What did you do to your Bronco today?

TK1215

I took Nag into the dealership on Thursday to have the transmission, front and rear diffs and transfer case serviced. At a little over 33K miles it was due. Had them throw on the Ford Performance Differential cover. Looks great.

I understand the need for servicing the diffs, what determines the mileage to do so?

TK1215

Oh and here was the kicker, I put the bolts back in and torqued to spec, and promptly snapped the last bolt!

Annoying!! A little anti-seize on these torqued bolts' threads usually avoids this hassle..

Cheers

Wood J

I understand the need for servicing the diffs, what determines the mileage to do so?

I am going to point out the obvious..... Your opinion determines what milage.

Lots and lots of opinions about this. I go overboard. I know it but I would like to avoid any issues so I change mine way more that what is probably necessary. Early in life I change more often so that I can remove any metallic shards/dust grains that are developed during break in. I do that a couple of times. After that I want to avoid the degradation of the oil that typically comes from heat. How much I use the locker will have an influence on that. How often I take long trips at higher speeds will have in influence. I will error on the side of changing way more than necessary. I am at 4700 miles. I have changed my diff fluid twice already and will again here shortly. I will probably start pushing it out to every second time I change the engine oil. For me, that will be about every 3000 miles. WAY more often than most people.

Yeah, it’s really a personal choice. Haven’t looked, but assume Ford’s tranny & diff scheduled fluid change at 100k with the typical ‘severe usage’ exception.

Our initial engine oil change was at 1,800 miles, then 3k and plan to go with 4 or 5k in future.

Not a big locker user, so am thinking tranny, transfer & diffs at 40 or 50k.

Cheers

Chief Ron

Time to break out the grinder on the skid plate tab and do a lil form fitting.

🐎

I may end up doing that but I am gonna call first. Maybe they will show me some love and just install it so I don’t have to crawl my ass back under there! 🤣

Wood J

I understand the need for servicing the diffs, what determines the mileage to do so?

So Ford has their recommendations for the service, which I can’t remember right off hand. I have 33K + miles on Nag now and he has done numerous, quality off road adventures and also has pulled our trailer on some long hauls. Pretty solid work in less than two years. No weird anomalies have happened, but I could feel some less than optimal shifts. Sometimes with and without the trailer, and sometimes on or off-road. I immediately noticed a smoother feel after service. I am curious as to our trip this coming week from AZ to Oregon and back. So the diffs, transmission and transfer case should all be good to go!

The last week of April I took my doors and roof off for the first time since getting the Bronco last May. We have been in a dry spell since then, so luckily for me I'm still driving around like that and having a ball :) I purchased the door alignment pins off Amazon and also grabbed this body shop door installation stand. I ran across it on special with free shipping. Since I'm still not putting the top or doors back on I figured I'd at least just throw a door on the stand and do a test run. I had to add a 10" block of wood between the bottle jack and the arm that raises to get a few more inches of lift to align everything up but it's going to work great. For those who are worried about dropping a door or need to install them without a 2nd person, this is the ticket.

Rydfree

The last week of April I took my doors and roof off for the first time since getting the Bronco last May. We have been in a dry spell since then, so luckily for me I'm still driving around like that and having a ball :) I purchased the door alignment pins off Amazon and also grabbed this body shop door installation stand. I ran across it on special with free shipping. Since I'm still not putting the top or doors back on I figured I'd at least just throw a door on the stand and do a test run. I had to add a 10" block of wood between the bottle jack and the arm that raises to get a few more inches of lift to align everything up but it's going to work great. For those who are worried about dropping a door or need to install them without a 2nd person, this is the ticket.

I love the ingenuity of Bronco owners

Unicorn

I am going to point out the obvious..... Your opinion determines what milage.

Lots and lots of opinions about this. I go overboard. I know it but I would like to avoid any issues so I change mine way more that what is probably necessary. Early in life I change more often so that I can remove any metallic shards/dust grains that are developed during break in. I do that a couple of times. After that I want to avoid the degradation of the oil that typically comes from heat. How much I use the locker will have an influence on that. How often I take long trips at higher speeds will have in influence. I will error on the side of changing way more than necessary. I am at 4700 miles. I have changed my diff fluid twice already and will again here shortly. I will probably start pushing it out to every second time I change the engine oil. For me, that will be about every 3000 miles. WAY more often than most people.

Thank you, I haven`t used my locker yet, and probably won`t until the first bad snow here in Chicago, but I like the idea of proactive maintenance. I may go every 10K on the diffs-just because I doubt that I will beat them up. I had my first engine oil change at 3K (I just hit 3900 miles), and was actually wondering when I should do the diffs, when your post popped up.

Bluestreak57

Thank you!

Not today, about a month ago. Had a Turn Offroad hard top installed. From the front seats back, it's all one piece.

Thomas McClintock

Not today, about a month ago. Had a Turn Offroad hard top installed. From the front seats back, it's all one piece.

Please post some pictures! How do you like it? Noise level? Sturdy?

Wood J

Please post some pictures! How do you like it? Noise level? Sturdy?

I'll try and get some pics up in the next couple of days. I like it, it looks better than the OEM in my opinion. The hardware for the roof racks and rear windows are machined aluminum. It's as quiet, maybe more so than the OEM. Definitely quieter than my old soft top of course. It's fully lined with a fuzz/carpet sort of lining. It seems very stout. I think Turn has a video somewhere, where they put a V8 engine on it without damage. I've seen grown men standing on it without a problem. Turn has a pretty extensive ad on it on their website, with all the stuff involved.

Wood J

Thank you, I haven`t used my locker yet, and probably won`t until the first bad snow here in Chicago, but I like the idea of proactive maintenance. I may go every 10K on the diffs-just because I doubt that I will beat them up. I had my first engine oil change at 3K (I just hit 3900 miles), and was actually wondering when I should do the diffs, when your post popped up.

If you aren’t towing or going off road a lot I wouldn’t worry about doing it so soon. Seeing as it says 150K you would be fine. Totally up to you though. I have been hitting it pretty hard so that is why I did it so soon.

Lots O Fords

Im 6'2" and it fits me fine. It's very comfortable and quiet. Nice ride. I'm very impressed with it.
I bought it for a company car used by my daughter who works for us.
I steel the key when I can. Because it's fun to drive. It's the hybrid too.

I almost got a Maverick when I thought the Bronco was never going to happen. Thankfully that thing was absolutely gutless and I couldn't bring myself to do it, otherwise I might be driving that instead of the Bronco. Nice little truck, just couldn't move.

Hit up some great trails with @raqball (Kris) doing what Bronco was built for. Drove over a couple fallen trees which is oddly gratifying. We found a spot where we could simultaneously see mountainpeaks of 3 regional legends spanning 2 states. It was an amazing day and Kris was a blast to offroad with!

Bluestreak57

Woah, some of those mileage numbers are insane. No way would I wait till 150,000 to change all of those fluids. I guess in a perfect world, those intervals would work. I changed all the diff fluids plus the transfer case fluid at 20k and probably won't do it again till 50k. I hadn't thought much about the transmission fluid until @TK1215 mentioned how much better his is shifting. Hmmm, I'll have to see how tough it is to change fluid and filter.

I just turned 25k yesterday. That last 5,000 miles went really quick due to the trip to Moab earlier this year. Next year I have 2 very large trips planned so the miles will start to rack up pretty quickly.

Way back when I was a mechanic and saw damage caused by not servicing fluids, I was a fanatic about changing fluids frequently.

Fast forward 45 years.

Components have changed, fluids have changed and I changed.

Now I have fluids tested after each change, and create service intervals for my fleet. I was amazed how much further I could extend oil changes. And catch problems early.
My gas vehicles I go by the recommended service intervals. I have no problem going over 100k before service.

Before I started testing I aired to the side of caution and changed more frequently.

Any chance of water contamination it's change it now.

So as @Unicorn said, your opinion and I'll add, experience determines when. If unsure, change it.

OrangecrushBronco

We found a spot where we could simultaneously see mountainpeaks of 3 regional legends spanning 2 states. It was an amazing day and Kris was a blast to offroad with!

And we debated if we even wanted to down that trail as it didn't look like much and / or if it even went anywhere interesting. Turned out to be the best views of the day! Not that the others were bad, but that view of all 3 peaks was amazing! 😍 💪 👍