Slippery slope of scheduled maintenance

The Odo on my 06' four by four is headed towards six digits and in my imagination I have enough time to figure out how to do all the maintenance on the official Toyota dot com supplied maintenance list myself and enough friends to loan me the tools and gear to do it.

In reality i'm just trying to save a little of the $497 bucks the dealer quoted me to do the scheduled 100k maintenance.

What are the essentials and what can someone with the skills to change a tire, tune some skis, install a stereo, screw in a light bulb, reasonably expect to do on his own?

Should I replace sparkplugs at 100K? Fuel filter? Pump?
What about the tranny?

 

tranny needs flushing, spark plugs, transfer case and front diff (if 4x4), rear diff, grease drive train, replace cabin air filter, oil change, air filter, drain and fill coolant


blinker fluid, muffler bearings

everything on here too

http://sites.google.com/site/tacomamaintenance/

 

Hahaha, think i"ll start with blinker fluid and muffler bearings.

thanks!

 

There are DIY write ups on almost every general maintenance item on the forum somewhere. The thread below has links to some of them, others you can search for. If you can't find a write-up or one doesn't exist, people here can help you through it. Most general maintenance is pretty straight forward if you have basic hand tools, can follow instructions and are somewhat mechanically inclined.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/7174-2nd-gen-tips-mods-more.html

 

Never heard of blinker fluid, wtf?

I would change your oem shocks if not already done. I noticed that mine were trashed while swapping them over the weekend. 133k.

also:

power steering flush, brake flush, all the stuff above, battery test, zerk fittings.

Don't mess with the fuel filter.

 

$500 actually doesn't seem that bad... assuming they are actually going to do all the work you think they are going to do. Get an itemized list of what they are proposing before you sign up to anything. There list of services don't often match the recommended maintenance. With that said, about the only thing I persoanlly wouldn't do is the tranny.... and that mainly because I am lazy and I am going to get boned on the fluid at the dealer anyway... labor actually isn't that much to get the tranny done at the dealer.

Spark plugs are a piece of cake, pick up OEM's from the dealer, they are cheap. Follow Chris's tutorial. Diffs are also easy, just a little time consuming. I recommend a pump to suck the fluid from the bottles. Changing air filters is a joke. You could probably to it with your hand tied behind your back if you wanted it to take more than 5 minutes. Oil change is easy. Greasing drive shaft is easy.... Not exactly sure what you are talking about with fuel pump and filter. There isn't an inline filter and the pump is in the tank. Not sure it's a service item at 100K.

Bottom line. Do as much as you can. Have the dealer do what you can't. You will learn something in the process so when you do it at 200K it wont seem so bad...

 

The fuel filter in the Tacoma is designed to last a very long time. It will last for 25 years or something outrageous; it's inside the gas tank. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE IT OUT. put it inside the gas tank to stop people from monkeying around with something that needs no tampering.