Quote Originally Posted by trbankii View Post
Ok, it just aroused my curiosity when service was mentioned in the discussion to sell a vehicle only a few years old - particularly as the first item mentioned. The first impression is that it must have been in the shop pretty frequently to have been mentioned.

Right about now, I could do with “boring” a bit more. I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on the K2500 lately. I was rear-ended a couple years ago and I have a strong feeling that contributed to the broken rear spring pack even though it didn’t show up until later. A bad rear axle seal lead to new seals, bearings, and brake shoes (due to the oil leakage). While I was back there, I replaced the parking brake cables as they weren’t working well (a couple off-road snags didn’t help them). Replacing the front brake hoses led to replacing all the brake lines. And now I’m welding in a patch panel for the driver’s side of the radiator support. I looked at what all had to be removed to replace the whole panel and decided that patching was the better option, but I’m not so sure now…

Then again, it's closing in on 200K miles after twenty-three years and at least one previous owner of questionable maintenance skills, so I can’t exactly complain about its service.
It spent very little time in the shop. We had a couple issues with the exhaust sensors. Each time we were immediately given a rental, so there was really no down-time, for us. The sensor problem was the same for other vehicles that used the same/similar parts (Ford uses the same sensors, and had the same issues). The problem was the supplier, and finally resolved once it was redesigned. The only other shop-time was for scheduled maintenance and to replace one bad speaker (20 minute wait for that one). The car had only 2 recalls, neither serous. One was a "check" of the master cylinder level sensor, which was handled while it was in the shop waiting for an exhaust sensor (the MC recall was completed with no correction required). The other was for a possible battery negative cable connection issue, which we didn't experience. Boring, but in a good way.