Is anybody still doing a 10-15K oil change?

My oil is still honey brown at 10K with a Spinner doing duty.

As for grease, I don't base it on engine oil. 10K for just about everything except clutch and S-cams which are every other 10K. 5K for cross joints.

I always carry coveralls, grease gun and cardboard to lay on. And a tub of hand cleaner.

 

One of the stronger examples of why a bypass filter or spinner centrifuge unit should be used. Those of us that use one of these products can go with extended drains and never experience something like your example. People have to live within their own comfort level whether it is using extended drains and sampling, or changing the oil every 14 days. Nice thing is we can choose how to do it, and there is no one size fits all. That is why there is a laundry list of brands of oils, filters, etc. So many choices. Everyone can find their niche that allows them to sleep well at night.

 

I think there isn't 1 size fits all solution for the question about when to do the oil changes.

The range off oils has changed a lot in the last 10y.Starting from full mineral oil to half synthetic to full synthetic.
Depending on which type off oil you use,mileage will vary.

As Cowpie mentioned,your filter setup is the second factor.

Then there is the type off engine.Again a lot has changed.Newer engines are build for longer between oilchanges.(in general)

And lastly but maybe most important is the sort off work your engine does.
A OTR truck running mostly on flatlands compared to a truck running mixer will have a BIG difference in the wear off the oil.

All off which makes the case for using oilsamples to figure out what the best time is for oilchange.

ps A spinner centrifuge unit is something i will allways advocate.Long ago we used to have a truck with a spinner that you had to clean out.The slurry that came out off that was.............(hard to discribe,lets say it was ugly stuff).

 

When I got my truck it was on an extended oil change schedule using delo synthetic 5w40. I changed to regular 15w40 and cat filter and change it at between 12 and 15 thousand miles depending on when I am home to get into my regular shop. It is a c15 acert with 800k miles on the original components. What I have noticed is that after each oil change the oil was gradually starting to stay cleaner longer. The first oil change I did it was black within a few days now 6 months after getting the truck it stays the normal oil color for nearly a week before gradually getting darker . I'm no genius but I think that shows something good about changing it often . Maybe it is just removing built up stuff in the engine or something else. I don't really know but it must be a good thing that it stays cleaner longer than it did when I first changed to regular OCI.

 

This may seem crazy, but Central Refrigerated (the company I work for) has Freightliner cascadias and changes the oil every 50k with grease every 15k. The manual has these as reccomendations. I think it's crazy, but its their equipment. I know it has 4 oil filters, the main filter is changed at every change and the other 3 are changed at the 150k change. I asked about an oil sample and they said, "Why bother nothing is going to go wrong with the trucks while we have them." They lease their trucks and return them at 400kmiles.

 

Yep, & after only 8 Oil changes (in 400k miles), They let some other poor sap, pay for their lack of maitainence....The thing should've had 20-25 changes it that time

 

On what do you base that?

 

Common sense.