To learn more about wintertime diesel engine maintenance, click here.
This is especially important to be mindful of in the cold weather, as any water that may still be in the fuel-even with a separator-can freeze up in the filter hindering fuel flow. “This can ultimately cause damage to the fuel injectors.” “Failure to replace both your primary and secondary fuel filters at the recommended interval can cause them to become contaminated with either debris or chemicals that can plug the filters, resulting in decreased fuel flow and a loss of fuel pressure,” says Ford Motor Company. (And be mindful that fuel injectors need to be changed every 50,000-100,000 miles.) With diesel engines, however, it’s recommended to replace the fuel filter every 10,000-25,000 miles, depending on your vehicle and commute. Some gasoline engines may only need a fuel filter change every 30,000 miles or so. With gas engines you obviously need to be mindful of your fuel filters, but in diesel engines a clean fuel filter is critical to proper performance. Fuel FiltersĪ great way to tell how different diesel engines are from gas engines is how sensitive the fuel systems are. This DEF consumption calculator can help you determine your appropriate annual and monthly DEF usage. Feedback from a number of fleets suggest that the dosing rate is slightly lower than originally predicted by manufacturers, at around 2.0-2.5%.” This means that if your truck has a fuel efficiency of six miles per gallon and a dosing rate of 3% it will use approximately 1 gallon of DEF every 200 miles.
In fact, if the tank runs too low on particular models, the computer will actually stop the truck from performing normally by reducing its top speed down to 5 mph until the DEF tank is refilled.Īccording to free education service,, “Medium and heavy-duty vehicles have a dosing rate of 2-3%. Modern diesel trucks are designed to take the DEF very seriously. DEF is used as a catalyst to reduce harmful NOX emissions given off by the engine. Speaking of alien fluids, an important part of diesel engine maintenance is adding diesel exhaust fluid. If ignored, the water can damage fuel injectors, affecting engine efficiency and potentially even causing engine failure. This is something you will need to get a feel for based on your own experience, but is definitely something you don’t want to overlook. A sensor will usually alert you when this needs to occur, but some people time theirs to their oil changes. A fuel water separator is used to pull this water from the fuel, so it can be drained later during routine diesel engine maintenance. Diesel fuel is highly hygroscopic, which means it will pull a lot of moisture from the air. We all know that water in any fuel system is an issue. Here are some areas to pay extra attention to when practicing routine diesel engine maintenance. And while diesels are incredible rigid, and don’t share many of the same weak points typical of gas engines, they still have certain sensitivities. With any engine, more power means things are more likely to break. Where late-model muscle cars have refined and smaller work trucks lean toward comfort, diesel engines stand strong and continue dumping raw, unadulterated power on the table. I think it’s safe to say that much of the soul of the American hot rodder is still alive in diesel culture.