De-Carbon & Other Dealer Maintenance

[WhiteSheep]

Had my 04. 5 at the dealer last week to replace the power steering pump. He suggested the following:



1. De-carbon the engine at 24k miles.

2. Flush and fill transmission (48RE) with new fluid at 15k miles.



There are four listings in the service manual for "de-carbon", all having to do with gas engines. What is the procedure for a CTD and why?



The HD maintenance schedule calls for transmission service at 30k. Why does the dealer want to do this at 15k?



I live in Arizona so I can see the more frequent transmission maintenance schedule. This place is really hard on transmissions and differentials. But what is this de-carbon thing ?

 

[Mundgyver]

De-Carbon is probably refering to the injectors. Light driving with no load or high idle times will carbon up the injectors somewhat. If you tow any kind of a load or do any long distance driving, it is doubtfull you will have a problem. If your worried about it, just grab a couple of 32 oz bottles of power service additive and dump them both in the tank at your next fill up and then put a load on your truck. You won't have have a carbon problem. Living in AZ you might want to had another transmission cooler though just to keep from overheating the transmission fluid.

 

[Tony T.]

My dealership has never mention anything about de-carbon at any mileage. I would assume that it would be just adding some sort of additive then charging you some outragous price for the service. I usually don't tow that often myself, so I'll take the truck out a couple times a month and get it up to temp, and then blow it out, give it a good run. Also I try to avoid any prolonged idling. I've been using the Power Service Diesel Kleen (gray bottle) for almost a year now.



On the trans I waited until the 30K service to change out the trans fluid. Probably would have changed it at 15K if I done alot of heavy towing. Did not do the flush, just dropped the pan and changed out fluid,filter & gasket. I went ahead and had the dealership do it mostly for documentation purpose's since I'm still in warranty, and it was a little more convinent at the time to let them do it.



A lot of dealerships will really push the added service on you, because that's the way they make their money and theres a lot of people that never read their owners manual and depend on the dealership to call the shots on when service is due them not knowing any better.



Tony

 

[RMcCulloch]

Yah - the local dealership has come up with a couple of "new" treatments (engine & transmission) that they claim to be "recommended service" but I've never heard of.



Each is about $200.

 

[Hohn]

You can de-carbon the engine yourself. At least, anything that is touched by fuel or oil.



Try THIS stuff: www.lubecontrol.com



It's the most impressive pair of fuel and oil additives I've ever seen. The smell can't be beat, either

 

[Mundgyver]

If you are worried about carbon and soot build up in your oil and are looking for an active way to remove the soot (it is a wear component byproduct), you might look into one of these for your truck. They work very well and bring a good piece of mind for oil concerns.



https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133882



This one is installed on my rig.

 

[rbattelle]

Ask them what precisely is involved in this "de-carbon" process...



-Ryan

 

[CPG]

Its good PM practice to have the transmission serviced at 15K the first time if you do a lot of trailer pulling. You get the break-in particles out and the filter changed and start out fresh. This is about the std. mileage of most HD hauling. One can go longer, but this gives one peace of mind. "de-carbon process". ??

 

[Tim]

Snake oil.