short trip maintenance

[rykiel575]

Hi guys

I have a 2012 NW.
300,000.

I've recently cleaned the inlet manifold, did the tappets, and did the resistor mod on the egr wire.

Now I recently got a new job doing shift work, and when I have early morning starts or late finishes, when the local bus route does not run, I would be taking the car to the train station.

Now the trip is only about 3kms each way, but it is through a dodgy area of town and I dont really want to be walking there.

This would probably only occur say 4 times a week max (so 8 trips),. but besides that I should be able to do longer trips where the oil gets hot enough.

I was planning on doing engine oil every 5000kms and filter every 10,000.
What do you guys reckon?

Anything else to look for?

I carry a jump starter pack usually in my car

[littleriver]

May I suggest to do engine oil and filter at 7,500km ...

...

[spot01]

I'd change the oil & filter at least every 6 months or 7,500km, whichever comes first (as the book recommends for "severe usage" such as frequent short runs).


Only other issue is you may find the battery may not get fully recharged with frequent short runs - if it starts to get slow it may need to be put on a charger at times.

[sharkcaver]

Spend $50 (kit posted out to you) at your next oil change @7500Km's. You may well find 7500Km's even with some short trips is changing your oil too early. You will recover the $50 the first time you extend your oil change. I've upped mine to 10K, cause 7.5K was too early.

The only way to effectively know is to have your oil analysed.

http://www.e-monitor.com.au/

[rykiel575]

Good idea. I will give that a go later in the next oil change after. I changed the oil after i got the car initially with nulon hi torque which was overdue by 3000kms and a wesfil filter.

I then changed it again with delo400 multigrade and a fleetguard filter 4000kms after i did the inlet manifold (was worried stuff might have gone in whilst the rocker cover was off). I also suspect i had diesel contamination as the oil level kept coming up. I torqued the injector lines properly and so far so good.

I will change the oil again with delo 400 in 5000kms (installed a fumoto valve so should be easier) to minimize the contamination of the nulon hi torqur engine oil and the diesel contamination as i had ~2L left in the system somewhere as i can only ever put 8L of fresh fluid in.

So in 12,500 kms ill let you guys know.