Dodge Diesel - Diesel Truck Resource Forums

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- - Oil changes (https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/forums/3rd-gen-engine-drivetrain-2003-2007-102/oil-changes-28903/)

???Hello I new to this forum and have a nagging question for all you . When I purchased my 2003 4X4 HO auto there was a lot of people saying that there was extended oil change intervals on the new low soot Cummins ,to the tune of 15 000 miles or 24 000kms , Now I see that most people are going by what the manual say's Am I "a" or "b" ? type of driver .Now in the past the 3500 CTD's I had were all serviced by hours, (engine oil & filter ,fuel filter @ 250hours)the truck was serviced @ 10 000km intervals > On my truck I checked with my local Cummins store and they informed me that due to the low soot engine and low ash oil that the oil change can be pushed to 500 hours , when I did my first oil service my hours were only 132 @ 11 000kms ,so I finished off the service oil/fuel filters valvoline oil and did the truck service as according to Dodge. So is anyone else doing there servicing by the hour like me or by the book? I will be doing my services @ 250 hrs on this truck(peace of mind). If you find what I'm saying hard to swallow just call a Cummins store. Thoughts anyone?

Welcome Aboard, hilclmr! There are all kinds of metrics out there to determine when to change the oil, miles and engine hours like you mentioned; fuel consumed (gallons or otherwise) & oil analysis are a couple of others. I've kept track of my hours and fuel consumed at oil change time. Since its new, I've changed it sooner rather than later. I've averaged 4300 miles on a change, and thats at about 120 engine hours. If I was to keep to that 250 hour number you mentioned (coupled with my driving habits), that would translate into 8950 miles per oil change. And 8900 miles per change may even be ok, but it "seems" excessive to me. I've consumed about 230 gallons of #2 per oil change as well - and a couple gallons of DFA too. But the fact of the matter is, Dodge pays for the warranty work, not Cummins (nor do I yet); and the metric that Dodge says when to change the oil is miles driven from either Sked A or B. If I've got a warranty issue, I have the maintenance records that shows I conformed to their schedule. I think our manuals says to not take the truck to a Cummins dealer for warranty work. The price of some extra oil changes is worth the investment to me. I'm following the book til I'm my own warranty station.

What kind of oil filters are ya'll using?

I use Fleetguard StrataPore's.

Folks, when I got my TDI and saw that regular oil changes are every 10K, it definitely took a while to get used to, coming from a 3-5k oil change background on my last vehicles. I've done oil analysis each time, and last time went 14k with great results. Its amazing how well these cleaner burning diesels, combined with high quality synthetics can last a long time. I wouldn't try running out to 15k on dino oil, thats for sure. Hilclmr, I suggest you follow the owners manual recommendations. The engineers at cummins make those based on much research etc. Also, in all the cars i've owned including my 2 diesels, the fuel filters and air filters are not to be changed on the same schedule as the oil and oil filter. I'm not sure about cummins', but I"d think the fuel filter would last longer than the oil and filter....what's the book say?

[quote author=Mark Thomas link=board=20;threadid=16666;start=0#156518 date=1057337551] What kind of oil filters are ya'll using? [/quote] Fleetguard StrataPore here...