Went down to the GM parts counter.....

[olympic]

I ordered some maintenance parts for my 03 Vibe today. She's just about to cross 200,000km or 124,000 miles so I thought I'd replace the spark plugs, belt, rear brakes, coolant and other misc. things. Well I must have been the first one in Canada to order plugs and rear brake drums/shoes because my dealer had to special order them out of the USA...lol! No GM warehouse up here had them. I figured this might happen so I placed the order early, I don't actually need the parts for 2 weeks so they should be here by then. Same thing happened 18 months ago when it got smashed up in an accident. No one in Canada had parts for it because it was so new.I just checked my records and this car was bought on April 14, 2003, so it's averaging 100,000km/year. I financed it for 48 months so it'll have 400,000km or 250k miles by the time it's paid off! Hopefully everything will hold together until then. So far so good.

[michaelgt]

Is this the first time that you are performing this maintenance? What about front brakes? Have you changed transmission fluid?

[ToolGuy]

Drive that car would ya! No sense keeping it parked! LOL!!If you have not done so change out your PCV, Thermostat and Radiator hoses.

[ShadowRuleZ]

I'd never go the d(st)ealer for any part. You're asking to get gouged on prices...

[Reynoma]

Quote, originally posted by olympic »I just checked my records and this car was bought on April 14, 2003, so it's averaging 100,000km/year. I financed it for 48 months so it'll have 400,000km or 250k miles by the time it's paid off! Hopefully everything will hold together until then. So far so good.That's alot of driving!

[olympic]

This will be the first time for the plugs, rear brakes, coolant and belt. I'm really interested to see the condition of the plugs. My other vehichles use double platinums and I only get 100,000km out of them. The Vibe still runs great so these new Iridiums must really work.The front brakes have been done 3 times already averaging 70,000km(42k mi). I'm really impressed with the OEM Toyota pads. I tried an aftermarket brand and didn't even get half that mileage.The other maintenance intervals I use are:-15,000km(9300 mi)synthetic oil and injector cleaner.-45,000km(28k mi) drain trans pan and refill w/Amsoil ATF. Also change air filter.-100,000km(62k mi)-brake fluid, PS fluid(Amsoil)-200,000km Amsoil bypass filter on the transmission, coolant, belt, spark plugs, rear brakes.I would normally change the fuel filter at 100,000 but there isn't one that is replaceable. It's just a screen in the tank so I'll only replace that if the pump dies.

[olympic]

Quote »If you have not done so change out your PCV, Thermostat and Radiator hoses. Yep, PCV will be replaced. One thing I've learned with thermostats is if they are working, leave them alone. There's a good chance the new one you install will be a dud. I've had it happen many times. Radiator hoses degrade more with time than distance but I do keep an eye on them.Quote »I'd never go the d(st)ealer for any part. You're asking to get gouged on prices... I bought 6 vehichles from my dealership and spend tens of thousands of dollars there each year. They know better than to rip me off. I get a good discount on parts and can usually get OEM parts for the same price as aftermarket. I don't buy everything there, but I've found that some things from GM offer better value for the dollar. The brake pads for example: same price as aftermarket but last twice as long. I never even asked for prices on the plugs, belt, rear brakes. I figure if they lasted 200k they're worth it. Quote »That's alot of driving! Hmm, maybe this will explain it:

[ArcsVibe]

Quote, originally posted by ShadowRuleZ »I'd never go the d(st)ealer for any part. You're asking to get gouged on prices...Not so fast buckeroo lol!Depends which one! I busted my stabilizer link bar, there are no jobber parts for the suspensionyet so I had to order it from the dealer. Toyota wanted 144$ CAN will GM wanted 48$.I do agree thought that for brakes, mufflers etc I would buy aftermarket

[olympic]

My parts showed up. For anyone interested, here's what I paid in CDN $$.part/GM retail/my pricerear brake shoes $57.65 $51.89rear drums(each) $119.50 $95.60spark plugs(each) $25.40 $20.32belt $42.70 $38.43A little spendy but I'm very happy with the OEM parts since they lasted 200,000 hard driven km. This is likely the first and last time these parts will need replacing in the life of the car. I'll be installing them in a few days, if anything interesting turns up I'll report back.

[Vibe_dude]

dont know abou tthe other parts prices.but that was what i was quoted at my dealership for the belt.$38.43.

[Psychobroker]

WOW, a Vibe Taxi! Way to go

[olympic]

Well I installed everything and nothing unusual was found. The belt, plugs and rear brakes were still in pretty good shape and still useable after 200,000km. Pretty impressive if you ask me. I may even extend this service to 250,000km depending on how long these cars last.At the same time I changed the oil, drained+refilled the transmission, changed the transmission bypass filter, changed the coolant, flushed the power steering+brakes and changed the air filter. About 4 hours work in total. The rear brakes are a little unusual and it takes forever for the air to work itself out of the cooling system. Now that I know what I'm doing the next time may be quicker.