Plenty of reasons. Usually, the main one is convenience for me. For my Jeep I prefer to do my own work where it doesn't require jacks, jack stands, or tools that I don't own and rarely need. On the other hand I almost always pay for service on the wife's Exploder. A second reason is I guess the same -- time. I'd rather spend my time doing something I have passion with or even like. Mechanical things don't fall into that category. Spending time with my family, off-roading, and programming are where I want to spend time.

Of course, I weigh the cost of the service against the affect on my convenience and time and if the proportion is too high then I'll do it myself.

 

It's fine for your warranty, but don't do that. Those lube places are horrible. You'd be better off taking your Jeep to the zoo and letting the monkeys work on it.

Do it yourself, have a trusted mechanic do it, or bite the bullet and let the dealer do it.

 

If your covers are not leaking, just change the fluid. There is no sense in looking for uneven wear or metal shaving. Your responsibility is to change the oil. The warranty is for the rest. If you notice metal shavings, excessive wear, etc, what are you going to do, change the gears yourself? Nope, you'd take it to the dealer under warranty, which is the same thing you would do if the differential failed completely. Again, I would just change the oil, satisfying the service requirements without the additional work.

 

exactly what short bus said
keep the receipts date and sign them on the date iit was changed. and keep those pieces of paper.

 

I like to have the dealer do it. That way they cannot say someone else caused some other damage while servicing it. Becomes a big pain in the butt.

I made the mistake of taking my 07 to 2 different dealers for oil changes. Something happened (nothing major luckily) and of course the last dealer to change it said it was the first dealer, and the first dealer said it was the last.....Big pain in the butt. And this was for something very minor.

So now I will be taking my 08 to 1 dealer. The same one I purchased it at.

On a side note, the 08s do not have a schedule A or B. Only 1 maint section with a few asterisks here and there for heavy usage (such as if it is being used as a police vehicle).

And with the lifetime warrant (for whatever it is worth), my thought is that if I have them do all of the maintenance, then I am more likely to have any future issues covered. I might be wrong though....

 

Good luck on that. I'm sure that's what they hope you'll think and they can make more money off of service.

 

Cannot disagree with this any more! I'd way rather see a problem coming than be out somewhere and have it fail on me. Especially going 70 down the interstate. Chances are you won't have a catastrophic failure with the differential, but why pass up an easy opportunity to check it out?

 

yeah...that is kind of what I'm thinking...

I'm not really good a keeping vehicles very long anyway, so probably will never need to worry about it.

 

The dealer told my wife the same thing when she took the jeep in for a recall. They checked everything and went thru my maintenance log and noticed it was due for the diff. fluid change. They said they would be happy to do it and would only cost around $250! Luckily she remembered i had already bought the fluids and planned on doing it on the next oil change. If you do do it yourself make sure you get the additive for the rear-end which is only available thru the dealer as far as i know. It will cost between $4 and $10 depending on the mark up. Also the plugs have magnets on them to catch any metal shavings from normal wear. If you do notice any large shavings you may want to take the cover off and inspect your gears.

 

Most high quality synthetics already have the additive in them.