Diesel truck care is an important thing to keep track of, with more than 3,370,000 diesel trucks in the United States alone. These engines power large vehicles, primarily diesel trucks. With so many of these vehicles around, knowing how to take care of them is vital for anyone that might need to provide diesel truck care. If you own a diesel truck or intend to, you’ll want to keep up with engine maintenance. Read on for five important tips on how to keep your diesel engine running properly.
1. Regular Oil Changes
One of the most important things you can keep track of is oil changes. This is the case in any vehicle, but diesel trucks especially need a little more attention. Failure to provide proper oil changes can cause your diesel engine to break down prematurely and require much more severe maintenance.
Without an oil change, the oil eventually becomes dirty and thick. This can clog your engine and cause severe damage from heat and friction.
The frequency of an oil change relates to the distance traveled and not the amount of time since the last change. If you drive every day and can wrack up miles quickly, you’ll want to change the oil more often. If you use your diesel truck less often, you can wait longer between changes.
In general, 3,000 to 5,000 miles is a good range. This depends on your specific vehicle, its age, and a few other factors. If in doubt, bring it to a professional mechanic and see what they think.
2. Frequent Cleaning
Another important factor is how often the engine needs cleaning. This isn’t something that you’ll work on all the time but is an important part of maintenance.
As your engine runs, it will build up gunk and debris. Clearing this away will help ensure your engine runs at top capacity. In doing so, your engine will last longer and have less wear and tear on it.
Keeping your engine clean isn’t something most people think of unless they’re highly truck savvy. This task is a bit of a chore to some, but vital to keeping your truck nice and healthy. Do your best to keep a clean and effective engine to expand the life of your diesel truck.
3. Full Fluids
Third on our list is the fluids that keep your truck running well. This isn’t just gasoline – though clean diesel fuel is certainly something your truck will benefit from.
Your engine and transmission both will need a wide array of fluids. This counts engine coolant, oil, window washer fluid, and a few others, depending on make and model. Keep these fluids at their proper levels to ensure that things are running smoothly.
A good trick to this is to anticipate when your truck will need these fluids. If you intend to go on a nighttime drive in the summer, you should make certain your windshield washer fluid is topped off. That way, you aren’t caught out of fluid with a windshield full of bugs obscuring your view.
Longer trips are a great time to check up on your fluids. If you intend to be driving cross-state or any other lengthy drive, check your oil and coolant. It’s much better to make sure these fluids are fine now instead of having your engine start seizing up on the highway.
Even if you aren’t driving often, you need to check your fluids often. If you let coolant stay for too long, it can age and turn more acidic. This can cause damage to other parts, rotting them with corrosive acidity.
4. Keep Up With Repairs
If you drive your vehicle, things are going to eventually break. It doesn’t matter how safe you are or how often you maintain your vehicle. The best way to make sure these repairs aren’t too severe is to keep up with them.
If you leave something broken, it will continue to break until it won’t work at all anymore. This counts leaving fluid maintenance behind, improper engine cleaning, and other important parts of diesel truck care.
One important thing to keep track of is your brakes. If you hear squeaking or feel a change in their pressure, they likely need maintenance. A simple fix like changing the brake pads could fix the problem entirely.
But if you choose not to apply this repair and continue with worn-down brake pads, the damage will worsen. Eventually, you could damage your rotors or other important parts. From there, the damage is much more intense – and much more costly – to fix.
Make sure that you’re keeping track of the engine and transmission of your diesel truck. Whether it’s part of your engine or not, you’ll need to keep up with repairs. Failure to do so can have costly and catastrophic consequences.
5. Switch Filters as Needed
Our final tip is to keep track of your filters. There are many different filters for your engine – oil filter, air filter, fuel filters, and others may be present. All of these will need regular replacement.
The good news is that these won’t need replacing frequently. Many vehicles can have these filters changed every 10,000-15,000 miles or so. Older diesel engines will need more frequent replacements.
A mechanic doing routine maintenance on your vehicle is likely to switch these out for you as well. If you bring your vehicle into professionals instead of doing it yourself, make sure to ask about these filters. It’s important to ensure that proper replacement routines are in place to keep your engine running smoothly.
Regular Engine Maintenance
Diesel truck care can sometimes seem overwhelming, but nothing is too complex. If you feel like you don’t have the ability to do these repairs, simply bring it in for maintenance. Engine maintenance isn’t something that you should take lightly, so always ensure it’s done properly.
If you have any further questions or concerns about electronic services and other diesel truck topics, feel free to contact us for more information.
