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One-year maintenance on 2014 Fiesta ST - 'Pimienta'

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Location
Chicago
#1
hi everyone -
I'm coming up on my first-year anniversary with 'Pimienta,' (Spanish for 'pepper,' the name I have given my Tux black 2014 Fiesta ST). I've put about 7K miles on her. Everything runs great. The manual says to change the oil every 10K miles or every year. Is oil changing something I could do myself fairly easily. This is something I have never done. Also, what other engine or other routine maintenance things should I be doing? Thank you very much and happy driving!

ps - thanks to this forum for showing me how to replace the blend door actuator motors! I replaced BOTH last weekend as they were clicking. I'm also going to do some paint touch-up on the roof where the previous owners did a so-so job on covering up some blemishes which I believe were thanks to a bike rack.
 


Spork1569

Active member
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Ventura
#2
I would do the oil change a bit more often based on how hard you driver her, I would do mine around every 6k since it was mostly a commuter car.

It's definitely doable yourself, I would recommend upsizing the filter to the fl-400 from Ford as it fits just perfectly in the stock location and you get a bit more oil cooling and filtering. The filter can be a bit hard to reach since it's a bit tight but it's far from the worst car I've had to work on, a good oil wrench will make it a cinch.

If you plan on doing your own changes going forward I would also look into replacing the drain bolt with a fumoto valve, it makes it so you can just open the valve instead of having to take the drain bolt off and on every time, and made changing oil easy peasy. I had one on my car for over 20k miles and never once had an issue with it leaking or not working as intended.
 


Capri to ST

1000 Post Club
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CHAPEL HILL, NC, USA
#3
Rotating the tires every year helps even out wear, especially on a powerful front wheel drive car.
The brake fluid needs to be flushed and replaced every two years, and I change the coolant every 3 years, so if you don't have any evidence of those two things being done, I would change those fluids.
Unless you know the engine air filter and cabin air filter have been changed since the car was new, I would replace those also.
 


Ford ST

2000 Post Club
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Pleasant Garden
#4
I'm big on oil changes use high quality oil and a good filter. I rotate my tires every time I change the oil. I love my air conditioning so I'm also a believer in changing that cabin air filter. I drive the hell out of this car so I do an oil change about every 3,000 MI. Now on my daily drivers I go about 6 to 7,000 MI. Check the air filter if it looks dirty replace it.

Now on to brake fluid it is recommended to change brake fluid every 2 to 3 years because it absorbs small amounts of moisture from the air over time. I have worked on vehicles that are well over 10 years old that have never had the brake fluid changed. I wouldn't take that vehicle to a track but it still performed just fine on the road. And if that vehicle is from a rust belt environment I wouldn't touch the bleeder valves unless I had plans to replace the caliper, because they can snap right off if they are heavily rusted.

My brother's car is 15 years old going on 16 with almost 300,000 mi it's never had the antifreeze changed. Today's coolants are so much better than they used to be especially if you top them off with the correct stuff.

My daily driver that I had for 10 years and 2 months was recently totaled by a deer. It never broke down, never leaked any fluids and never even had a check engine light. I must be doing something right.


Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk
 


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