E450 Scheduled Maintenance

I have what appears to be a print-out of the manual for the 2008 chassis. The exceptions to the routine 7,500 mile oil change, and 30,000 transmission oil change, and general component inspections are to reduce the oil change to 5,000 for RV/Tow operations. The rear axle is lubricated for life, the coolant change is 100k miles, and there is no mention of brake fluid changes, except for Class A's.

The coolant and brake fluid are not intuitive to me, but I may have missed improvements in the composition of those fluids. My 2000 Class A specified 2 year flush & change for coolant and 4 year flush & change for brake fluid.

As for oil, everyone has their experience/beliefs. I have 130k miles of lab oil testing data on my old Class A. It did have a dual oil filter system (bypass plus standard) which I have to adjust for. With the dual filter system lab recommendations to change oil came at 35-45k miles. Would indicate, to me, that lots of servicable oil is being recycled. But 6 quart oil changes for a V-10 are cheap, even if synthetic is used. Actually a bit cheaper than a sample test if you do it yourself.

As for the effectiveness of synthetic oil, dual filters, and extended change intervals: had to pull the heads of the V-10 down at 127k miles due to a spit plug, and mishap trying to insert a sleeve. NAPA machine shop found no measurable wear on the cams and lifters. Had the valves polished while off, and on reassembly compression was comparable to new. I don't have any data for oil performance with just the standard oil filter.

Here is the owners manual for a 2011. http://www.fordservicecontent.com/Ford_Content/catalog/owner_guides/11ecoog3e.pdf

Go here: http://owner.ford.com/, create an account, add the VIN to the account, download the owner/service manuals for the maintenance intervals.

Tires should be good to 7 years or so. I definitely recommend checking the date codes on the tires and if under 7 years, check the tires carefully for cracks or tread separation. If they have any signs of this, it would require replacement. If I read your post correctly your rig is only 5 years old.

Ditto on the ABS fluid drain and flush. This is often overlooked as it just wasn't a requirement prior to most vehicles having ABS. Lots of expensive ABS components can be damaged by dirty fluid.

You're not there yet, but set a reminder to change your transmission fluid at 30K as well.

X2 in what tpi said. When I first changed my coolant the Ford parts guy told me that I needed 2 gallons of concentrate plus 2 gallons of water for a drain and refill. He was right. Just open the cap on the coolant expansion chamber and the drain petcock on the bottom of the radiator. Our county household hazardous waste facility took the old coolant.

There are 4-5 grease fittings on the steering linkage that are supposed to be greased every 15,000 miles. A 5 minute job.

The engine air filter is also supposed to be replaced every 15,000 miles.

FYI, if you are at all handy with tools, nearly all of the scheduled maintenance on an E-450 is easy DIY. Our 2003 E-450 has 91,000 miles and to date all scheduled maintenance has been done by me in the driveway.

You should bring it up to date.

If it were mine I'd swap out the coolant on 7 year old chassis. If it looks clean clear and gold, I'd just do a drain and fill. Use distilled water with concentrate coolant. I'd use the Motorcraft Gold/ G05 OE spec coolant.