I got my truck in June 2008 from my dad. Had 379 000km on it. It was bone stock. It didn't need any maintenance or anything when I got it from him til about the end of October.

Between October '08 and April 22, today, I've realized I have had a ton of stuff replaced on my truck. I currently have almost 418 000km on it now.


-Plugs & Wires (regular maintenance)
-Belt (worn out)
-Front & Rear Brakes (Both calipers, rotors, pads, drums & shoes)
-Tires (and rims)
-U-joints (worn out)
-Clutch (worn out, over 300 000km)
-Slave Cylinder (seized)
-Muffler (heat shield was loose and rattling)
-Passenger side mirror (hit a tree and broke it off the mount)
-Passenger side Fog Light assembly (broken mounts)
-Battery (original, 7 years old)
-Fuel filter (original, 7 years old)
-Windshield (cracked from gravel truck)
-Gauge cluster bulbs (Burnt out)
-Headlight & Foglight bulbs (Burnt out)
-Trailer wiring harness (re-wire)
-Leaf spring shackles (driver's side was cracked)
-Regular oil changes every 5000km


I'm pretty sure that's everything I've had repaired and replaced due to needing replacement rather than just preventative maintenance, or it was broken. In 10 months my truck has cost me around $4000 in maintenance for parts & labour. Ouch.

But she's a great runner and I love my truck. Going to keep it going for as long as I can.

 

hence why i bought newer

 

they sure nickel and dime you to death don't they!

good lookin' truck though!

 

Mikey.....is the juice worth the squeeze???

 

i think my truck has between $4,000 and $6,000 worth of work into it? i'd be fudged without a warranty (which is up in 15,000 km)

...you know, for your truck having 418,000 km, it looks damn good.

 

I bet if you started to do your own labor you could cut that bill in about half.

 

i wish my truck looked that good with how many miles i have

 

Same here..

I bought my truck after having it inspected and they said it only needed roughly under $1000 in repairs.

$2,000+ later and there are still things I have to have done..

 

technically my bill is $0. ya for getting a lemon 08! i think i got rid of the majority of the problems.

but for that many miles on mikeys vehicle, i'd actually expect more to go then just that haha. i guess they do actually build some decent vehicles

 

ya i do most of my work myself...or try to...and if i cant figure it out buy a case of beer and call a friend.

 

dude, I work rotating shift work during the week, I have street parking and no garage and don't even have half the tools I need for most major jobs, let alone the time to do it myself.

If it took my mechanic 4 hours to do my shackles with the right tools, that would take me an entire weekend by myself slaving away in my driveway and have my truck out of commission the whole time.

Sometimes it's worth it to pay someone to do it properly.

 

The truck was free to me, so I had no initial cost. All I've had to do is maintain it, pay insurance and put gas in it.

Plus the KBB value is probably about the same as what I've got into it and I have no plans of getting rid of the truck any time soon. I'm literally going to drive it into ground til it can't drive any more. It'll end up being just a winter beater if anything within the next couple years.

 

Dang man, sorry but he got you with 4 hours for shackles. took me 20mins for both sides with a floor jack and regular hand tools...

Maintaining a vehicle does cost bucks, but doing your own work will drop dramatically. Sucks for your shifts and work area. Depends on how bad you want to do it. Figuring you spent about $250 in labor or so for JUST the shackles, you'd be better off just renting a storage garage and doing your stuff there...And you know it's done right...

I know you probably dont want to do that. But the more you learn how to fix, the less it will cost for the rest of your life.

 

Well, I CAN do the majority of the work myself, but like I said....time,space,tools...all things I don't necessarily have at my disposal.

As for the shackles, their labout chart says it should take 2 hours. He was 4 hours because the bolts were seized. You have it pretty good living in dry climate. The underside of my truck looks like a rust bucket, hence why the bolts were seized in the shackles. After hammering on them, they finally had to get the torch to cut them off...and the torch ran out of acetylene on the last bolt. The new ones went in no problem, but when you're working with rusty, corroded, mud covered fasteners, life isn't that easy. His labour rate is $60/hr which is super cheap, as all the other shops in the area charge $80-90/hr.

My truck was in the shop for 6 hours today, so I paid for 6 hours labour. 4 of it was for the shackles because they were a pain in the ***, another hour for the fuel filter and they took a little over an hour for the belt because they had to have 5 different belts sent to them before Napa sent them one that fit.

Plus, I don't enjoy sitting outside in my driveway in the dead of winter trying to to fix something, or sitting out there on the hottest day of the summer sweating my *** off and getting eaten alive by mosquitos and black flies. If I had a garage, I'd do a ton more work myself. Half the time I couldn't be bothered to do the work myself either, just because I don't have anywhere to do it, or have the tools to do it.

 

LOL im sure your alot harder on the truck than your dad was.... and you can cut some of the costs involved there im sure.. like the rims and tires

either way for 420k she is doing pretty good

 

lol, I'm slightly harder on it.....But I do keep it very well maintained. As well,if not better than he did.

I've only offroaded it as many times as I can count on one hand. I don't actually beat the crap out of it, I take it pretty easy on it due to all the miles.

The rims and tires...well...that was the biggest expense....$1500. BUT...my stock rims were absolutely hideous from peeling and pitting, and I was due for new tires as well, so I splurged and bought new wheels. But everything else has been maintenance.

 

Dude your truck looks in really good shape for the miles. I just started throwing cash into mine, just put in a couple new things maintenance wise, plus i've been doing all my own work on the truck lately too me and my bud next door. I love it, just learned how to replace shocks front and rear and outer tie rods, plus I've done a couple other new little mods.

 

It looks as good as it does because it's been very well taken care of all it's life. The most abuse it's ever has has been the past 10 months I've owned it.

As I said, I've wheeled it a few times, I've hauled some heavy loads in the bed and with trailers, but the majority of the truck's life has been highway commuter miles. My dad bought it new in April 2002, so it's been a 1 owner truck. He took great care of it, and now I'm keeping it going. It's been a great truck and a testament to the Built Ford Tough slogan....even if it is a Mazda.

 

They shouldn't be charging you for NAPA's screw up. How is that your fault? The shop should eat the cost of that, not you.

I know at my shop, that's what we do. The customer shouldn't pay for our (or Napa's) screw up.

Just what I think.

 

I dunno how I was charged, but either way it was 6 hours. The truck wasn't sitting idle in the shop woth nobody working on it and charging me for it. I had popped in about 3 times throughout the day to see how everything was going. The shackles didn't look like fun. Let's just say there was a big pile of mud and rust on the floor under my truck lol.