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It's probably worth explaining the background to what I said about urban myths and fiction.
I'm quite passionate about maintenance, the blokes who worked in the last workshop that I managed would probably say overly fussy. On a personal note I've owned everything from rotary engined Mazdas, old European exotics through to Aussie v8s and a bunch of motorbikes. The Prado is the first vehicle that I've owned that I haven't serviced myself.
I learnt both from maintaining my own vehicles and also the equipment I was in charge of, in particular the hydraulic systems. To come up with the best maintenance practice its good to start by considering the purpose of lubricants and fluids in an engine.
Lubricants and other fluids are like the blood of an engine and there are 2 reasons they become ineffective.
1. The lubricants and fluids loose their lubricating, cooling or other properties due to age, heat, environmental factors or other degradation factors
2. The lubricants or fluids become contaminated with particles, or other contaminants such as water.
Something to consider is that modern lubricants and fluids keep their properties for much longer than earlier products, and this is aided by improved system and filtration design eg cooling systems generally help keep temperatures under control better than in the past.
Filters help collect the contaminants and extend the life of lubricants and other fluids. There are a few things that can happen to filters,
- they can become clogged causing the system to bypass the filter or far worse cause fluid starvation resulting in mechanical damage.
- they can suffer damage meaning they don't filter anymore as they let fluids straight through.
So filters should be changed regularly and the quality of filters does matter. But it is also true that as filters bed-in they start filtering more effectively, in other words as they become slightly "clogged" (probably not a good choice of words) and they become finer filters. On some equipment that I have looked after we would change filters and not lubricants, and on other systems that we looked after we would change the lubricants and not the filters
The only real way to know when to change fluids and filters is through monitoring and sampling, and while I did this for the equipment that I maintained, it is too costly and impractical in my car. I did learn through sampling that generally manufactures are very conservative with their maintenance schedules, basing them on worst case scenarios such as extreme cold or heat and or continual cold starting.
I strongly believe that all equipment should be regularly serviced. The point I was making with my previous post is that over-servicing, which is quite common with the best of intentions, can have negative consequences. It is no-where near as bad as under servicing, but if you want the best protection for your car and engine then you need to make informed decisions.
My philosophy based on my experience and the reasons that I have given is to follow and some times go past manufactures recommendations. I tend to adjust my service intervals based on what the equipment is doing. I also always replace all fluids when purchasing a second hand vehicle. I'm not suggesting that anyone else should do this.
Perhaps most importantly you should not just look at replacing lubricants and filters, but also how they are replaced. Someone who does 5000km oil changes using dirty equipment and open drums may do more damage then if they followed the service schedule.
I'm quite passionate about maintenance, the blokes who worked in the last workshop that I managed would probably say overly fussy. On a personal note I've owned everything from rotary engined Mazdas, old European exotics through to Aussie v8s and a bunch of motorbikes. The Prado is the first vehicle that I've owned that I haven't serviced myself.
I learnt both from maintaining my own vehicles and also the equipment I was in charge of, in particular the hydraulic systems. To come up with the best maintenance practice its good to start by considering the purpose of lubricants and fluids in an engine.
Lubricants and other fluids are like the blood of an engine and there are 2 reasons they become ineffective.
1. The lubricants and fluids loose their lubricating, cooling or other properties due to age, heat, environmental factors or other degradation factors
2. The lubricants or fluids become contaminated with particles, or other contaminants such as water.
Something to consider is that modern lubricants and fluids keep their properties for much longer than earlier products, and this is aided by improved system and filtration design eg cooling systems generally help keep temperatures under control better than in the past.
Filters help collect the contaminants and extend the life of lubricants and other fluids. There are a few things that can happen to filters,
- they can become clogged causing the system to bypass the filter or far worse cause fluid starvation resulting in mechanical damage.
- they can suffer damage meaning they don't filter anymore as they let fluids straight through.
So filters should be changed regularly and the quality of filters does matter. But it is also true that as filters bed-in they start filtering more effectively, in other words as they become slightly "clogged" (probably not a good choice of words) and they become finer filters. On some equipment that I have looked after we would change filters and not lubricants, and on other systems that we looked after we would change the lubricants and not the filters
The only real way to know when to change fluids and filters is through monitoring and sampling, and while I did this for the equipment that I maintained, it is too costly and impractical in my car. I did learn through sampling that generally manufactures are very conservative with their maintenance schedules, basing them on worst case scenarios such as extreme cold or heat and or continual cold starting.
I strongly believe that all equipment should be regularly serviced. The point I was making with my previous post is that over-servicing, which is quite common with the best of intentions, can have negative consequences. It is no-where near as bad as under servicing, but if you want the best protection for your car and engine then you need to make informed decisions.
My philosophy based on my experience and the reasons that I have given is to follow and some times go past manufactures recommendations. I tend to adjust my service intervals based on what the equipment is doing. I also always replace all fluids when purchasing a second hand vehicle. I'm not suggesting that anyone else should do this.
Perhaps most importantly you should not just look at replacing lubricants and filters, but also how they are replaced. Someone who does 5000km oil changes using dirty equipment and open drums may do more damage then if they followed the service schedule.
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