diesel maintenance questions

rhagfo wrote:

NHIrish wrote:
The short answer for you is that if you don't need diesel...don't get it. I have one ONLY because I need the torque. They are a pain in the a##.

Spoken like a true gasser!

I see my diesel as a pure joy to drive and maintain. You drive and operate a diesel like a diesel, not like a gasser.
I like the fact that with less than 300 hp I can pull my 11,000# 5er up steep grades at 55 to 60 mph on state highways and at 65 to 70 on interstates.

Irish wrote his comment in 5/14 :h

I like yourself enjoy driving and maintaining a diesel truck, but for some folks they just want to add gas and go, have instant heat in the winter, no fuel fiters to change, can have the oil changed at any lube shop with very little risks and is very cheap, no DEF to add, don't have to worry about DPF getting clogged and the truck display telling the driving he or she is required to drive truck until the DPF has been cleaned, don't have to drain the water separator, don't have to plug in a block heater, don't have to shut engine off to place an order at the drive thru, etc... etc... Diesel is not for everyone which is why the vast majority of our vehicles are powered by gas and that's ok.

I just happen to like diesel, but I won't sugar coat it! :W

NHIrish wrote:
The short answer for you is that if you don't need diesel...don't get it. I have one ONLY because I need the torque. They are a pain in the a##.

Spoken like a true gasser!

I see my diesel as a pure joy to drive and maintain. You drive and operate a diesel like a diesel, not like a gasser.
I like the fact that with less than 300 hp I can pull my 11,000# 5er up steep grades at 55 to 60 mph on state highways and at 65 to 70 on interstates.

nevadanick wrote:
I bought diesel pickup and SUV because thats what i wanted. No need to justify it.

Ditto. Of course, I've been that way since 1981 when I bought a brand new VW Jetta Diesel coupe, and felt the awesome torque off of a stop light with only 52 Shetland ponies under the hood. I think torque was 72 ftlbs, or thereabouts. A healthy increase over my 1967 Beetle when it was stock with 1500 cc's and maybe 50 HP.

I bought diesel pickup and SUV because thats what i wanted. No need to justify it.

I have a 3.0 L v 6 tdi Touareg that I use for towing my travel trailer. 16.5 to 19 MPG pulling about 4500 lbs and 21 foot of travel trailer.

Maintenance, due to expense of a MB 229.51 600 ppm low sulfur, low phospate, low ash 5w-40 diesel motor oil will be a bit more expensive.

When you need batteries, you'll need a pair at the same time, not just one. I go through about 3 to 3.5 gallons of DEF every 10000 miles. $10.00 worth or a bit more at any big rig truck stop, if bought in bulk from the dispenser pump. More than offset by the savings in MPG.

In Los Angeles, diesel is 3.93 a gallon, RUG is 4.07. I have zero problems getting better than 30% MPG over a gasser on open road with no rush hour traffic.

You'll pay a little more for it, but that's just the price you pay for a torque monster. If you abuse it, you'll pay dearly on a diesel motor. If you service it by the book, treat it right, don't overwork it or over heat it, take your foot out of the accelerator when its working hard with a heavy load going up hill in the heat, it will go 300-450,000 miles. In light duty... In heavy duty, throw all that out the window, it's borderline abuse. This is a LIGHT duty diesel motor. Understand what it's limitations are, use it for light towing, up to 50% of it's rated tow weight, and tow less that 10-15% of the miles acrued on it, and it will outlast you. Diesels do not take well to being abused, parts and drivetrain goodies get real expensive on them real fast, when you get a cowboy behind the wheel that thinks everything he lays his hand on is a tool to be abused.

Oh, and I have no problem getting 30 MPG when not towing... in a 5000# SUV that is all wheel drive, all the time. As good as 35 MPG when empty and at 60-65MPH. EPA ratings totally penalize diesels, and reward gassers. Many folks do better thant the highway EPA rated MPG in diesel, by a long shot. But you do have to relearn how to drive the torque in a diesel, not the RPMS or the horsepower, like in a gasser.

I too was a little anxious when getting our first diesel a year ago. After 20k miles (5k with trailer) I have to say it's great. I haven't used any additive and just pump diesel instead of gas and don't worry about it, no gelling or othe issues even with our very cold winter in MN this past year. I do use the radiator cover in winter when not towing, no starting problems.

Oil changes cost more. DEF is about a gallon per thousand miles, $3 per gallon if you pump it at the truck stop.

Mileage is better, especially when pulling.

Bottom line, I'm well past any anxiety and loving having a diesel, although recognize I pay a little more for it.

yea, there is a lot of bad info out there from non diesel owners. I got the same feed back from this group.
I eventually went to the ford dealer and talked to the service advisor and punched it all into a spreadsheet. Diesel will save you money over the long run if you maintain it properly. The nice thing about a gas engine, you don't really have to maintain it, and most people don't, they just drive them into the ground and rarely even change the oil.

Diesel allows 7500-10K between oil changes, depending on usage and types of diesel you are using.

MPG are way better. My V10 excursion would squeak out 11mpg and with a tail wind and 55mph 17. My diesel excursion would get 17 no problem and wasn't uncommon to see 22mpg.
My F350 averages, averages, 15.1mpg with 4.10 gearing driving at 65mph. My F350 is 100% Stock.

Now, that ram 1500 ED will get consistently 26mpg on the freeway during the break in period. Four wheeler magazines has already done several write up on it since last year. They stated, that if you used hyper miler techniques it was easy to get 30mpg.
So let me put this into perspective for you. Lets, take my f350 at 15.1 mpg and compare it to that ram at 23 mpg avg. If your fuel cost 3.95 p/gal and you drove 17K miles per year, your truck would use $2919.57 in fuel where as I would use $4447.02, you would best me by just over $1500 in that first year.
You are talking about a truck that is getting mileage better than a minivan and up there with mid-sized passenger cars.

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:

From what some say on here the very southern states do not have a winter blend. So if you were to fuel up in one of those states you could have an issue, if infact this is true.

Don

Not sure which are the very southern states, but I do know that diesel fuel needs and usually gets winterized based on expected area low temps. So you ought not be surprised fuel bought anywhere might be prone to gelling if moved a few hundred miles north. Around here, 10 is considered really cold, zero is brutal, and they start talking about records at 10 below. So when we drove our Jetta TDI to northern Ohio for Christmas with the family a few years ago, I made sure to start the trip with about 500 miles worth of fuel in the tank, and fill up adding a shot of anti-gel additive about 40 miles before we got there so it would have a chance to mix. Next morning at 33 below she fired right up and ran like a train in spite of being 400 plus miles north of home.

srt20 wrote:

chevor wrote:
Good for you. I have gelled up, its not fun to have a truck that won't start on the side of the road at temps below -30.

What resale value?

When, 1975?

From what some say on here the very southern states do not have a winter blend. So if you were to fuel up in one of those states you could have an issue, if infact this is true.

Don

Love my 2011 chevy 3500 duramax but I have had some DEF issues covered under warranty. I do have concerns with emissions but other than that what a great way to pull.