Save on maintenance costs with extended drain intervals

Changing lubricants and fluids eats up a lot of time and money commercial fleets put into their regular preventative maintenance programs. Safely extending the intervals at which oils are changed is one way to save money and time while maintaining an active and productive fleet.

For extended drains to be a viable option, contamination must be controlled.

Fleet vehicles develop contaminated motor oil in a number of ways. Splash and spray can toss road film and chemicals into the air and straight into the air intake. Microscopically fine dust can enter the combustion chamber in a number of ways and diesel combustion itself can create soot and acids.

Oils and greases protect moving parts from the effects of contamination, but are themselves contaminated from this and eventually have to be replaced.

Engine oil must lubricate, cool, clean and protect the inside of an engine. It has to work in areas smaller than a human hair. The oil does its job thanks to chemical additives. By reducing friction, these additives can increase fuel economy.

Oil must be filtered through a medium to remove soot, acid and other combustion by-products that remain suspended in the oil. These filters also become clogged and must be replaced.

If the rate of contamination in the oil is carefully monitored (oil analysis), the life of both the oil and filter can be dramatically increased. Downtime related to preventative maintenance can also be significantly reduced.

Follow these guidelines when using extended drain intervals:

• Use oil analysis
  This will tell you what contaminants are in your oil and if you can continue using it. It can also tell you about the condition of your engines/equipment.

• Use synthetic oils
  With their top quality basestocks and additive packages they are the first choice for extended drain intervals.

• Install by-pass filtration
  By filtering out particles in your oil smaller than 1 micron (a human hair is approx. 100 microns in diameter), by-pass filters can be used to extend the oil life for much longer service intervals. Some owner-operators have extended oil life nearly indefinitely with the addition of by-pass filtration.

• Keep copies of your oil analysis reports
  An article in Road King magazine reported one owner-operator who had a warranty claim denied because he went 58,000 miles without an oil change (using synthetic oil and a wrapped-media by-pass filter) when a connecting rod broke. He brought out a stack of oil analysis reports and asked, "Which one of these shows that I should have changed oil?" His warranty was honored.