Your diesel truck is your pride and joy. You keep it sparkling clean and take pride in it every time you drive it around. While you might be taking care of its appearance, are you careful to look after the engine and transmission?
Many people fail to care for these parts of their vehicle regularly, and when they take it into a car shop offering 4×4 services, they’re shocked by the amount of work that needs to be done on them.
If you’re unsure how to look after your diesel engine, then read on for some top tips.
Clean Your Engine
When you’re driving around for extended periods of time, your engine can become covered in grease, dirt, and grime. This can be dirt from the road you’ve been driving on, oil, or just general soot from the engine.
You should always try to keep your diesel engine as clean as possible. The cleaner you keep your engine, the easier it is for you to spot any leaks or problems with it.
Keeping your engine clean is one of the best and easiest engine maintenance practices that you should get yourself into a habit of.
Replace Your Fuel Filters
Another great bit of diesel truck care is to make sure that you’re replacing your fuel filters as part of your regular maintenance work. You should aim to do this every 10,000-15,000 miles.
If you’ve got a newer diesel engine, then it will probably have two of these filters. Be sure to replace both of them at the same time so that you can easily keep track of when they both need to be replaced.
Take Care of Your Radiator
Your cooling system is one of the most important components of your diesel engine, so you should always endeavor to understand how your radiator works and why you should take good care of it.
It’s especially important for diesel engines compared to regular gas engines because diesel engines tend to run hotter. If your radiator is not working properly, then your engine can very easily overheat.
Overheating can cause all sorts of problems like broken components and sometimes even outright engine failure. If you’re worried about your engine’s cooling system, you should take your vehicle to a specialist that offers heating and cooling services.
You should aim to clean your radiator and refill it with new coolant and anti-freeze around every 50,000 miles to keep your engine in the best working order.
Check the Air Filter
Air filters play a vital role in your engine’s functioning, but they can easily become clogged up with dirt. Clogged filters can choke your engine. A choked engine will end up using much more fuel to attain the power it needs for acceleration.
Make sure to regularly check your air filter for any signs that it has been clogged and is having a detrimental effect on your engine’s performance. If you can, you should try and get the air filter changed every 12,000 miles.
If you’ve noticed a sudden drop off in engine power, or your acceleration has degraded, then it’s likely to be a problem with the air filter that you should get looked at by a professional.
Preventative Maintenance
The most useful maintenance work that you can do on your diesel engine is work that helps to prevent any future problems. Get your transmission looked at regularly by a qualified mechanic who offers transmission services and under services.
This mechanic will be able to check everything to do with your diesel engine and transmission, and they’ll be able to identify any problems and give you any advice on how to deal with them and keep them at bay.
You should also get into some good habits with your car in general. Try to let your engine warm up for a few minutes before you drive anywhere. This is especially important in wintertime when it can take an engine a bit longer to wake up and get working.
Change Your Oil
The oil in your diesel engine is there to prevent the different metal components in the engine from rubbing up against each other and causing damage. If your engine wasn’t lubricated properly, it could cause pretty extensive damage.
You should always keep a keen eye on your engine’s oil levels and make sure to change the oil every 5,000 miles or so. Always keep a bottle of engine oil at home so that if you unexpectedly end up running low, you can top it up in five minutes.
Monitor Transmission Fluid
You should make an effort to have your transmission fluid checked regularly. It’s a very simple process that is similar to checking your oil levels. All you need to do is insert a dipstick to check how much you’re working with.
If you pull the dipstick out and the transmission fluid is dark, or it smells bad, then you might have a more serious problem with your engine that a professional will have to come and fix.
Tuning
If you’re worried about your engine’s overall performance, you can always have it tuned. It can be quite specialist work, so you may be better off taking it to a professional, but tuning can really help you to get the most out of your engine.
You’ll see a noticeable increase in top speed, power, fuel consumption, and overall performance.
Get Engine and Transmission Help Today
Keeping on top of your diesel engine and transmission health can be a bit of an overwhelming task. Even if you follow all the tips in this guide, there are things that can easily be missed that you might end up suffering for later.
If you’re concerned, then contact us today. Our team of qualified and experienced mechanics can help you with any problem you need. We offer a range of works and services such as electronics services, 4X4 services, and any work that you might need to have done on your brakes or tires.
