oil-change-oholics

[Brett Dikeman]

At 11:08 PM -0700 10/26/01, Dave Priebe wrote:

>One thing that he did mention right off the bat, was that I had done a good
>job changing my oil so frequently. Apparently it is quite easy to tell when
>rebuilding turbos who changes their oil every 3000 miles and who doesn't.

Oil changes every 3,000 miles with a good synthetic is a little bit 
excessive, considering the factory manual says 7500 miles between oil 
changes(and this was with dino oil.)  5000 miles per change would be 
-more- than safe.  Filters are supposed to be changed every other oil 
change.

There are plenty of other fluids that don't get changed nearly 
enough.  When was the last time you changed your hydraulic fluid? 
Brake fluid, inc the clutch circuit?  Coolant?

The Bently's schedule mentions a few things I never really 
remember...for example, checking pressure on the spare, levels in the 
battery, etc...but it doesn't mention hydraulic fluid(I think.)

I always wonder if half the reason there are so many hydraulic system 
failures is because nobody changes the fluid in the system often 
enough; it's expensive stuff, but OTOH, racks in particular are much, 
much, much more expensive after you get through with labor charges...

   A partial change is very easy...pump the pedal until it goes 
hard(this empties the bomb of fluid, but don't do it if the reservoir 
is at the max line, or you'll overflow it), pull the front hose off 
to drain the reservoir, clean out the container/screen, fill it back 
up.  Partial changes this way aren't the best way, but they're easy, 
and changing some is better than none...

B

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