Chevrolet Silverado 1500 2014–2018 · Maintenance schedule & cost to maintain

GM does not schedule this and says so: "Adjustments to wheel alignment and tire balancing are not necessary on a regular basis," with a check advised if there is unusual tire wear or the truck pulls to one side. Treat it as event-driven instead. Get one after new tires, after any suspension or steering work, and after a real pothole or curb hit. Skipping it after a tire or strut job throws away part of what you just paid for.

Every 45,000 miles or four years, and again GM prints the same number on the normal and the severe chart in all five books. The 2016 through 2018 footnote adds the one condition that does change it: in dusty conditions, inspect the filter at each oil change. The element is a flat panel in an airbox on the passenger side and takes about fifteen minutes with a screwdriver. Buy it by the year, not by the engine: GM's own books list ACDelco A3085C (GM 15908915) for 2014 and A3181C (GM 22845992) for 2015 through 2018, across every engine. GM's parts table does not split this by engine at all, so a listing that offers you one filter for the 5.3 and another for the 4.3 is not following GM.

GM's severe chart puts this at 45,000, 90,000 and 135,000 miles in all five owner's manuals. The normal chart is the strange one: it carries no transmission fluid row at all from the 2015 book onward, and only a single service at 97,500 miles in the 2014 book. If you tow, run heavy city traffic in hot weather or live in hilly country, GM's own definition puts you on the 45,000 number.

4WD trucks only. A half-ton under 8,600 lb GVW gets 45,000, 90,000 and 135,000 miles on GM's severe chart in the 2016 through 2018 books, against a single service at 97,500 on the normal chart. Check the GVW on your door label before assuming which row you are reading, because the over-8,600 lb row is twice as frequent. The fluid is DEXRON-VI ATF, not gear oil.

Read your own year. GM's 2014 manual puts brake fluid at 150,000 miles or every ten years. The 2015 manual cuts it to 45,000, 90,000 and 135,000 miles or every three years. The 2016, 2017 and 2018 manuals drop the mileage entirely and say every five years. Same truck, three different answers, so go by the book that came with yours. Brake fluid pulls moisture out of the air regardless of miles, which is why the newer books are a calendar rule.

No factory interval. On a half-ton, front pads commonly run 30,000 to 70,000 miles, and the spread is almost entirely duty: towing and stop-and-go eat the front end while steady highway miles barely touch it. GM already has you inspect the brake system at every 7,500-mile Required Service, so use that rather than a number. One shop note worth knowing on these trucks: on a rear-wheel-drive Silverado the front pads can outlast the rears, which is the reverse of what most owners expect.

This is a real truck, so an all-terrain is a legitimate choice here in a way it never is on a commuter car. GM still flags the trade: on all-terrain tires "The tread pattern on these tires may wear more quickly than other tires," and GM tells you to consider rotating more often than every 7,500 miles if the wear goes irregular. On a 4WD truck the diameters need to stay close, which is why GM recommends replacing worn tires in complete sets of four and says "Uniform tread depth on all tires will help to maintain the performance of the vehicle." Book the alignment with the new set or you will pay for these tires twice.

Not a scheduled item, and on this truck not generic advice either. GM bulletin 17-NA-166 covers 2014 to 2018 Silverado with the LV3, L83 and L86, and for a rough idle or vibration at idle in Drive it says "This concern may be caused by ground out (1) within one or both engine mounts." The correction is updated-design mounts. There is no mileage attached, in the bulletin or anywhere else, so treat the symptom as the trigger. A mount that has given up lets the engine move under load, and that movement works on exhaust connections, hoses and harnesses, so the second repair is dearer than the first would have been.

GM publishes no replacement mileage for these. The working range is a generic 50,000 to 100,000 miles before ride and body control go noticeably soft, and a truck that hauls, tows or lives on washboard gravel lands at the low end. Worn dampers let the tire skip instead of following the road, and that shows up as cupped, scalloped tread that no alignment will correct. If you are burning through tires faster than expected, look at the shocks before you blame the alignment rack.

No GM interval. The generic range is 70,000 to 120,000 miles, closer to 50,000 to 80,000 on rough roads or a truck that actually works for a living. Rubber also hardens and cracks with age, so an 8 to 10 year old bushing is suspect on a low-mileage truck too. Worn bushings let the front geometry move under load, which is why an alignment will not hold on a truck that needs them. Do the bushings first, then the alignment, or you pay for the alignment twice.

4WD trucks only. On this platform the front axle and its half-shafts are four-wheel-drive equipment, so a 2WD Silverado has nothing here. Boots typically last 70,000 to 130,000 miles, so start looking at 60,000 miles or five years old, whichever comes first. A split boot flings grease onto the brake rotor and pads, which turns a cheap boot into a boot plus a front brake job, and a joint that has been running dry gets replaced as a whole axle.

GM's number is 97,500 miles, and unusually it is identical on the normal chart and the severe chart in all five owner's manuals, so there is nothing to default to and a shop quoting plugs at 60,000 miles on this truck is ahead of GM. All three engines use the same plug, GM 12622441 / ACDelco 41-114, listed unchanged from the 2014 book to the 2018 book. The labor is in the access: the coils and the coil harness come off before the plugs do, eight of them on a V8.

150,000 miles or every five years, whichever comes first, and identical on the normal and severe charts in all five books. In practice the five years arrives first for nearly everyone. It is DEX-COOL mixed 50/50 with clean drinkable water, and the system holds 15.9 quarts on the 4.3L and 16.6 quarts on the 5.3L and 6.2L, which is why it is not a ten-dollar job.

GM publishes no replacement mileage for this belt anywhere in these manuals. What the chart carries is a visual inspection at 150,000 miles or ten years, with the footnote telling you to "Inspect for fraying, excessive cracking, or damage; replace, if needed." Same in all five books and the same on the normal and severe charts. So this is a condition item: look at it during other under-hood work and replace when it looks bad, not on a schedule.

Calendar, not mileage. Typical service life is three to five years, so have it load-tested from year three and plan on replacing by year five rather than waiting for a no-start in a parking lot. Do not buy the group size off a chart, because this truck was built with more than one. GM's own instruction is to "Refer to the replacement number shown on the original battery label when a new battery is needed."