Introduction

As a background, I purchased a 2004 CTT with 195k miles on it, that seemed to be in great condition. I started another thread on this, mentioning a few things that needed to be fixed.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...me-04-ctt.html

Anyways, a week ago i took the truck to an indy for an inspection on what i needed to do for the 200k major maintenance, as well as to attempt to fix the issues i had found earlier.

They quoted me about $4k for all the various maintenance items - most of which is labor. I felt that a lot of these items were things that i could do myself, while learning more about the truck and gaining some more mechanical aptitude.

I wanted to create a thread chronicling these adventures - i fully expect that i will hit some roadblocks that may very well require me to take the truck back to the indy shop, but it'll still have been worth it.

Job List the shop suggested i undertake (with them )
1. Air Filter Replacement
2. Cabin Filter Replacement
3. Brake Fluid Flush
4. Power Steering Fluid Flush
5. Transmission Fluid Flush
6. Oil Change
7. Spark Plugs
8. Multi Rib Belt (Serpentine Belt??)
9. Valve Cover Reseal, since there is some oil leakage
10. Change boost pressure hose because brake booster light comes on

I definitely felt like i could tackle the first 7 or 8 on the list by myself, so i'm in the process or ordering all the parts now, and starting to disassemble and remove the old parts.

 

- Disassembled the cabin filter housing under passenger dashboard/glove box, and took out old cabin air filter. It had not been changed at all, since it had a date of late 2003! It was filthy. New cabin filter from autohausaz is on its way.
- Disassembled the air filter housing on both driver and passenger sides. There were some pretty good DIYs, and that, combined with the service manual i bought off ebay made this not too hard a job. I was trying to order new air filters from pelican parts and they show both the standard and heavy duty ones for Mahle - anyone know what the difference is, and which ones are better?
I was considering BMC, but i've read conflicting accounts of these so thought it best to stick to OEM this time around
- Motive brake bleeder, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and oil filter and oil are on their way.

This should be fun.

 

For good DIY instructions search here, rennlist and rennTech. Many with pics etc. renntech requires a small donation, but really worth it.

 

Most of the items on your list can easily be performed in an afternoon in the driveway. As for replacing gaskets within the motor I wouldnt do it with out the skills, knowledge and confidence. Better safe then sorry.

 

Yeah, that's exactly what i've been doing. I also bought the service/maintenance manual off ebay and that's been super useful with the exploded pictures etc

 

Well, it's actually taking a bit longer, mostly because finding out where the screws are, and then actually contorting myself to get to them takes longer than i would have thought.
But yes, essentially, they should be fairly straightforward.

I'm unsure about the gaskets as well. I'll probably end up taking it to a shop for that, but i'll tackle that when i get to it.

One thing that did surprise me was how tight and deep everything was in there. Sometimes i feel like i need to be suspended tom cruise style in mission impossible above the engine bay to get to some screws.

 

Just some updates:

Most of the parts and fluids have arrived so hope to tackle a lot this weekend.
- Replaced the cabin air filter
- Replaced the air filter
- Bought a vacuum hose and clamps from autozone and fixed my leaking brake boost vacuum pipe
- Took off the side grilles on the bumper on a lark and noticed there were lots of twigs, dead insects and leaves at the bottom in front of the air intakes!! Cleaned that out too.

My horns are really weak as well, so i bought new hella ones. Most links i found online suggested that i would have to remove the front bumper to make it easier, so i attempted to do that. Removing the siding screws on top of the side marker lights was a nightmare! I got one of the screws off, but not the other. This required loosening the wheel lining as well, which was a hell of a struggle.

The upside to this is i can now see the diverter valves!
This was something i had planned to upgrade anyways, so might as well tackle this right now.

 

Put the truck up on jack stands and did:
- Front diff fluid flush with Mobil1 75W90. Had to grind the allen key wrench down, but once that was in place, this was fairly easy
- Rear diff fluid flush with Mobil1 75W90. Pretty straightforward, though the drain plugs were way over-torqued for some reason and took me a while to get off.
- Transfer case fluid flush with RedLine ATF D4. Also very straightforward.

Next up, spark plugs and the serpentine belt (which is going to be a pain!)

 

Spark plugs are easy. The serpentine belt MAY require a 30mm open end wrench. At least this is the case on the 957, so you may want to look into since this is hard to source locally.

Good luck!

 

It does. Otherwise, not too hard to do.

 

So tried the serpentine belt. Turns out the the tabs on the plastic ring that are used to get the plastic hose from the underside of the plenum are broken, and i can't get the plenum off. Any recommendations for this? There's a little red/orange sleeve that the pipe rests in, and i've tried both pinching it and loosening it, but no luck. I'll try get a picture tonight to attach it.