Diesel owners Question

[Dr_Holiday]

I've owned my 2012 Ram w/ Cummins since it had 24k miles on it in late 2013. Since then I've done all of the maintenance myself expect the EGR cleaning (dealer did that)

I replace my fuel filter / fuel water separator every 10k miles and drain it about once a month.

Do most of you have your fuel filters changed? I was talking to a group of Diesel truck owners over the weekend at a camp ground and none of the 8 of them ever heard of changing fuel filter, or draining the fuel water separator.

[cummins2014]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I'm the odd ball........

I do oil and all filter changes at 5000 miles.

WHY.

Cause I run them hard but don't abuse them.

Last car......sold it with 300K
Last truck....sold it with 180K (F150 5.4L gasser)
Last motorcycle ....sold it with 80K

Oil and filters are cheap insurance as far as I am concerned

Ever did an oil analysis? I would bet not.

Not quite sure I get this oil analysis . I spend around $52.00 for an oil change , my manual states 15K or every six months. I do a change every six months, mileage is not a factor. If I decide to get an oil analysis I save $24.00 over the cost of an oil change. Not sure that makes sense to me.

Then there is the warranty. I have read where prove of oil analysis covers you warranty if not following the recommended change intervals. I sure would like to see that in writing if there were to be a oil related problem.

What I see here every time I read about this oil analysis is getting the sample kit, filling with oil, shipping it to the lab ,then waiting for the analysis to see if I can go longer. All the while I could spend $24.00 more, and just changed the oil instead of worrying about whether I need to or not.

After 19 years of diesel ownership I have never done an oil analysis . What I have done is the recommended change intervals according to the owners manual. Have I dodged the bullet not getting an analysis to warn me of impending doom, coolant in oil, excessive wear metals etc etc. I guess I have been lucky. I would assume other then saving a little money the only other motive would be impending doom.

[larry_barnhart]

rhagfo wrote:
Likely former Gasser owners that bought for the cool factor, and didn't do research. Likely think nothing of turning off directly after a hard pull! :S

Come to think about it a Diesel is like a horse, treat it nice and it will be good to you.

Definably looks like a true story for your truck.

chevman

[1jeep]

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I'm the odd ball........

I do oil and all filter changes at 5000 miles.

WHY.

Cause I run them hard but don't abuse them.

Last car......sold it with 300K
Last truck....sold it with 180K (F150 5.4L gasser)
Last motorcycle ....sold it with 80K

Oil and filters are cheap insurance as far as I am concerned

Well if you ever buy a new diesel you won't be doing them ever 5,000 miles! At the cost of full syn and the new filters and oil change can cost you north of $130 with a coupon to $190 without one! I was running 25,000 mile oil changes on my 2004 Ram and according to the lab reports could have gone a lot further on the oil. Always changed out the filter ever 10,000 miles.

Don

Do your own maintenance and it wont cost you that!

[rhagfo]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I'm the odd ball........

I do oil and all filter changes at 5000 miles.

WHY.

Cause I run them hard but don't abuse them.

Last car......sold it with 300K
Last truck....sold it with 180K (F150 5.4L gasser)
Last motorcycle ....sold it with 80K

Oil and filters are cheap insurance as far as I am concerned

Ever did an oil analysis? I would bet not.

Not likely, I did extended change testing a couple times Black Stone stated I was likely good to 12,500 miles with Dino oil (Delo 15-40). I figured 10,000 was a nice round number.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I'm the odd ball........

I do oil and all filter changes at 5000 miles.

WHY.

Cause I run them hard but don't abuse them.

Last car......sold it with 300K
Last truck....sold it with 180K (F150 5.4L gasser)
Last motorcycle ....sold it with 80K

Oil and filters are cheap insurance as far as I am concerned

Ever did an oil analysis? I would bet not.

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I'm the odd ball........

I do oil and all filter changes at 5000 miles.

WHY.

Cause I run them hard but don't abuse them.

Last car......sold it with 300K
Last truck....sold it with 180K (F150 5.4L gasser)
Last motorcycle ....sold it with 80K

Oil and filters are cheap insurance as far as I am concerned

Well if you ever buy a new diesel you won't be doing them ever 5,000 miles! At the cost of full syn and the new filters and oil change can cost you north of $130 with a coupon to $190 without one! I was running 25,000 mile oil changes on my 2004 Ram and according to the lab reports could have gone a lot further on the oil. Always changed out the filter ever 10,000 miles.

Don

[1jeep]

my previous diesel fuel filters every 10k and oil every 5k, I will be doing the same with the new one.

[Passin_Thru]

I have a Caterpillar adapter on mine and use CAT filters. I carry xtra filter and a wrench and when it plugs and starts running bad I change it. Most people give me advice like "You're not supposed to do that" but the dirtier the filter the smaller the diameter of particles it will filter. Having driven around 3 million miles, owned all kinds of diesels including tractors and pickups I have never had a problem. I suppose someone will say that a sheared oil pump shaft on a Duramax was somehow the fault of the dirty filter tho.I also prefill mine. I am a Aviation mechanic and can do it without the dirt getting in it. The biggest problem I have is people will see how close they can come to killing you while you are on the berm if you can't get off.

[Devocamper]

I change mine yearly, and carry a spare with the o-rings and drain w\water sensor float as well as the wrenches needed to change it just in case I were to pick up some bad fuel or the filter becomes blocked for any reason, I think anyone that drive's a diesel truck or motorhome should have a filter or filters and should know how to change them and bleed them and get back running in an emergency even if they don't do their own normal maintenance.

[4x4ord]

My 03 Duramax has had the fuel filter changed a couple times I think. Although the thing is a POS it still runs fine. I changed the primary fuel filter twice in the 5 years and 100,000 miles I owned my '11 King Ranch. If you get dirty fuel, a filter can clog within a very short period of time regardless of whether it was changed yesterday or 50,000 miles ago. I own about 20 diesels and as a rule they get fuel filters changed if they experience a lack of power. I believe a new clean filter will let larger particles of contamination through it than a used filter. I've never had an injector or fuel pump failure on any of these engines. I expect I could have said the same thing if I had changed filters on each engine once or twice a year instead of once or twice a decade.

[Cummins12V98]

I used to drain my 81 VW Diesel PU fuel filter but since then I have never done so with at least 700K of diesel driving after that. RAM has a water in fuel sensor and it DOES work.

[trailerbikecamp]

On my '03 CTD I change the fuel filter about every 20-30k km. Water seperator gets drained regularly. The water seperator also gets changed out, but not as often as the fuel filter. Always have spares on hand, just in case I get some bad fuel.

One local station I won't use after a couple of tanks of fuel contaminated with water.

[Old-Biscuit]

I'm the odd ball........

I do oil and all filter changes at 5000 miles.

WHY.

Cause I run them hard but don't abuse them.

Last car......sold it with 300K
Last truck....sold it with 180K (F150 5.4L gasser)
Last motorcycle ....sold it with 80K

Oil and filters are cheap insurance as far as I am concerned

[rhagfo]

Likely former Gasser owners that bought for the cool factor, and didn't do research. Likely think nothing of turning off directly after a hard pull! :S

Come to think about it a Diesel is like a horse, treat it nice and it will be good to you.

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

Have to say I have never drained them on this or my 2004 CTD. Never found any water during the filter changes either. I change out the fuel filters every 30,000 miles and just bought one for the EcoD to change this weekend.

Don