Hey y'all, I just wanted to introduce myself as I'm now a proud owner of a '03 SXT. Long story longer...my wife needed a new vehicle as our '99 Passat didn't have room for our girls and any of their friends together(w/booster seats). So we bought a new GMC Acadia. My Dad, who for some unknown reason, needs to "keep up with his two boys" then went out and bought a new Sierra. So I got the Dakota off of him because the trade-in value was stupid low and I gave my '92 Comanche to a friend who was in need of a vehicle in a bad way.
I got the Dak with 91400kms on it and have been trying to get her up to snuff as the fuel economy was less than my Jeep and the old man is notorious for not doing regular maintenance other than oil changes and air filters.
So, so far I have replaced the blower motor resistor (he had no fan for about a year), got two cd's that were jammed in the single cd player out(he couldn't play a CD for about two years), new Bosch Super Plus spark plugs( the original OEM Champions had gaps from .057" to .068"), Aurora Spark Plug Wires, Napa Distributor Cap, Rotor, PCV Valve, Serpintine Belt, Downstream o2 Sensor(check engine light came on with corrosponding code), rear rotors-pads&parking brake pads. I've also replaced a broken rear sway bar link?(plastic arm that joins the sway bar to the frame) and taken the sway bar to my shop and sandblasted it and painted it as it was covered in thick rust. I switched the oil from Mobil1 5W30 to Mobil 1 10W30 as that is recommended in the manual with a Wix (Napa Gold) filter.
In the near future I will change the two diffs, transfer case and tranny fluids with Amsoil products as I lube all of my vehicles and my boat with Amsoil. The next oil change I will go to Amsoil as well.
Let me know if I've missed anything that should be seriously looked at when a Dak gets to 60000miles/96000kms.
I tend to lurk a fair bit and rarely post, so yeah...
cheers, Mike...