Year/model? I'm questioning if you were fed a fat crock of shit lol
As far as maintenance on my truck goes... I'm in the 500 to 750 a year bracket for maintenance. Put 12-15k on it annually. It's probably overkill but I need my equipment to perform with flawless reliability. I do a lot of driving in the middle of 'nowhere.' If I incur a breakdown, the privilege of getting to a shop will cost me something around $350, plus cost of repairs, plus the time associated with it, plus (likely) hotel costs and transport to/from the shop. It's worth my time to stay on top of this stuff, even if it borders the side of hypochondriacal maintenance
My maintenance schedule is roughly something like:
Oil every 3-4k. Full synthetic. M1 0w30 or castrol synthetic 5w30. Depends on time of year and what's on sale at the time. Oil filter is either amsoil or fram ultra filter. I drain/fill the oil in the trans pan every other oil change. Front diff gets done yearly with 75w140. Not ideal, but I'm trying to limp it for now. It's boinked. All steering components see a dosing of a synthetic chassis grease.
I'll also take this time to go over belts, inspect hoses, a/c lines, various fittings, brakes, bushings, etc etc, Basically any and all soft parts. And give it a good interior wipedown
Annually: Change engine, cabin filter, p/s fluid, sand/touch up any compromised rust areas, rotate tires, check torque on front axle nuts, give the whole vehicle a shakedown. Make sure everything tight is tight, everything that moves, moves. As a final bit, I check t-stat open temp with either my scan tool or a temp gun. Whatever's handy at the time and verify my a/c pressures are in spec
Every 2 years: brake fluid, coolant, trans filter, rear diff fluid, tcase fluid
Almost 14 year old vehicle with 140k on it and there's not a single pop, clunk, squeak, whine, drip, funny smell, or the need to add oil over the course of an OCI.
My last two were a 2001 325/e46 and a 1991 M5/e34. The majority of that is labor at $100-$130 an hour. Feel free to read it right out of the owners manual. There are a lot of specialty tools required, and is as if maintenance was an afterthought. I want to say a head gasket was a 20hr job. Suspension is the same thing, but you don't replace just the bushings, you replace the aluminum control arms, and such. The idea is to replace everything once you think it might start to be questionable. They were fun to drive, but if you're going to bat an eye at spending $5k unexpectedly on a service, than you need to be able to do all your own work.
