Several experts suggest oil breakdown can begin
as early as 7500km in modern diesels
@wheelsaustralia 29
Better oil, more often
Oils ain’t oils when it comes to
diesel engines. Fully synthetic,
low-ash oils are essential for
vehicles fitted with DPFs and not
everything with 5W-30 on the
bottle is created equal.
Says Andrew Leimroth from
Berrima Diesel: “From what
I’m seeing, the crop of new-age
common-rail diesels are coming
in with problems far earlier in
life than the older ones. I believe
that there are more troubles to
come from using super-thin oilsin our generally hot weather
rather than any benefits. The
amount of engine blow-by seen
in new diesels and the ever-
growing need and use of oil
catch cans says something...”
Frank Spiteri agrees oil is
absolutely critical: “The wrong
oil can block a DPF very quickly,”
he says. “It is case sensitive.
Nissan Navaras need different
oil to BMWs. There’s a lot of
5W-30 stuff out there but put in
the wrong one and it will blowblack smoke. One customer was
told he needed new injectors.
We changed his oil and filter and
his smoke problem disappeared.
That saved him $2400!”
Penny pinching by service
managers sometimes amounts
to using ‘house’ oils, usually
semi-synthetics but Spiteri Snr.
warns it’s worth insisting on
the right stuff and spending
the extra $4 a litre on the fully
synthetic recommended by the
car maker.The other critical factor is
oil breakdown, which several
experts suggest can begin as
early as 7500km on modern
diesel engines.
Many manufacturers, however,
are promoting service intervals
of 15,000km.
The independent experts
who service the things have
strong views that 10,000km
service intervals are a much
wiser long-term investment in
engine health.SPECIALREPORT