Post-off roading preventive inspection / maintenance

[DJurgy]

Assuming diligence with respect to Jeep's recommended maintenance schedule, what are additional inspections and maintenance that it would be wise to do to a vehicle driven off road?

In my head I'm thinking of the following categories:
1) Immediate inspections post-wheeling to make sure nothing is leaking or broken or loose
2) Adjustments/tightenings of anything that may have worked loose during the adventure
3) Accelerated maintenance schedules of things Jeep already recommends
4) Maintenance not recommended by Jeep but wise to do to a wheeled vehicle

I know some of this will depend on vehicle mods and exactly what trails are being done and the ambient environment. I'm driving a stock Rubicon in dusty Arizona (mostly Phoenix area) where even easy trails can be quite rocky causing constant bouncing and rocking and vibrations that I imagine could cause things to work loose that wouldn't under normal pavement driving. Trails are OnX rated up to 5 (so far), with dust, sand/gravel, occasional water fording, flexy ruts, and some minor rock crawls.

 

[Chris]

Not much to worry about as long as you aren't in the mud.

All I would worry about is making sure your joints are all greased. Mud and water is what destroys things in short order.

 

[1o1Proof]

Not much to worry about as long as you aren't in the mud.

All I would worry about is making sure your joints are all greased. Mud and water is what destroys things in short order.

This, you aren’t hurting it. Drive it and have fun.

 

[DJurgy]

Thanks, that's good to hear

 

[pc1p]

Assuming diligence with respect to Jeep's recommended maintenance schedule, what are additional inspections and maintenance that it would be wise to do to a vehicle driven off road?

In my head I'm thinking of the following categories:
1) Immediate inspections post-wheeling to make sure nothing is leaking or broken or loose
2) Adjustments/tightenings of anything that may have worked loose during the adventure
3) Accelerated maintenance schedules of things Jeep already recommends
4) Maintenance not recommended by Jeep but wise to do to a wheeled vehicle

I know some of this will depend on vehicle mods and exactly what trails are being done and the ambient environment. I'm driving a stock Rubicon in dusty Arizona (mostly Phoenix area) where even easy trails can be quite rocky causing constant bouncing and rocking and vibrations that I imagine could cause things to work loose that wouldn't under normal pavement driving. Trails are OnX rated up to 5 (so far), with dust, sand/gravel, occasional water fording, flexy ruts, and some minor rock crawls.

On a relatively stock rig with stock components, there's often not too much to worry about. That said, some extra due diligence can prevent some nasty and unexpected occurrences. Here are my general guidelines that I personally follow...

Level 1 Post-Trip Inspections: At the end of every trip, when I'm reinflating tires and unlocking hubs, at the trailhead parking lot I do a quick visual inspection. Is anything leaking? Is anything hanging down lower than it was? Do all my steering and suspension joints look to be in good order and where they're supposed to be? You have to be somewhat intentional in this inspection and visually verify that the arms are centered in the joints (I have found two that weren't) but you don't necessarily need to crawl deep underneath to inspect unless you really beat on it or whacked a component off of something. I don't check bolt tightness post trip, but I do visually confirm tightness by looking at the Dykem Crosscheck or paint marker lines to confirm nothing has moved.

Level 2 Post-Trip Inspections: during the wheeling season, and especially after an exceptionally hard outing or one where we had lots of water crossings, I may do a quick differential fluid inspection. I don't do this near the trail head, at least not unless I had reason to (such as spotting a loose/missing/damaged vent line). Aftermarket skid plates are notorious for blocking views of driveline components and also for loosening up just enough to cause a rattle or squeak. During wheeling season, I would pull these 2-3 times over the course of 3-4 months and do a quick visual and retighten. I also would do a more thorough "fastener check". Are all the bolts/nuts on components? Sometimes items like gas tank skids are easy to overlook or are hard to see, so while I'm sliding underneath to work on the skids or diffs, I'll take a few extra moments to do a check there. I also check brake lines, wiping them clean (if needed) and "feeling" along their length for any rubs or nicks that I would otherwise not be able to spot.

Pre-Season Maintenance: nowadays this is what I consider "springtime maintenance", though it was formerly "fall maintenance" when I lived in AZ. It's finally nice enough to want to spend some time in the garage, so I would grease up all my arms, joints, u-joints, etc. I touch-up any paint that has been flaked or scratched off, verify fluid levels in major components (diff, t-case, trans), give a fresh oil change, etc. In some cases, this is when I would disassemble aftermarket control arm joints and completely clean and regrease. Depending on mileage and maintenance schedule, I would tackle any other major maintenance needs at this time (the 5 year coolant drain and flush for example, or my personal 3 year brake flush/bleed).

Accelerated Maintenance: there are some items that will naturally wear out faster on a rig that is wheeled often. Balljoints, TREs, and wheel/hub bearings come to mind. You won't likely change these out before they show wear though, so it's more of a mental preparation. There are also some items that naturally wear faster on a 4x4 vs a smaller passenger car (e.g. tires). I make sure to never miss a tire rotation, particularly with M/T tires, and this really helps with longevity (and especially if running a matching full sized spare tire).

 

[DJurgy]

On a relatively stock rig with stock components, there's often not too much to worry about. That said, some extra due diligence can prevent some nasty and unexpected occurrences. Here are my general guidelines that I personally follow...

Level 1 Post-Trip Inspections: At the end of every trip, when I'm reinflating tires and unlocking hubs, at the trailhead parking lot I do a quick visual inspection. Is anything leaking? Is anything hanging down lower than it was? Do all my steering and suspension joints look to be in good order and where they're supposed to be? You have to be somewhat intentional in this inspection and visually verify that the arms are centered in the joints (I have found two that weren't) but you don't necessarily need to crawl deep underneath to inspect unless you really beat on it or whacked a component off of something. I don't check bolt tightness post trip, but I do visually confirm tightness by looking at the Dykem Crosscheck or paint marker lines to confirm nothing has moved.

Level 2 Post-Trip Inspections: during the wheeling season, and especially after an exceptionally hard outing or one where we had lots of water crossings, I may do a quick differential fluid inspection. I don't do this near the trail head, at least not unless I had reason to (such as spotting a loose/missing/damaged vent line). Aftermarket skid plates are notorious for blocking views of driveline components and also for loosening up just enough to cause a rattle or squeak. During wheeling season, I would pull these 2-3 times over the course of 3-4 months and do a quick visual and retighten. I also would do a more thorough "fastener check". Are all the bolts/nuts on components? Sometimes items like gas tank skids are easy to overlook or are hard to see, so while I'm sliding underneath to work on the skids or diffs, I'll take a few extra moments to do a check there. I also check brake lines, wiping them clean (if needed) and "feeling" along their length for any rubs or nicks that I would otherwise not be able to spot.

Pre-Season Maintenance: nowadays this is what I consider "springtime maintenance", though it was formerly "fall maintenance" when I lived in AZ. It's finally nice enough to want to spend some time in the garage, so I would grease up all my arms, joints, u-joints, etc. I touch-up any paint that has been flaked or scratched off, verify fluid levels in major components (diff, t-case, trans), give a fresh oil change, etc. In some cases, this is when I would disassemble aftermarket control arm joints and completely clean and regrease. Depending on mileage and maintenance schedule, I would tackle any other major maintenance needs at this time (the 5 year coolant drain and flush for example, or my personal 3 year brake flush/bleed).

Accelerated Maintenance: there are some items that will naturally wear out faster on a rig that is wheeled often. Balljoints, TREs, and wheel/hub bearings come to mind. You won't likely change these out before they show wear though, so it's more of a mental preparation. There are also some items that naturally wear faster on a 4x4 vs a smaller passenger car (e.g. tires). I make sure to never miss a tire rotation, particularly with M/T tires, and this really helps with longevity (and especially if running a matching full sized spare tire).

This is great info. Thanks for sharing it!

 

[WSS]

I treat my JKU fairly rough. Mostly crawling so cal trails. I did a easy ish trail over new year weekend, it was wet and slick. This week, I intended to install a pair of new trans coolers. Switch from one big fin and tube monstrosity to a pair of smaller stacked plate coolers. I crawled under the Jeep to map out the hose routing and noticed the paint on my driver side long arm all puckered, traced it up to a leaking brake line at the junction where it goes to flex line. Oops, gotta fix that now, tonight I was finishing up the repair and looked across to the passenger side brakes (just a habit scanning for problems) and noticed a brake caliper bolt GONE! Not broken but just gone. Even with pre trip visuals, things rear up their head. I may switch to more than visual and do more torque testing, just a few wrenches and test tightness. The brake line had to be replaced, the inverted flair at the junction was cracked, the more I tightened, the faster it leaked. But the missing caliper bolt could have been caught with a simple 1/2" wrench (13mm??).

OHH, some free info on flaring brake tubes, "bubble" flares are the first step of an inverted flare. I was having trouble finding a suitable solution for the upper end of my cracked brake line (ABS exit) that had a bubble flare, I ended up at my local aircraft supply (G&J aircraft supply) hoping to find an adapter or a fix for it and they said to just do the first stage of a inverted flare with the die and it's done. Never knew that .

 

[pc1p]

OHH, some free info on flaring brake tubes, "bubble" flares are the first step of an inverted flare. I was having trouble finding a suitable solution for the upper end of my cracked brake line (ABS exit) that had a bubble flare, I ended up at my local aircraft supply (G&J aircraft supply) hoping to find an adapter or a fix for it and they said to just do the first stage of a inverted flare with the die and it's done. Never knew that .

I learned this the hard way many years ago as well with my '66 Coupe. I forget exactly what M/C I ended up using, but it took a rounded flare (aka bubble flare). Attempt after attempt at making new inverted flare seal up just resulted in lots of messy brake fluid to clean up. I ended up taking the M/C back to the store (AutoZone at which I worked) and tried to compare it to a replacement that I had ordered to see if it wasn't made properly, and Chuck (the in-store guy that knew EVERYTHING! Literally...) said, "why are you making inverted flares? I can see where they're bottoming out at the back of the threads!".

I swapped the M/Cs, went home and made a "half a flare", and it sealed up perfectly the first try.

You live and you learn

To be fair, even my dad - a 20+ year ASE Master Tech didn't catch that...