A day late but.. shit went haywire shortly after I left with it so.. forgot to update.
Picked the bronco back up from getting serviced from the garage in town yesterday.
I wanted a pretty thorough servicing.. and VERY EARLY on some of the fluid changes.. doing them so early ended up being a reeeeally good idea too.. I'll get into that in a second.. anyhow.. Engine oil& filter, cabin filter, tire rotation, change the gear lube at both ends, change the t-case fluid, and a spill&fill for the trans. 45.5k miles.
It was supposed to be done on Monday.. buuut napa didn't have any trans pan gaskets, rear diff cover gaskets, merc ULV, OR trans filters. Classic small town napa. So had to wait for the closest dealer to deliver them yesterday morning.
My rough estimate was ~800, ended up being 1250
there were a few surprises on how much Ford charges for some of their crap.. like.. 120 bucks for gear lube and 110 for the trans filter
"only" 40 for the trans gasket though.. I was expecting a solid Benjamin for that.. anyhow.. results..
Tranny filter was absolutely disgusting apparently, and the fluid was filthy as well.. dipping relatively deep into brown territory.. slight stank to it as well but not bad enough where anyone there or myself considered it burnt. They were gracious enough to take a sample of it for me to send to Blackstone for analysis. Sample will be dropped in the mail tomorrow... I intended on dipping a napkin in it and taking a picture so you guys could see its color but.. things going haywire after I picked it up made me stressed AF and I totally forgot before I sealed it all up in the shipping package.
Regardless, Ford's supposed 150k mile ATF was quite obviously only 40k mile fluid in my case. I was surprised how crappy it had gotten so quickly, as I really try not to be toooo hard on equipment. I'm a saint to my vehicles compared to 10 years ago lol. Full disclosure on my tranny treatment.. shortly after purchase I got the trans temp a couple bars away from the red line on the temp gauge... Ive forgotten what the exact temp was when I checked it but yeah.. it was right up there. Too high for comfort but seemingly not toooooo hot considering I wasn't in the "danger zone" yet. A 2 mile slog up-hill through 8" of mud in 4H was the cause of all that heat.. but I really had no choice but to be in high.. this was baby-shit early spring mud sitting on top of still very solidly frozen (& slippery) ground.. I needed that wheel speed or I was gonna be stuck in the woods for at least a week. Other than that.. I don't tow anthing that weighs even half as heavy as it's rated for.. I generally drive pretty conservatively.. but I WILL occasionally let er eat quite a bit through its lower gears (10-60mph type runs) just to hear the glorious wail of it's tiny little turbo.. and leaving the toll booths that are in the middle of the highway I'll hammer on it once it hits second gear all the way to 80mph or so. These events are pretty far and few between though.. I only leave those toll booths a small handful of times a year and it's usually only once a week (if that) that I'll rip that 10-60mph. There's also a small handful of times during winter where I'll go out and drive around town in a snowstorm as sideways as I can in 4wd and create enough donuts to feed homer Simpson for a week in the middle of big empty intersections.. but naturally it's cold then.. and I'm not out for too too long because eventually johnny law is gonna come around lol so.. not a lot of heat there.
It was a calculated risk putting 10ply 35s on a 3.73 gearset as far as tranny longevity is concerned, but considering how deep it's first and second gears are.. 4.5:1 and something like 2.93:1 for second.. I was willing to take that risk. Thats a very healthy level of reduction after all.
I'm very interested to see what the results are & see how much premature wear i may have introduced to it thanks to the subpar axle ratios.
The gear lube was "VERY obviously used" according to the tech, but no signs of water intrusion.. which was my main concern after spending so much time in water up to the doors while wheeling last year. Good seals. I'm sure it helps that 99% of my wheeling is done in 1st gear low.. moving that slow isn't gonna really put a ton of heat into the diffs so.. sucking water past the seals is wayyy less likely. Either way... Ford's 150k mile axle lube? NOT good for 150k if you like to have fun with your rig..
Tech didnt say anything about the t case juice.. I'm sure it definitely looked like 50k mile fluid but not dirty enough for him to comment on it so... That's nice
Seriously guys, if you own a new Ford and you drive the thing harder than a 90 year old woman... Consider your drivetrain fluid intervals as being the same as anything from the 80s through the 90s.. 50k miles tops for the drivetrain. Id recommend not doing 10k mile engine oil intervals either... I aim for 5-6k between changes personally.. which IS probably overkill... But 7500 feels like way too much to be ideal... Especially with something that makes a boat load of boost.. that shit shears oil down at a surprising rate.
NAPA (NeverAnyPartsAvailable) doesn't have gaskets for the trans pan or the rear diff cover and they can't get any from ford until mid-morning tomorrow.. that's not a big deal really.. what bummed me out was hearing that the whole shebang is gonna cost me 400 more dollars than anticipated 
ugh.
