Doesnt the Engine management monitor oil quality on these new trucks? Im sure the manufacturers would recommend more frequent oil changes if it were necessary to be on the safe side…
Far from being a bit of a performance, both are very easy actually, surprisingly so. Oil analysis has been around for years, I first came across it inn the mid 80s (before elf n safety) when I was mucking around in the workshop, one of the fitters was bending down changing a wheel bearing on a trailer, the crack of his arse was exposed, I spotted a milk bottle full of oil, so took the opportunity to pour said oil down the crack of his arse. It was all good fun, until the foreman did his nut over the missing oil, it was being sent off to be analysed as the lorry it came out was having problems. It later turned out to have a porous liner and the coolant was getting into the oil and wiping out the bottom end bearings, all discovered from an oil sample. The lorry in question was almost new and was a complete dog, Volvo (it was an F10) insisted on analysising oil sample before undertaking any warranty work.
I never realised the importance of it at the time, but since then I’ve done quite a lot of investigation into oils and every oil company representative I’ve spoken to is convinced that oil analysis should be a part of everyone’s preventative maintenance programme.
The cost is minimal and all it involves is filling a little sample bottle from the oil you drain out of the sump. Then you send it to the lab, they analyse it and report back their findings. You get a comprehensive breakdown of what’s in your oil and this gives you a wealth of information, soot levels, wear metals, contaminents and the condition of the base oil itself are all measured.
From this you can tell a lot about your engine and if you’re draining your oil too soon or too late. We all drain oil on a calender schedule, but every engine and every operation is different, it’s an expensive thing to be chucking down the drain too early and it’s even more expensive if you’re leaving it too late, then you will have caused damage to the engine which can affect its long term durability.
Oil is the lifeblood of your engine, just like a blood test can reveal health problems in the body, oil analysis does the same for an engine. Traces of silicon (dirt and dust) will tell you the air filter needs changing. Fuel in the oil or too much soot could be over fuelling or leakage from a bad injector or a bunged up exhaust system. Sodium or Pottasium and you have a coolant leak somewhere. Copper and you have an oil cooler about to go boss eyed, the list goes on…
The air filter thing is slightly different, the manufacturers use the cheapest thing they can get away with and a factory air filter is not very good at filtering out dust particles until it gets a little bit clogged, so that shiny new filter you just put in is actually allowing dirt into the engine for the first few weeks, polishing the bores and all that is not good. Then it gets clogged too much and the engine can’t breathe properly and anyone with the slightest mechanical knowledge knows that a diesel engines needs a healthy dose of fresh air to run at its best. The performance air filters are washable, so a one time only purchase and are much better at filtering out dust particles from day one.
It may seem a lot of hard work, but in reality it isn’t and a healthy engine will be more productive through reliablity. The oil analysis can help you find problems before they start causing sitting on the side of the road kind of trouble and the added benefits of a 100% engine are lower operating costs, you don’t get the knock on effect from failing components and your mpg will be bang on, even a 1% fuel saving will pay for all your oil samples and fancy air filters 
Manufacturers are not really worried about all this as the problems don’t usually start to show until a few years down the road, then all warranty is finished, so anything that breaks has to be paid for over the counter in the parts department and the money goes in their bank, so they’ll probably disagree with me on all this 
Thank you Newmercman for taking the time to type that out. very interesting. I had heard about this in the past and hadnt really paid it too much attention. Seems you have a very valid point for getting the oil analysed. Can you recommend anybody? Thanks again
Thanks for that comprehensive answer it certainly needs looking into.
Look up kleenoil filters too
Most main dealers will have a lab they use, or ask the oil company whose oil you use, they all have labs and are probably the best option
A quick search came up with the oil lab at Blackburn. £30 for a basic check not as cheap as i thought but they seem to offer a good service.
30 quid will be cheap if it saves a breakdown or even allows you to get everything spot on so you save a bit of fuel 
You need a full service sample, they’ll want to know which oil you’re using, as different oils have different additive packages (only half of your oil is actually oil (called ‘base’) the rest is made up of additives, detergents, seal swellers etc. You will also want to get a couple of samples to get a good idea of what’s going on, you need to see a pattern. If you’re on long drain intervals, it may be worth taking a sample every 10,000miles by dropping a gallon out, take a sample mid flow on a warm recently run engine, then top up with a fresh gallon, this will help keep the additive package fresh too and there isn’t an engine on the planet that doesn’t benefit from fresh clean oil
The first sample you see will scare the life out of you, you’ll have all kinds of stuff swimming around in your oil, iron, aluminium, copper, lead, moly, chrome etc, these will be record in ppm, parts per million, so even numbers in the 100s are nothing to be concerned about in themself. The thing to look out for are sudden increase as they will indicate a problem, this is why you need a few samples to see a pattern, on average a healthy engine will gradually build up wear metals to the tune of 1 ppm per 1000 miles, a sudden increase means the oil need to come out as it’s no longer doing it’s job properly. If levels are still next time around then you need to open it up and have a look at what’s going on inside. The specific wear metal will telll you which part is failing, for instance high iron with lead and then copper indicates main bearing wear.
If you have fuel or coolant in the oil, sort it out immediately, both will totally murder an engine. On the subject of fuel dilution, ask the lab if they can identify low sulphur fuel or biofuels, some labs cannot and they’re no good to you
We use these in North Wales
uk.alcontrol.com/en/oil-and-fuel-united-kingdom
They supply the bottles and labels and also a thief pump that screws straight onto the sample bottle and the pipe can be fed down the dipstick tube if you want to sample between oil changes.
Steve
well tarmac duck you surprise me on your choice of renault against scania for the small saving made.the renaults give a five year warranty o.k. but they need it as they spend a lot of time down.as you know or should do downtime is no earning time.the scanias are a more reliable and give a better re-sale value.you must be on a good earner to even consider investing in new equipment at the present time.anyhow,good luck with the renault,you will need it. jack. 
shirtbox2003:
well tarmac duck you surprise me on your choice of renault against scania for the small saving made.the renaults give a five year warranty o.k. but they need it as they spend a lot of time down.as you know or should do downtime is no earning time.the scanias are a more reliable and give a better re-sale value.you must be on a good earner to even consider investing in new equipment at the present time.anyhow,good luck with the renault,you will need it. jack.
Dont know what you mean by more downtime and Scanias MORE reliable. The Renault is a Volvo chassis, engine and gearbox, running gear.
Resale value doesnt really matter what you got, because depreciation is 20% tax deductable pa. Sell it for more and pay HMRC 30% of the proceeds. Youll get the same haulage rates whether you drive an expensive Scania or a £20k less Renault.
I have done a great deal of research on this matter and your comments are the first negative ones i have heard. i have negotiated a very good deal on the Renault it comes with five years comprehensive warranty and a servicing contract many thousands of pounds cheaper than the high and mighty Scania. I suggest to you that Scania are not quite what they once were. I am very comfortable with my choice and look forward to execellant fuel consumption, low tare weight,a great driving experience and FIVE years of no worries. 
I have just read your post again Jack and in answer yes i do know and yes i am on a good earner. regards Barry
mixer driver too:
shirtbox2003:
well tarmac duck you surprise me on your choice of renault against scania for the small saving made.the renaults give a five year warranty o.k. but they need it as they spend a lot of time down.as you know or should do downtime is no earning time.the scanias are a more reliable and give a better re-sale value.you must be on a good earner to even consider investing in new equipment at the present time.anyhow,good luck with the renault,you will need it. jack.Dont know what you mean by more downtime and Scanias MORE reliable. The Renault is a Volvo chassis, engine and gearbox, running gear.
Resale value doesnt really matter what you got, because depreciation is 20% tax deductable pa. Sell it for more and pay HMRC 30% of the proceeds. Youll get the same haulage rates whether you drive an expensive Scania or a £20k less Renault.
Like 
newmercman:
mixer driver too:
shirtbox2003:
well tarmac duck you surprise me on your choice of renault against scania for the small saving made.the renaults give a five year warranty o.k. but they need it as they spend a lot of time down.as you know or should do downtime is no earning time.the scanias are a more reliable and give a better re-sale value.you must be on a good earner to even consider investing in new equipment at the present time.anyhow,good luck with the renault,you will need it. jack.Dont know what you mean by more downtime and Scanias MORE reliable. The Renault is a Volvo chassis, engine and gearbox, running gear.
Resale value doesnt really matter what you got, because depreciation is 20% tax deductable pa. Sell it for more and pay HMRC 30% of the proceeds. Youll get the same haulage rates whether you drive an expensive Scania or a £20k less Renault.Like
you only get what you pay for.nobody gives you anything for nothing
newmercman:
mixer driver too:
shirtbox2003:
well tarmac duck you surprise me on your choice of renault against scania for the small saving made.the renaults give a five year warranty o.k. but they need it as they spend a lot of time down.as you know or should do downtime is no earning time.the scanias are a more reliable and give a better re-sale value.you must be on a good earner to even consider investing in new equipment at the present time.anyhow,good luck with the renault,you will need it. jack.Dont know what you mean by more downtime and Scanias MORE reliable. The Renault is a Volvo chassis, engine and gearbox, running gear.
Resale value doesnt really matter what you got, because depreciation is 20% tax deductable pa. Sell it for more and pay HMRC 30% of the proceeds. Youll get the same haulage rates whether you drive an expensive Scania or a £20k less Renault.Like
you only get what you pay for.nobody gives you anything for nothing
hi tarmac duck,i am pleased to hear you are satisfied with your choice of a renault truck.i look forward to hearing what your opinion is about the truck in say 12 months time.i wish you every success with the vehicle. regard,s . jack. 
p.s. in one of your earlier posts you said that the scania was £3.5k more than the renault but now say £20,000 k which is the right figure.if in doubt about choice ask bewick for his honest opinion. regards,jack.
shirtbox2003:
p.s. in one of your earlier posts you said that the scania was £3.5k more than the renault but now say £20,000 k which is the right figure.if in doubt about choice ask bewick for his honest opinion. regards,jack.
£20,000k would be the more likely figure.
Dave the Renegade:
shirtbox2003:
p.s. in one of your earlier posts you said that the scania was £3.5k more than the renault but now say £20,000 k which is the right figure.if in doubt about choice ask bewick for his honest opinion. regards,jack.£20,000k would be the more likely figure.
its funny that dave because a scania always seems to be £20,000 more expensive than anything else.my mate runs dafs and guess what there20 grand cheaper than my last scania.but he"s got 410 cf"sand i"ve got r cab 480"s i sat and worked it out and the daf"s were actually 4 grand cheaper BUT he has to buy ad blue and i don"t work that out over 5 years and you get a better picture
hodgeturbo:
Dave the Renegade:
shirtbox2003:
p.s. in one of your earlier posts you said that the scania was £3.5k more than the renault but now say £20,000 k which is the right figure.if in doubt about choice ask bewick for his honest opinion. regards,jack.£20,000k would be the more likely figure.
its funny that dave because a scania always seems to be £20,000 more expensive than anything else.my mate runs dafs and guess what there20 grand cheaper than my last scania.but he"s got 410 cf"sand i"ve got r cab 480"s i sat and worked it out and the daf"s were actually 4 grand cheaper BUT he has to buy ad blue and i don"t work that out over 5 years and you get a better picture
once you start to buy parts for your scania egr you will be not that far apart!