Hey guys its me again... I was just wondering... I have an 01' 3/4 ton cummins six speed and I drive it strickly on highways... my girlfriend is going to school about 2 hours a away and I work an hour and a half away and its strickly highway no town or city driving ecept to get to my house and I drive 5000 KM... and the oil is still bronze in color like its not even black at all so I am wondering if i really need to change it at the 5000KM or can I go longer... cuz it only takes me about 3-4 weeks to get that many kilometers on my truck... thanks guys please help...

 

5000 kms is a bit soon - that gets expensive and a waste of oil. I usually go 8000-9000 kms before changing (5-6k miles) and some would probably consider that too soon.

Make sure you use a good filter and a good CI-4 rated diesel oil.

 

I change the oil, filter and fuel filter every 5,000 miles myself. But, there's nothing wrong with over maintaining your vehicle.

 

I would suggest that you change at every 6,000 miles. But that is just me...

I've been doing mine every 6K like clock work since new... So far no problems now oil usage...

 

oil is cheap engines are not!

I tow a treailer 90% of time and I change at 5000 km

 

With my experience you changing way too soon! I think the Cummins manual even specifies 7500 mile oil and filter change intervals unless you are operating in extremely dusty conditions and even then it suggests 5000.

When the truck has run unloaded (no trailers) I have gone as much as 15000. I sent one sample to Caterpillar locally for analysis and another to Blackstone Laboratories in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Both results came back the same... They didn't believe I had more than 8000 miles on the oil, but at 166K I have never lost a drop until last week when the seal on the vacuum pump shaft said goodbye.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a maintenance freak, but there is no point in dumping good oil.

If you want, increase your intervals a little at a time. If you're at 5K now go to 7.5K, test it, then try 10k, test it and so forth.

The best way to pull a sample is to get a fingertouch drain valve. It is a ball valve and makes even normal draining a breeze. Let about a gallon of oil out, close the valve, place your sample bottle, and re open the valve.

Now, when the truck has been loaded I change around 10000 miles. The analysis shows that there is significant oil life lost when the unit is under different loads.

 

10,000 miles is fine with your type of driving. Even since '01 oil quality has improved tremendously but isn't reflected in a manual that was written four years ago.