Questions on oil

I think he is suggesting that doing 15,000 oil change 1 month that you are averaging close to 3,700 a week, which is very high, so in an audit they might look for logbook violations. But think about it, any time that you change your oil at a certain mileage interval and time span, the mileage ran should be an indicator of log book violations in an audit. 15,000 a month is 180,000 a year. So if you change your oil at 50,000 at little more than 3 months, is that any less of a red flag than 15,000 in 1 month? I don't think worrying about getting caught in logbook violations in an audit is a reason to extend your oil change. That is not a concern for you, as you don't have to mark your mileage when you do your own work, but for drivers who have it done at a truckstop it's on there.

 

There are always variations. I ran an N-14 to 1.4 million, only got one new injector and an accessory drive seal in that time, it got 30,000 mile oil changes. Just Baldwin filters and Kendall conventional 15w40 oil. Still ran great and got sold and put right to work. Used about 1 gallon in 7000 miles at the end.

 

I use a combination routine... 22,500 miles or 450 hrs, whichever comes first.

 

I use hours, DD15 says 650 hours or 25,000 miles for severe service. I hit the hours at about 17,000 miles.

 

Well there is a lot of thoughts.

First off get an Oil Analysis (OA) at 15k - IT will tell you the condition of the oil that may be triggering the use of oil.

Second you're using a synthetic blend, so extending your oil changes to 25k should be alright, again the OA will actually tell you when you should change it. Extend it out maybe to 30k to see where the drop off point should trigger an oil change.

Third oil doesn't wear out, the additives become contaminated or lose their effectiveness. SO don't think it is always imperative to change oil at 15k or what ever without an OA.

Fourth IF you establish an extended oil change routine, then get into the habit to change out the filters at 15k or so. With that, get a bypass filter put on the truck, you can maybe extend the oil change to 50k with OAs and filter changes.

I find changing oil under 15k a waste of money. With what we have today in oil tech, it should be changed in severe duty at 15k. I know people who change oil at 7k in a truck, crap what a waste of money. I own a truck I bought used where the owner changed the oil at 10k. I added up the maintenance costs from the records he gave me and there was close to $15k that he overspent on maintenance.

OH and if the DOT tried to tie my oil changes with my logs, I would have told them to stick it because they require a mileage nothing else as a record of maintenance. I used to use hours for a long time, so it wasn't an issue for me to just throw in a mileage.

 

Where the heck are you guys getting your numbers? I can get an oil change for $250 and if you do one a month that is 3k dollars for the year. How can you overspend 15k even if you change it every two weeks? That only brings the total to $6k for the year.

Some don't seem to understand math or the fact that you will never get rid of all maintenance expenses. While others that can't seem to make it work for them need to tone down their lifestyles. My ex would tell me that you can't take it with you when I complained about the money she was spending. I told her that I don't plan on dying anytime soon.

 

What in the ever livin' h....? Were they running straight Lucas in there?

 

It came in for coolant in the oil due to a failed liner. But I feel like there were problems long before that, we have a lot of cylinder kits and never has the oil been that thick, usually the coolant separates to the bottom and it just drains most of the coolant out of the pan and then oil. Really not sure how they let this happen, it was from a major fleet with a few goldish colored trucks . They somehow got Detroit to cover it under warranty even though is was clearly neglect. Ended up buying a hazmat suit to pressure wash that engine. They wouldn't pay to remove it and send it to be cleaned, ended up coming back a few months later for another kit. Miraculously the bearing were all fine.

 

I hope you dont mind if i high jack this blog instead of making another beat to death oil change blog. I have a 2011 dd15 it has about 500k miles on her i dont know what oil was being used. I am guessing a 10/30 oil was added in the past since freightliner has switched to that brought it at arrow so now it could be anything.i do a lot of stop and go local traffic and crank a lot. Dont care about mpg but more on durability reliability. What oil should i use? I want to go delo but not sure if i should go 10/30 or 15/40. Again my first time changing the oil on this truck so have no idea what it was. Its a arrow bought truck so i am guessing they put the cheapest stuff they can find.

 

I had a 2013 DD15. I was using an off brand, Co-op 0W40 full synthetic. I always do oil analysis and the numbers always came back fine. I had the dealer do an oil change one time and they put in Shell Rotella T6 0W40 full synthetic. On my next oil analysis the results were clearly different, the soot and the wear metal numbers were down by nearly half. I continued to use the T6 after that and the numbers continued to improve slightly.
So I'm sold on the Rotella T6.
I did oil changes at 650 hours and never had to add a drop in between.
I pulled 140,000 lbs super b-trains doing regional work.