wallyluap

OK, I just bought an 08 Silverado from my aging parents, it has, I kid you not, 14,772 miles on it. They only drove it around town for short trips. This will be my first pickup truck. It is the base model, regular cab. Can I consider it broken in already? Is there anything I should do? Just checking so forgive my ignorance.

Allan In NE

For all intents and purposes, it was "broke in" before it ever left the factory.

Allan

elkhornsun

GM still has a recommended break-in period of 1,000 miles during which they advise not to carry a big load or do any towing. Also good to vary the speed during the break-in period and this is still recommended by Toyota, Mercedes, and Chevrolet based on the vehicles I own and would expect it to be true for others as well.

With your parents' truck I would pour some injector cleaner in the tank and take it on a moderately long trip or you can have a local garage clean out the injectors - they have a special piece of equipment designed for the task Negotiate as their costs are low once they own the cleaner and check out more than one garage. I have found good honest repair shops using both Car Talk and yelp.com.

I would also change the oil and filter as their limited driving is hard on the oil and miles driven is not a good indicator of when to change the oil with this type of use.

Take time to read the service intervals and procedures in the manual as this maintenance will prolong the life of the truck and minimize the likelihood of expensive repairs down the road.

wallyluap

Thanks elkhornsun.

I am in Chicago and they are in Dallas, so i am flying down in a 12 days to drive it back to Chicago. So that is a 1000 mile roadtrip. I was planning on doing the oil right before I go and checking all fluids and air filter. And I was told by a friend to throw a bottle of seafoam in the tank with one tank of premium gas before I hit the road.

I have been paging through the service manual online and from everything I see it says 500 or 750 miles no heaving acceleration or braking or towing. But other than that nothing else as far as breaking it in.

in2pro

The seafoam in the tank for the trip is a great idea, however stick with regular pump gas, the premium will only lighten the load in your wallet and will do nothing for drive-ability.
If the oil looks good when you check it, I would save the oil change for when you get home...
The worst time to do a lot of maintenance is just BEFORE a long trip, you risk bringing to many variables into your road trip where you don't want to break down... i.e. a loose oil filter, or pan drain plug...a belt not put on just right...
Save them all for when you get it home and you are in familiar territory..

Do bring a quart of oil with you on the trip back home so you can keep it topped off for any consumption... DO check the oil at each fill up since the truck has not been used a lot.

Be sure to check the tire pressure in the spare and know how to get it down BEFORE you hit the road... Do go through the motions of lowering it so you know how to.

wallyluap

great tips, thanks.

Ryan Colorado

Interesting in2pro.

in2pro

I speak from experience on the doing preventative maintenance before a trip...

Had to make a trip from Austin to Dallas some years back and the day before I thought I'd repack my front wheel bearings and a few other items before hitting the road...
Made it up fine but on the return trip in the middle of no where the passenger side wheel bearing disintegrated. The wheel stayed on but barely... had to be towed into Hillsboro and pay to have it torched off and replaced

I apparently had it a bit too loose and it spun and seized the inner race to the spindle...

cleveland63b

and adding to that you never know what you'll run into...could expect it to be an hour or two and end up waiting on parts or having more issues

always hate it when customers need the vehicle that day and are on the no-maintenance plan so nothing goes as smooth as you'd like