Putting effort into maintaining your vehicle and its parts will directly affect how long it lasts and therefore how much you can decrease the frequency and cost of heading to the diesel engine reconditioners. Once you have learnt the top tips for diesel engines, this effort will come as second nature. Here, we will dive into the areas you should be aware of when it comes to your diesel engine.  

1. Clean your diesel engine

If you’ve never held much knowledge surrounding vehicles, this is a common element that is often overlooked. Leaving an engine to fester dirt can significantly shorten how long the engine, itself, will last. This is due to the fact that corrosion on the terminals occurs. Check your engine at least once every few months for any underlying dirt and corrosion, and ensure you especially do this in the winter time when the cold has an impact on vehicle parts. 

Learn the correct process of cleaning it safely and clean as required. 

2. Check diesel engine oil 

Just like a gas-run vehicle, you also need to check and change your diesel engine oil in order to add lubrication. Dirty oil actually wears down your engine at a faster rate and can decrease the fuel efficiency of your vehicle. Using the dipstick under the hood, check your oil levels at least every six months. The oil in a diesel engine does need to be changed more frequently than a gas vehicle. Warning signs on your dashboard will light up if you urgently need to change your oil, however, you don’t want to be caught out in a scenario where oil isn’t easily accessible. Instead, you could put a reminder on your phone to check the oil levels. 

3. Change diesel engine’s filters

There are three filters in your diesel engine that will periodically need to be changed – the fuel filter, air filter and oil filter. 

The oil filter is quite simple – it should be altered at the same time as changing oil. Whereas, the air filter, which collects debris, needs to be altered either once a year or once every 18 months. The fuel filter varies from vehicle to vehicle and the recommended time to change this filter will be in your maintenance manual. It generally is in between every 16,000 to 14,000 kilometers.

Avoiding these changes will again reduce the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. 

4. Drain diesel engine’s water separator 

Due to diesel absorbing more water than its gas counterpart, diesel engines have a water separator in order to prevent the water from contaminating the diesel. This is situated near the fuel filter and has a small valve which needs to be turned to drain the water. Every vehicle requires different frequencies of drainage, and for this reason, initially check the water levels each week. From here, you can learn how quickly the levels change, and therefore, how often you need to drain the water.

One final tip is to check your engine coolant levels every two weeks and change as required. Taking these steps will help to avoid many trips to the diesel engine reconditioners.