Just crossed 100k

I have a 1999 Escort SE with a 5 spd manual. I do about 90% highway driving, and I baby it quite a bit. Rarely do I hard shift. No hard braking. I cruise at about 75 on the freeway. When I bought it, it had about 85k of Arizona miles on it. I've put on 15k Michigan miles on it in about 9 months.

What sorts of things are recommended to do as preventative maintenance. I've just done some real basic stuff so far:

1 - rotated the tires
2 - checked brakes
3 - bottle of fuel injector cleaner with a fresh tank of amoco ultimate
4 - cleaned out throttle body
5 - Oil change and filter (Royal Purple 5w20)
6 - checked the cerp belt (only about 15% stretched according to the tensioner gauge

Things I still plan to do:
1 - spark plugs (should I also do wires?)
2 - timing belt (do I need to replace the idler or tensioner with the belt? is it really worth putting in a new water pump while I'm at it for an extra $70)
3 - change coolant

Suspension seems ok still. No bouncing. Alignment is just a tiny bit off (pulls to the left a little), but I wasn't planning on having that checked until I get new tires in abut 10,000 miles. I want to see how much the tire store will add for an alignment.

Edit: something I almost forgot.....is it worth changing the trans fluid? If so, what fluid should I use? My dad tells me I should put in a synthetic ATF because it's better quality than any MTF. If that's true I'll use Royal Purple because I get Royal Purple products at cost from a friend's shop.

Am I missing something big? I've read some threads on here referring to some problem with the #4 cylinder in these cars. Is there anything I can do to prevent a major failure?

There's nothing you can do to prevent the valve insert problem on cyl #4 ... if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. Of course, avoiding engine overheating ... watching the fluid and makeing sure the radiator fans work will help ... but there are no gaurantees. Be super careful to avoid overheating during coolant change-outs. (I never change out coolant ... just keep the original extra rich ... 60% - 65% or so.)

If you really wanted to avoid the problem, you could remove the head and have it serviced by a good cylinder head repair shop ... they would re-cinch the seats so they would never come loose .... but that's a lot of work. And none of us, me included, will do that much to avoid the problem.

Bump.

Anyone have any input on whether or not it is worth changing the idler pully or the tensioner when I change my timing belt?

I wouldn't bother with the pulleys... not worth it at all.

Bump.

Anyone have any input on whether or not it is worth changing the idler pully or the tensioner when I change my timing belt?

I wouldn't bother with the tensioner or pullys as they don't seem to go. However, it is a serious job to replace the timing belt. If you are going to go through the effort of it, you may as well splerge on a new water pump. After you spend most of your day replacing the belt and putting the thing back togeather, murpheys law states that your water pump will go a week later. :wink:

For the price of $60 or so, it is good to know that you don't have to worry about it in the future.

My car had 112,000 before the timing belt blew (well, it had teeth shredded off). I would do the timing belt soon before you get stuck somewhere. I had to replace the tensioner since I broke it trying to put the belt back on.

I didn't do the water pump...should of though.

Oh, and I would replace the fuel pump too. It isn't much and is fairly simple (it's in the back, held by two clips, and there is plenty of space).

Sorry to interrupt with your isues but mine ,similiar to yours,escort 97 has 144 k miles in her.
I got it when she had 110k on almost 3 years ago.
I have to change the timing belt right,
and transmission fluid right?
Any other service/maintance to the engine ?

Any idea as to how much might the chain service cost?