How often should you do an oil change on a diesel engine?
Question: How often should you do an oil change on a diesel engine?Answer: It depends on how long you'd like the engine to last.Diesel engines inevitably produce a lot of soot & particulates. Some of these combustion products get into the engine oil. So, leaving a soot-contaminated gloop to do the job of lubrication your engine for tens of thousands of miles won't help it survive!Most modern diesels also have a turbo. Turbos do not like filthy, contaminated oil for long periods. Their bearings are precision engineered, close tolerance components that will fail if you rely on gloop to lubricate them!A lot will also depend on how the vehicle is used. Lots of short, stop-start city journeys: Change the oil more often. Long inter-city journeys on a freeway/motorway, you can reasonable extend oil-change intervals.If you insist on using a cheap, low quality oil of the type used for a franchise $25 oil-change, renew the oil every three thousand miles. (& make sure the oil IS actually changed!).If you use a decent, manufacturer's recommended oil, stretch that to 6,000 miles.If you use an expensive, fully synthetic oil formulated for diesel engines, 10k miles will be fine.Remember to change the filter too!More often than not, you can trust the manufacturers recommended oil change intervals, though bear in mind that in recent years it seems manufacturer's are only really concerned with the first owner & the warranty period. So they seem to err on the side of convenience & low cost for the first owner, at the expense of longevity & good engineering practice.The problems later owners experience with (say) BMW diesel engines when they hit around 50~60k miles is (in a lot of people view!) a consequence of extended oil change intervals specified by the manufacturer. (Mainly timing chain & tensioner issues).You won't harm your engine by changing the oil too often. You risk shortening the engine's life by not changing the oil when required.
How often should you replace a car's air filter? What happens if you don't change it?
The air filter plays a key role in preventing contaminants like grit, dust, and dirt from entering your engine. Vehicle maintenance schedules vary on how often the air filter should be changed. Every brand has its own recommended intervals to air filter replacement.Chevrolet engines, for example, the recommended interval is every 45,000 miles. Ford says it should be done every 30,000 miles on many of its engines. Hyundai also says every 30,000 miles but shortens it to 15,000 for "severe" driving conditions, which includes heavy traffic in hot weather and frequent driving on unpaved roads or dusty conditions. Air filters in most engines are easy to access and so you can tell when it needs a replacement by just simply finding the black areas on the section through which the air enters. But it is more recommended to change the filters for every 30,000 miles (48280 km).Bad effects:A clogged air filter won't significantly affect fuel economy, but it can hurt acceleration by 6% to 11%. Acceleration is harder to measure than fuel economy, so you may not notice a gradual performance loss. For that reason, it's a good idea to periodically visually check the engine air filter. Also you run the risk of dirt,debris and any other foreign body polluting the engine. This puts the engine at risk thus shortening its potential lifetime.!!!
Is the 30,000 km oil change interval that my dealer recommended safe?
Answers all over the board, I’m sure based on personal thoughts or advertising of some sort, even owners manuals in some countries. all with good intentions. For most of my customers, I recommend 8000 km with semi-synthetic API certified oil. People who drive moderate speeds on highways can get more, and can easily pass 12,000 km.My answer comes from working with customers, analyzing their used oil (more than 5000 samples), and relating the results to their individual maintenance practices.Bottom line is, that it is doubtful if it is a passenger car with an oil capacity of 5 liters or less. If it is an over-the-road truck with a 18 to 36 liter oil sump, sure, it is possible with good maintenance procedures. I have a customer with 20 over-the-road trucks who goes 30,000 km between changes with the oil I sell him. He never allows cleaning of his air filters, keeps the trucks well maintained, and keeps them on the road. The wear metals in his oil are extremely low, indicating that it will easily pass 3 million km. before any repairs.Why?Oil breaks down with usage, heat, aeration, etc. It absorbs moisture from the air. If you don't get the engine hot on every drive, the moisture will stay in the oil and form sludge.Oil gets contaminated by dirt, fuel, combustion by-products, etc. A will tuned engine with clean injectors can go much longer between oil changes than a typical engine. Many people (and most 3rd world car manuals) recommend trying to clean your air filter with compressed air or tapping it. Both procedures will allow much more dirt into your engine and require more oil changes and a shorter engine life. Some people will use oil coated performance filters that do not retain enough dirt.Oil filters fill up and then allow the dirty oil to pass through their by-pass valve to keep oil in the engine, even if it is dirty. There is no way to tell when it is full. There goes your oil change interval and engine life.I have a dozen delivery vans and small pickups, where I use my 8000 km rule. But I put Synthetic in my Grand Cherokee, and change it once a year, 15,000 km, or when the light comes on (whichever is first).
K and N air filters.Pros and cons.?
Hi there Aftermarket performance parts have been around almost since the birth of automobiles. Since that time they have proved that on the whole, they never live up to their performance claims. You see claims for 20% improvement for this chip , 20% for this air intake , 20% for this exhaust , but when you buy them all they don't add up to an improvement of 60%. It is because right from the start , most claims of performance improvement are often not made through scientific testing , but ratter anecdotal evidence. 'Wow , my car feels like it has 20% more power !!'' ''It seems I can now go twice as far on a tank of gas since I fitted wonder gizmo 3000.'' Sound familiar? The main restricting factor in the HP of an engine is its RPM limit , the amount of CFM that can pass through the cylinder head , and the engines effective compression ratio. That being the case , there is little that can be gained by changing parts on the outside of the engine. In particular with 'air filters' , technically , more airflow will occur with a free flowing filter. But this will never improve an engine design that flows poorly, which is what is limiting power output. Some air filters will lose you performance and fuel economy if the engine management computer can't learn that far and alter the mapping to take advantage of the extra 'potential' air flow. The same thing applies to aftermarket exhaust systems as well.
How do you fill the gearbox oil in a manual citroen c2 vts ?
This gearbox is supposedly 'sealed for life' So it is not fitted with a level plug like the older 'boxes. Drain all the old oil out first via the drain plug under the differential housing. Then you will need to remove the air filter housing and ducting (it comes out quite easily) in order to get to the top of the gearbox. You should be able to see a black plastic cap that seems to be a blank. This is the vent hole cap, pull it off and fill the gearbox through the vent hole. I can't quite remember the oil capacity off the top of my head so check in your owners manual or phone your local dealership, but i think 1.9 litres is pretty close to the mark. Hope that helps.