I've put 45,000 miles on my truck in the past 11 months and have done most of the maintenance myself. (Thanks to this web site.) The only thing I had the dealer do was the tranny maintenance (auto).

I still need to drain and flush the cooling system, and drain and refill the transfer case. Is it simple enough to do myself or should I take it to the dealer?? If anyone can help me out with this I would appreciate it.
Thanks for the help.

 

calvin,

The t-case is about as simple as it gets, probably easier than a engine oil change as you don't have to deal with the filter and only takes a few quarts of fluid (somehwere between 2 -3). Just pull the top plug, then the bottom plug, they are on the back side of the t-case and easy to get at. They take a pretty big hex (allen) wrench, and I don't remember the size, took a couple of trips to the tool box to get the right one.

I used Redline ATF-4, but whatever is in spec would be just fine. I found that getting one of those little hand pump things that pull from the quart bottle from NAPA seemed to be helpful as its pretty hard to pour anything in the fill hole.

On the radiator flush, I took it in to a reputable radiator shop and had them use their flushing machine that completely flushes and replaces the coolant, worth the $50 in my opinion as you can never really get all the old coolant out of the system at home. I will do it once a year no matter the miles.

Hope this helps,

CTDCAL.

 

correct me if I am wrong, but the t-case wrench size is 17mm I believe......

I bought one that fits, but cannot remember the exact size. I can look for you this afternoon if you would like.

John

 

Thanks for the help guy's. T-case took about 10 minutes to change and another 10 minutes to clean up the tranny fluid I spilled and the garage floor. > I guess I'll have to call the dealer and make an appt. to change the coolant.
Thanks again.

 

So Calvin, what type/size wrench did you need to change the T-case fluid?

 

10 mm was a perfect fit

 

What type of anti-freeze/coolant should I use.
Like Havoline extended life it is (Dex-Cool) the pink stuff.

 

calvin,

I would suggest shopping around a bit for the coolant flush, I think the dealer would be much more expensive than a radiator specialty shop, and a good radiator shop knows much more about what is needed to keep the system in good working order than the dealer probably would. Flushing machines vary in quality and Radiator shops tend to have much better/expensive/technical equipment than the dealer or a general auto repair place might. As far as the brand of coolant to use, I have not investigated that too much, pretty high tech stuff out there these days, so I don't know if you can really go wrong.

CTDCAL.

 

I am sorry about the 17mm part. I do believe that is for the trans plug. : I know what I bought is way larger than 10mm. ???

 

The factory antifreeze is HOAT(hybrid organic something.....) orange stuff. Anybody found it outside the dealer?