I changed my oil last week. I was looking at my Haynes manual last night and it seems like I can do a lot of the things myself, like change the MT fluid, radiator flush, and spark plugs. Anyone have experience doing the MT fluid or radiator flush? It seems pretty straightforward but I just don't want to mess anything up. Also, do I need to also replace the spark plug wires or just the spark plugs themselves? The manual also said to change the distributor cap and rotor....is that pretty easy?

Another thing the manual mentioned was inspecting all the hoses and belts and brakes. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with my own judgement on that so I'm thinking I'll go to some shop to have it checked out. The only thing is, I'm one of those people who don't trust mechanics, and I'm afraid that when I take it in, they are going to look at the car and make up all this crap that is wrong with it. What is the average life of break pads? I think I have about 45000 miles on my current ones (they were replaced around 15000 because of heat cracks). The dealership did that replacement under warranty so I didn't have to pay for it. How much does a brake replacement cost also?

Also, I went to Tire Kingdom to get my tire rotation done and they also had some 60K mile maintenance they do and one of the things on there was a 3 point fuel induction something or other (not sure what they do but it had something to do with flushing it and tuning it up and whatever). Do I need to get that done also?

I'm worried about all this because I'm driving 1500 miles next week and want to make sure everything will be ok during and after the drive. Thanks for your help,