Preventative maintenance questions (pay the man or DIY) (1 Viewer)

[bbqBiker]

Hi. Long time lurker + med- to light-competancy wrencher. My question is this: we are giving our 175k mile 2004 LC to our grown daughter. She asked! I want to do so some prev stuff before giving it to her soon. All parts in-garage for the following work. Just running out of time because I am busy at work:

Group #1:
real alternator
repl radiator, thermostat, serpentine belt + tensioner
timing belt kit (belt, water pump, etc)
heater tees
- quoted $2000-ish labor only (Nashville area too, BTW)

Group #2:
front brakes (pads/rotors) and bearings
rear pads only + rear shock swap-
- quoted $750-ish labor only

Group #3:
fluids + lubes (less oil)
- quoted $500

I know #2 is not as straight fwd as the BMWs I have done countless times. I know #3 is DIY-able too. #1 is my main question. Alt and rad seem straight fwd enough, but with low-exp on Toyotas and a limited timeline to get this done...would attempting #1 be worth the savings or not. Again, not a complete auto repair newbie but limited exp on Toyota work. Seems like doing all #1 at once saves lots of duplicitous work since the alt will be much easier if I am taking all the other stuff apart to get to timing belt fix.

Opinions? Completely subjective responses expected and appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[GTV]

Start with the easiest jobs and work your way up, basically 3, 2, 1 from your list. If you get through #2 you might be feeling ready for #3, or not in which case you'll farm it out. But at least you'll save money on the first two.

 

[3_puppies]

#1 and #2 are labor only? you supply the parts?

 

[rexington14]

With limited time I don't think I'd spend it researching and DIY'ing jobs for a truck I'm giving away and therefore never going to work on again.

If I was giving a car to a child I'd be sure to get the brakes done and any other safety related items before handing it over.

Then if I didn't want to pay for the rest, I'd throw the remaining parts in the trunk as a gift. Let your daughter decide when she wants to get them done. It would make for a good lesson in what's involved with owning one of these.

 

[bbqBiker]

#1 and #2 are labor only? you supply the parts?

Yes. Crazytown.

 

[bbqBiker]

With limited time I don't think I'd spend it researching and DIY'ing jobs for a truck I'm giving away and therefore never going to work on again.

If I was giving a car to a child I'd be sure to get the brakes done and any other safety related items before handing it over.

Then if I didn't want to pay for the rest, I'd throw the remaining parts in the trunk as a gift. Let your daughter decide when she wants to get them done. It would make for a good lesson in what's involved with owning one of these.

Not just any kid...greatest daughter e-v-e-r. I'd give her one (maybe both!) of my kidneys if she needed that, so what is a bit of prev maintenance!

 

[rexington14]

If you didn't want to get into the time & intricacies of a full TB/WP job you could split group 1 up and just DIY the radiator, serp belt + serp tensioner, alternator, heater Tees and refill coolant. No special tools or FIPG required. (what's wrong with the alternator though?)

The radiator doesn't have to come out for a TB/WP job so I don't think you're leaving any shared shop labor discounts on the table here anyways. Worst case you are paying for a couple extra gallons of coolant. I imagine you could get the TB/WP labor for close to or even under $1k if you shop around.

 

[bbqBiker]

If you didn't want to get into the time & intricacies of a full TB/WP job you could split group 1 up and just DIY the radiator, serp belt + serp tensioner, alternator, heater Tees and refill coolant. No special tools or FIPG required. (what's wrong with the alternator though?)

The radiator doesn't have to come out for a TB/WP job so I don't think you're leaving any shared shop labor discounts on the table here anyways. Worst case you are paying for a couple extra gallons of coolant. I imagine you could get the TB/WP labor for close to or even under $1k if you shop around.

Good suggestion, thx. This might be my plan actually.

Per alt, truck has a parasitic draw...(without Tender) battery craps out after 3-4 days being parked. Found good deal on Denso reman, so replacing that as well so she doesn't have to worry about it.

 

[rexington14]

You probably want to chase down the parasitic draw with a multimeter. I traced my parasitic draw to the Radio fuse. Then further isolated it to the 6 cd changer connection buried under the center console. I unplugged the connection (my cd changer didn't work anyways) and no more draw.