3.0L Diesel Owners Heads Up On Oíl Changes!

[Wintersun]

With a diesel engine the type of driving is more important than the miles driven. Diesel is a very dirty fuel as compared to gasoline and even with 98.7% filtration there are still 240,000 particles that get past the filter media and hit the injector solenoids at very high pressure and some of these get into the motor oil.

 

Someone who drives mostly short trips of less than 30 minutes duration is going to need the oil changed much sooner than a truck that is driven mostly on the highway with trips of an hour or more in duration. Consider the first situation and driving on average at 30 mph as compared to the second situation with an average speed of 60 mph. The first truck driven for 6,000 miles will have 200 engine hours as compared to the second truck with 100 engine hours and the first truck's engine will have been driven with the engine cold for a much greater percentage of the time.

 

The DIC determines oil changes based on driving pattern for that vehicle and is a better indicator than an abstract number. In addition with modern engines and modern motor oils, especially those that meet the new API SP specification, hold up far better and even truck fleet operators are greatly extending change intervals for their trucks. 

[redwngr]

FWIW, there are still only two oils on the DexosD approval list.

 

Brand Name	Supplier	Specification	Viscosity	License Number	Region
ACDelco Light Duty Diesel	General Motors	dexosD™	0W-20	DD0751IA015	Global
Mobil Super 3000 XE2	ExxonMobil Oil Corp.	dexosD™	0W-20	DD0752IA015	Global