Hey friends, it's Len here from 1A Auto.
Today, we have a third generation Cadillac Escalade inside the studio.
We wanna go over what I would look for if I was doing 100,000-mile service.
Let's get started.
Okay friends, so let's get started by talking about what to specifically do every 100,000
miles on these types of trucks.
Essentially, you're gonna start off with the spark plugs.
Your spark plugs look a lot like this, and they're iridium spark plugs.
Typically, the iridium on these is gonna be a very hard metal and of course it's a precious
metal that's why these spark plugs cost a little bit more, but they also tend to last
an extremely long period of time.
Like I said, 100,000 miles, that's quite a while, really for a spark plug.
So you're doing all right.
You wanna actually replace the spark plugs approximately every 100,000 miles on this.
When you're doing spark plugs, it really only makes sense to replace the spark plug wires
as well.
The spark plug wires are of course gonna be attached from the coil down along the engine
right here, and then to the spark plug.
The spark plugs are gonna be located right inside the engine.
You're gonna have eight of these.
There's gonna be four on each side of the engine.
Now, the next thing we're gonna pay attention to on this is the transmission fluid.
The transmission should be serviced approximately every 100,000 miles as well.
Is that an extended period of time for transmissions?
Yeah, especially if you're towing or hauling something.
If that's the case, obviously you probably wanna make sure you're checking it more often
and even replacing it more often, but Cadillac recommends it every 100,000 miles.
To check your transmission fluid, you'd of course come right over here to your dipstick.
That's where you're gonna be able to gauge where the transmission fluid's at quality-wise.
You can go ahead and pull it out, check it on a nice white rag.
If it looks like it's dirty, obviously replace it.
If you find that it's low and maybe even has a little bit of metal deposits inside there,
you might actually have transmission problems, but we're gonna say that that's not the case.
Cadillac, like I said, recommends this every 100,000 miles to be serviced.
So to do that, you'd need to get underneath the truck, drop your transmission pan.
You're gonna drain out as much of that fluid as possible.
Make sure you clean out the inside of that pan of any debris that might be in there.
And if there's a filter located on the transmission, make sure you replace that as well.
Put on a brand new seal, fill it up with the proper transmission fluid, which is Dexron
VI in this particular truck.
And then after that, take it for a nice road test.
Make sure it's up to par and you should be good to go.
So we talked about the transmission.
You're also gonna wanna make sure you check/service your transfer case fluid on this.
The transfer case is gonna be the center unit of your drive line system, essentially where
your drive shafts go into.
That transfer case fluid is gonna be special.
It's gonna be kind of like a bluish hue.
It's not going to be the pinkish red, like other transmission fluids.
You're gonna wanna make sure you use the proper transmission fluid, because if you put the
wrong stuff in there, you could potentially cause detrimental damage to your transfer
case.
And this is generally just a drain and fill service.
Next, we're gonna talk about a couple of things that are due after the 100,000-mile service.
Approximately 150,000 miles, Cadillac recommends servicing your coolant and your brake fluid.
Let's start off by talking about your coolant.
The coolant is gonna be located right about here.
You can go ahead and take a peek inside there, but essentially what you wanna do is drain
out your coolant and you wanna flush it.
You wanna get all brand new coolant inside there.
This is gonna be special coolant.
It's not the green coolant.
It's super long life coolant.
So it's called Dex-Cool.
You wanna go ahead and make sure you use the proper coolant and flush it at least twice.
That way there, you can make sure you get out the majority of the existing or old coolant
that's in the system.
So now I mentioned talking about your brake fluid.
Your master cylinder is gonna be located over here on the driver's side, kind of up against
the firewall of the truck.
Essentially, you wanna go ahead and open that up and you wanna take a peek inside there.
You wanna gauge the color of it and everything like that, but it's actually recommended to
be flushed every 150,000 miles on this.
I would recommend it every 100,000 miles.
And when you do it, you wanna make sure that you use DOT 3 brake fluid.
So that's pretty much what I've got for things that are recommended to be serviced approximately
every 100,000 miles, but there's a lot of other things that we should talk about.
Continuing on with the fluids that are located underneath your hood, we're gonna talk about
your power steering fluid.
You wanna go ahead and you wanna open this up and you wanna take a quick look at it,
make sure it's nice and full and of course it's clean.
If it isn't, you can try to flush it out.
Just basically checking it is kind of the maintenance for this as of now.
We're also gonna wanna make sure we talk about the washer fluid, the all-important washer
fluid.
You wanna make sure that you top that off and of course do it for the season that you're
in.
So if it's winter time, make sure that you use something that has a very low freeze point.
Next, if you have access to a multimeter, go ahead and test that battery.
We wanna make sure we're up to at least the 12-volt range.
Anything below that, you're gonna either want to maintenance it or replace your battery.
While we're still talking about electrical, let's jump over to the fuse box.
Go ahead and lift up your cover.
Take a peek under here.
Make sure you don't see any mouse nest or anything of the like.
Typically mice like to make their way up inside here because it's a nice cover and it kind
of protects them.
So make sure you take a peek.
I would do that more often than every 100,000 miles, honestly.
Now, before we get out from under the hood, let's go ahead and make sure we check our
serpentine belt.
I like to give them a nice tug.
That's gonna check the tensioner, which is located over on the passenger side.
And I always like to inspect the belt, especially on the rib side and make sure I don't see
a whole bunch of cracks.
Typically, if you see a couple of cracks, it's not too big of a deal, but if they extend
all the way across the ribs or even there's a whole bunch of them going around the whole
belt, you'd obviously wanna go ahead and replace that.
And obviously don't forget to make sure you check all of your coolant hoses.
You wanna make sure you don't see any breaks, splits, or cuts inside any of them.
And of course, check along all the joints where they're supposed to connect on to something
such as your radiator or even the engine.
Make sure you don't see any leaks.
Now, we're also gonna make sure we check our tire pressure and condition.
You can come right down here to your valve stem and that's where you're gonna check/add
air.
You should be at approximately 35 psi.
And don't forget about your spare tire.
Let's go ahead and feel that tread on our tire here.
This is gonna be super important.
You wanna make sure you have some good meat there.
Go ahead and measure this.
Make sure you have at least 2/32 to 4/32 in there.
Anything less than that is pretty much dangerous.
I like to have...well, the more the merrier, to be honest with you.
While we're talking about the tread, we should also talk about making sure that you're caught
up to date on your tire rotation.
If you're gonna be doing your tire rotation, you wanna take those rear tires and bring
them straight forward, and you wanna take your front tires and crisscross them to the
rear.
Now these wheels are pretty wide open.
So you have a nice, clear view of what's going on behind them.
You can see your brake rotor.
You wanna make sure the condition of that is in good shape.
And you also can see your brake pad.
This is your outer pad.
Just take a peek, make sure you have a pretty good amount of meat.
You can look from underneath the truck and see if you can see that inner pad and make
that has meat as well.
You would wanna do that for all four wheels.
Next, we're gonna wanna make sure we check our front end and suspension on this.
To do that, you wanna safely put a jack and a stand underneath your lower control arm.
Once you've done that, you can carefully grab onto your tire, just like this at 3:00 and
9:00, give it a little shake side to side.
If you feel any movement, it's more than likely from one of your inner or outer tie rod ends.
Or go ahead and grab it like this at 12:00 and 6:00, give this a nice shake as well.
If you have movement at the 12:00 and 6:00 movement, typically it's gonna be due to a
ball joint, whether it's your upper or your lower, but it could also be your wheel bearing
so don't rule that out.
From underneath the truck, you also wanna make sure you're checking the rest of the
suspension up here.
You're of course gonna have your front coil over shocks.
You wanna make sure that the coils are in good condition.
If they're cracked or they look like they're starting to get weak, that's something that
you're gonna wanna service.
Generally, you do that at the same time as the shock, which is behind it there.
Typically you do those as a pair with the other side at the same time.
You also wanna take a peek up inside here and see if you see any fluid leaking down.
That would essentially mean that the shock itself is blown.
Let's also take a look at our front axles.
You wanna take a look at those boots, make sure that they're not torn or anything like
that.
Check them both.
And of course, make sure you do the same on both axles.
Take a peek at your sway bar link bushings.
Make sure that those are good.
They're not dry and cracked.
And then of course you have your sway bar bushings right here.
Do the same for those.
Continuing with suspension, you're also gonna have parts in the rear you wanna take a peek
at.
You've got, of course your shocks, you've got your coil springs, you're also gonna have
your sway bar links and those bushings.
Check them all.
So now let's just do a quick touch on the drive line system again.
We talked about it a little bit while we're up top, but we need to get a little bit more
into it.
You're gonna have a front differential assuming that you have a four-wheel drive unit.
That's something that you're gonna wanna check the fluid on.
And of course you're gonna have a rear differential.
That's also something that you wanna check the fluid on.
Typically those services are gonna be due way before 100,000 miles so I always like
to at least keep an eye on them to make sure that they're up to par.
You're also gonna wanna make sure you check them for leaks.
Anything that looks like this looks like it might be seeping.
You're also gonna have drive shafts that attach to those differentials.
In between the drive shaft and the differential, you're gonna have U-joints.
You wanna make sure you check those.
Typically you can kind of wiggle the drive shaft around, give it a little twist and even
kind of shift it.
If you see movement inside the cups, you're probably gonna wanna grease it.
If it doesn't have any grease fittings, then it's a non-serviceable U-joint, in which case
you'd replace it.
If that was the case, you would replace them both as a pair for the rear drive shaft and
then the same for the front if you had an issue there.
But make sure you check all those U-joints.
While we're under here, it really couldn't hurt to take a look at a couple other things.
You're gonna have flex hoses that are part of your braking system.
You're gonna wanna make sure that those are all good.
They're not dry and cracked and they're definitely still flexible.
You also wanna make sure you check your brake lines.
Those should be coated, but in case they aren't in some areas, you're gonna wanna make sure
you check them because you don't want them to be rotted out and potentially lose your
brakes.
There's gonna be some other things such as e-brake cables.
You wanna make sure that you don't have any cracks or frays in any of that.
Any area that might be rubbed through, you could potentially get moisture inside there
and then you're not going to have a good e-brake.
That's gonna be an issue.
A couple last things before we get out from underneath the truck, we wanna make sure we
check our exhaust, check all the seams, check all the joints, check everything that looks
like it might potentially have a leak.
The exhaust on this is gonna be very large and of course it's more than likely gonna
be very expensive.
So if you can find a leak, catch it early.
Hopefully you can fix it ASAP.
Other things besides that, go ahead and just take a quick peek under here and just make
sure you don't have any leaks anywhere.
If you see a leak someplace, that's definitely something that you're gonna wanna look at/diagnose
or even fix of course, right?
Let's get back out from underneath the truck for a little bit.
We're gonna talk about the fuel cap.
You wanna make sure that it's in good condition.
You're gonna have a seal right in here.
Make sure it's not dry rotted and cracked and it's definitely not too firm.
You want it to be nice and soft.
You also wanna make sure as you're putting it on here, you give it a nice turn so it's
supposed to lock in.
You're going to get that one little click.
If you don't get a click, well, it says right here, your check engine light might turn on.
All right.
So inside the vehicle, let's go ahead and make sure we check our lights.
You also wanna make sure you check your horn and of course the wipers.
Perfect.
Okay friends, so that's pretty much what I've got for you on 100,000-mile service for this
Cadillac Escalade.
Of course, there's gonna be a whole bunch of things that I missed along the way.
So if you've got something to say, leave it in the comment section below, because I always
love to hear from you.
Of course, if you've got one of these vehicles of your own and you've got something to talk
about, maybe a story or two or something else, leave that down there as well.
Like I said, I love to read it.
I love to hear from you.
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