30k mile service
 

I'm currently at 29.5k miles on my Stang and thought it was time to call the dealership and schedule an appointment for service. I get off work at 3pm so I was trying to schedule it for that time, but the guy at the dealership was nice enough to tell me that they close at 7 and 4 hours is not enough time for a professional mechanic to perform such difficult task. 2nd dealership had me on hold for 10 minutes so I ended up hanging up and started looking through the maintenance guide (should've done it first). After skipping all the "inspect" parts I came up with a list:
1. Change engine oil and filter (done 2 weeks ago)
2. Replace engine air filter (changed 14k miles ago, but is still clean and good to go for another 10k at least)
3. Replace fuel filter (will do it myself this weekend)
4. Replace cabin air filter if equpped (this is where the questions start-- I'm pretty sure it's equpped with one, how do you change it and where is it located-- glove compartment?).
5. Change auto transmission fluid on vehicles equpped with torqshift tranny, replace filter. Now I know it's 5R55S. Any hints on what in the world Torqshift transmission is? Aparently Ford was nice enough to come up with 1 maintenance guide for all their vehicles so now I need to figure out what they're talking about.
Also, I looked further up to 120k and I haven't seen anything about differential service. Also, haven't seen anything about servicing the tranny on vehicles that are NOT equipped with a Torqshift transmission. Can someone point my in the right direction on this on what needs to be done exactly?

I think the TorqShift automatic transmission is used in trucks with diesel engines. Anyway, you don't have it. Some people would suggest changing the automatic transmission fluid at 30,000 miles. Ford recommends changing the automatic transmission fluid at 150,000 miles. The same with the differential fluid.

Yes, you have a cabin air filter. It is under the cowling on the passenger side. There is probably a "how to" on this. I think it involves removing a couple of screws, removing the old filter, installing the new filter, and replacing the screws.

Maybe you don't want to take it to the dealer for a "30,000 mile" service. You have probably done a lot of the work already. Maybe you just want to give the dealer a list of specific things you want done.

Don't pass over the "inspect" items. If you can do them yourself, fine. If not, have the dealer do them.

Now this is all based on "normal" driving. If you drive under "special operating conditions," then more things may need to be done.

My suspicion is that the 30,000 mile service should not take very long if everything is okay. In a lot of cases, the dealer probably finds worn hoses, or things of that nature. The dealer doesn't want to tell you the car will be ready in two hours, find something that needs more work, and have you unhappy because you were expecting to get the car back in the specified time frame.

Do 1-4 yourself, and have the dealership, or shop of your choice do the trans service and a general inspection. I own a shop and have to laugh at what dealers charge for something that is nothing more than an inspection. Most (good) shops check that stuff in the first place EVERY time the car comes in. Its just good customer service.

http://www.mylrs.com/blogs/lrs/archi...r-install.aspx

Link to changing the cabin filter for you. I'm about to replace the fuel filter and cabin filter this weekend.

Edit: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...a%3DN%26um%3D1

There is a link on the Fuel Filter change, which is easy to do as well.

Thanks, I'm probably way past due. Cheap enough to fix that though. :)

Thanks everyone. I got really sick and didn't have a chance to check up on this thread till now. I'm kind of surprised about the transmission service frequency (I guess once in 10 years for most people), but that's not bad at all :) Will be heading over to the dealership to get the fuel and cabin filters on Tuesday and will definitely be doing myself. As for inspection the reason why I said I'll just skip those steps is that to me it's a once-in-every-5000 thing anyway so that wasn't even something that I was worried about.