What maintenance procedures are "feel good" but of dubious usefulness?

Moth balls in the fuel tank.

 

Having the split discs on a Delco battery caps in a perfect straight line.

A long time ago, when I was young teen, we had a customer who always drove NEW Buick Electra 225s that insisted the split Delco discs battery cell caps should be set in a perfect line across the top of the battery . He said it was need so that current would flow smoothly through the battery.

This would have been a fail.



This would have been a pass.

He also insisted on having a can of STP added at every oil change which was at 2,000 mile intervals on brand new engines.

He traded for a new Buick every 2 years so I doubt any of them saw more than 25,000 miles. I remember him driving a 67, 69, 71, and 73 model. He was majorly upset with the performance difference between the 69 and 71 models due engines being de-tuned for emissions.

One of our other customers bought a 69 model 225 from him thinking they were getting nearly new car. They started driving it like normal and most likely used engine oil without STP. Soon it started blowing smoke like crazy. To stop the smoking, they had the engine torn down to give it new rings.




This was in the days of full service. We had some very eccentric customers in the 1960s and early 1970s. It seemed like every customer had their favorite engine oil additive.

 

I just but a new truck whenever I needed to fill up the gas tank. It's seems for the best really...

 

No pic but it looked gray after 30k miles unlike my front diff gear oil which still looked golden since I hadn't driven nearly that many miles in 4wd.

 

Interesting. Is there a magnet in your diff, and was there anything on it?

 

At a 30k interval, it came out looking gray. At a 10k interval, it still looks golden. I've since decided to start using synthetic oils across the board, engine, trans, transfer case and differentials. I used conventional oils up until recently. My rear end had an axle seal failure and there's a chance that even though the fluid was renewed that a residual oil/bearing grease mix residue in the axle housing caused my gear oil to take on that gray look. Who knows. I might push the rear diff interval back to 30k and see what it looks like.

 

Just the normal fine accumulation of metal sludge on the magnet, nothing excessive.

 

It's worth keeping an eye on for sure. Mine came out gray on another vehicle at one point, due to a bearing failure, although it was more of a sparkly silver. Other than that they pretty much always come out looking the same as they went in.

 

Good to know.

 

Mine as well. I've done 50k on mobil 1 gear oil and it still looked pretty new. I didn't have access to the testing lab then. I feel more than fine doing my diffs at that rate. I always double check the breathers when I'm under there and I don't do water crossings. Hell I'll prolly start going to 75k and then I'll run a sample and see what it looks like