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Subject:High Mileage Maintenance Concerns
From:John Rodgers
Date:Thu, 16 Mar 2006 07:35:26 -0600

My Burgundy '88 GL now has 160,000 miles on it. I've tried diligently to
give'er good maintenance so everything works pretty good at the moment.
However, there are still some maintenance things I have concerns about.

The ol' girl has the 160,000 on the body, but only 60,000 on the engine
since a complete long block rebuild. This means that all the bolt-on
items that an engine must have - Alt, Gen, PS Pump, FI, AC Pump, AFM,
and other stuff - has 160,000 miles worth of wear and tear. In addition,
there are other things that have that same high mileage wear - like rear
wheel bearings, which unlike front wheel bearing, never get serviced
because of how they are installed. I'm sure there is other stuff there
as well.

My concern is, what of those high mileage, un-maintained/un-serviced
items, should there be concern about. And which should be included in a
more routine service plan.

So far, I have run the AC pump to failure. the Alternator to failure,
the Water Pump to failure( though there was only 60,000 miles on it),
and there may be other things on their way to failure. I believe in
Preventive Maintenance as a big deterrent to unplanned roadside
inconveniences. And the good service and dependability of my van says
I'm right. But I still have concerns about all this un-serviced stuff.

What say you, Volks?

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver x2