle so I depend on it every day. But I only replace what I need to when I need to. In my experience you should run the factory OEM parts for as long as possible. The stuff from the parts stores in a lot of cases is no where near the same quality as factory parts. If it's not broke don't fix it.

 

[franklin2]

No! I have found if I have a original Ford part that is still working, it's best to leave it on there instead of replacing it with a piece of junk from China.

You will find many many threads on here, where a guy has a problem with his truck, and uses the shotgun approach and replaces everything hoping to fix the problem, and ends up with more problems than he started with.

 

[Jason1377]

I replace items wore out as well as try to afford spares in case there is a hickup or two.

 

[Scotty4]

I just did my ujoints and made sure I ordered spares. I do the same with wheel bearings and belts. As for maintaining, well, I just give things a look over and a shake here and there to determine if it needs it. Usually just let it ride.

 

[nelstomlinson]

When I was driving VW diesels from the '70s and early '80s, I would change belts and hoses every fall, and would change drums, rotors, wheel bearings and seals every time I changed the brake pads. The reason was that I was getting cheap parts from Brazil via J.C. Whitney, and expected them to have a short life. They were cheap enough that I was OK with early replacement.

With the IDIs, the cheap parts from China are pretty expensive, so like notenuftime and franklin2 are saying, I leave the good old stuff in there as long as it's working. When I have to replace something, I look for NOS Motorcraft, or at least US or European country of origin. Performance or hotrod stuff seems a little more likely to be made in the USA.

Like Scotty4 says, if one breaks, I usually buy two. I have several trucks and it makes sense to stock wear parts, rather than wait or pay for shipping. As I go through the fleet, I plan to try to change everything over to the same parts where that's possible, rather than stocking two sorts of the same part. I intend to change all my trucks over to the later fuel return lines, for one example. I plan to put the serpentine belt setup on each engine that I rebuild, for another.

 

[Garbage_Mechan]

I was one of those guys with a fleet that was replacing parts proactively. With 120 garbage trucks ranging from new to 12 years old in blocks of up to 30 of one year / body type. Believe me when a trend develops I learned to get on it. Having multiple trucks down at once for the same part didn’t go over well with route managers.

 

[Garbage_Mechan]

On my personal fleet I tend to change parts by system. So if I change a water pump, I change the hoses, thermostat, flush the block and radiator and take a hard look at the fan clutch. Or if a belt idler pulley goes out change them all.

 

[nelstomlinson]

On my personal fleet I tend to change parts by system. So if I change a water pump, I change the hoses, thermostat, flush the block and radiator and take a hard look at the fan clutch. Or if a belt idler pulley goes out change them all.

When you take a part off, replace it. That's a good idea if the replacements are as good as the original was.
With parts coming from China, I'm not so eager to toss stuff that hasn't broken yet.

 

[Garbage_Mechan]

Yep, and I tend to go quality over price. But it doesn’t always work! Got an expensive Motorcraft water pump for a 7.3 Powerstroke lately, turned out to Made in China. Sent it back and got an Airtex made in USA. It is getting tough, Cummins is worldwide for sure.

 

[Golden Helmet]

My VW gets serviced strictly by the book, every 10K miles it gets whatever the book says plus whatever other repairs come up. I drive it almost 1K miles a week so I need to keep it happy.

My IDI I bought with 293K miles on it, it's about to hit 330K and still on the original engine. So basically, anything I unbolt, I just replace with something new because it *HAS* to be at the end of its life by now. It still has its original power steering and vacuum pump, its first alternator lasted 320K miles, first water pump lasted like 310K.... You get the idea, none of these parts owe me any favors, so if it's gotta come off for something, it's best to just put something new back in there.