Under the severe schedule the axle lubricant is indeed something that requires changing at 15,000 miles as per the manufacturer. The question comes back to, what is really severe useage? Because the drive train operates in 4WD all of the time, there is extra loading on the front and rear ring and pinion assemblies. Keeping the axle fluids flushed does increase the lifespan of these components considerably. Now granted as you say you only have a two year lease. We have talked about that before, you already prefer to waste money when it comes to getting your cars, why do you hesitate to care for them properly? Gary, re-think what you wrote. Use Sharons last post or two about damage to the vehicle, what was it four carfax reports? Brake wear is not and should not be warrantable. As far as "has she had trouble with the axles", that really is putting the cart before the horse. "Preventive Maintanence" is all about preventing problems with those components. Changing the axle fluid occasionally is all it takes to not have trouble with those. I adapted this very strategy to my Ford Explorer, even though it is NOT a recommended service until much later in it's life. The result? There are a lot of cars just like mine, that never even towed anything that have had axle failures. Mine is over 100,000 miles, and has towed 3000lbs+ some 65,000 of it and has no signs of any axle trouble. All I had to do was flush the axles at 20,000, then 50,000, then 80,000, and I'll do it every 30,000 until I no longer own the car. The best part is I don't even tow that trailer anymore like I used to. So there is much less stress on my Explorers drivetrain than there used to be. The fluids show this when I perform a service. BTW the tranny has gotten serviced the same way, and there are no signs of any major repairs looming there either. So what does this mean? It does not mean always change every fluid and the car will never break down, and that of course is the argument people that really want to get a pass on abusing a car are really looking for. It does mean that breakdowns are much less likely for those that service their cars correctly than they are for those that neglect them. There are a great number of people who jump on the lease programs that only want to drive something newer while never spending a penny on it and then dump it so it ends up as someone else's problem once it starts displaying just how abused it was. Owning a car, or even just leasing it still means taking care of it and fixing what breaks, and protecting what has not.

If you have shoe brakes in the rear, check out the self adjusters therein. These may be jammed and need to be cleaned and lubricated. After freeing up and cleaning the adjusters, re-assemble the drums and ajust the shoe brakes. Then check the fluid resevoir on the master cylinder and top off if needed. After the first application of the brakes, the shoe brakes may not be returing fully and the next time you apply the brakes, all seems well. But, with road shocks, the shoes may drift all the way back to their stops and then it will take extra pedal movement to push them against the drums. Also, you may have a parking brake cable that is draging in its housing. It should be free to slide. If not, replace. While you are into the brakes, inspect the return springs. if these are in bad shape, replace.

I am totally and irrationally attached to my old car. We just got a "new" one - a 2008 hyundai santa fe, but I am already thinking about what to get next when we sell this one. We got a killer deal on a low mileage used one and could probably even make money if we sold it today (and would make money if we totaled it). I love having a bigger car with a toddler and I love AWD in bad weather but I do not really love the crappy gas mileage so hoping in a couple of years our options are better for a CUV with better fuel economy (some of the models coming out this year look good so we'll see how good they really are and then look for a good deal in a couple of years). But we just put a lot of money (where a "lot" is relative to the value of the car) our 2001 Honda Accord. NOTHING special about it at all but I just love that car. It needed a new CV joint, 4 new tires, an expensive 100k mile service and new brakes. Somewhat recently it had the timing belt done and a new clutch. It runs like new now and even though it's nothing luxurious or sporty and never was, if I am going somewhere by myself and the weather is OK I will always take the old car. To me it's like that perfectly faded, broken in pair of jeans that are just starting to get good after 10 years. yeah there are a couple of frayed edges but oooh so comfortable. DH wanted to sell it when we got the "new" car and go back down to one car again (we have shared a car for the last 10 years or so that he has been working from home) but it's really much harder to do that with a child... and I just could not bear to give up the old car.

The internals of my backflow valve broke in my first year because the sprinkler company didn't get out to do the complimentary blow out for the first year. Then they wanted to charge me like $110 to fix it. I spent about $10 and repaired it myself. If you want to blow out your lines the main issue is whether you have a large enough air volume to push the water out of the tubing. If you have a small volume of air, it will tend to bubble along the top of the underground tubing and leave a significant amount of water still in the lines. I used a nail gun compressor last year and it seemed to work great. It is a 6 gallon compressor, which is a small one. Just connect it upstream of your backflow valve, turn the compressor on, and run the system through it's zones in one or two minute durations. Keep doing that until you don't see any more water coming out. When I did it, I had to keep blocking in the compressor discharge to give it a chance to accumulate more air at a good pressure, and then I would open the discharge valve to allow that air volume to rush into the tubing system. If you try to insulate the valve I would also run water through the system so that the water in the line is at least a little warmer. Alternatively, if there is anywhere you can crack open a valve or loosen a fitting on the discharge side of your backflow valve, you could let a dribble of water run through the night to keep it from freezing.