Your Diesel Truck and Oil Maintenance

Your diesel truck was engineered by its manufacturer to deliver exceptional performance, durability, and the capability to take you wherever the road leads. Designed to manage heavy workloads beyond the capacity of a standard gasoline engine, your truck requires consistent care to operate at its best. Among your most critical maintenance tasks is staying current with oil changes.

Because of their high compression ratios, diesel engines naturally generate more heat than gasoline engines, causing oil to degrade more quickly. Many diesel truck fleet mechanics recommend oil changes every 16,000 miles. While a gas engine might tolerate occasional lapses in oil maintenance, neglecting this service on a diesel truck can have costly consequences.

What’s the Payoff for Diligence?

One of the worst feelings a motorist can have is being marooned miles from home in a vehicle that has suddenly failed to do what it has done consistently for years – propel you forward and get you to your destination. Instead, you’re roadside, suddenly scrambling for assistance, which you know will be costly.

Speaking of cost, that’s the next thing that becomes an issue after you’ve gotten a tow to the garage. Too often, this situation is the result of poor diesel truck oil maintenance. So, what will you be replacing now that the engine’s oil has degraded to the point where it no longer protects the moving parts of the engine?

• Piston and Cylinders
  Talk about sticker shock – replacing the pistons and cylinders can run as much as $20,000. Dirty oil mars the cylinder walls, resulting in damage to the pistons and camshafts, which are expensive parts and take a long time to replace, which means paying a lot in labor fees.
• So Long, Turbocharger
  The added power you get from your turbocharger is a frequent victim of poor oil maintenance. Without proper lubrication, it overheats and blows. These will cost easily more than $2,000 to replace.
• Oil Pump
  By the time your oil pump has gone bad due to dirty oil, your pistons, cylinders and turbocharger are probably on their way out. While the pump is one of the lower-priced items to repair, letting it get to that point could mean higher costs elsewhere.

In the worst-case scenario, the dirty oil has completely ruined your engine, which, depending on the size of your diesel truck, could be a devastating blow to your budget.

Don’t allow it to get to that point – schedule a routine oil replacement with us at Gray Diesel & Equipment Services. Our team of service technicians is ready to assist you in getting the most mileage possible out of your diesel truck. Contact us to make an appointment.