How much oil is everyone using????

[LightmanE300]

Maybe my truck is the red headed step child of the assembly line, but if I prefill and dump the rest of the 3 gals in I am slightly overfilled, despite letting the oil drain/drip till it stops when I dump the old stuff. I end up putting 11. 5 to 11. 75 in each time to get just under or at the full line after the oil sits/settles and the engine has been run.

 

[EEdmondson]

Maybe my truck is the red headed step child of the assembly line, but if I prefill and dump the rest of the 3 gals in I am slightly overfilled, despite letting the oil drain/drip till it stops when I dump the old stuff. I end up putting 11. 5 to 11. 75 in each time to get just under or at the full line after the oil sits/settles and the engine has been run.

Does your drain plug stick up into the pan preventing all of the oil to drain out? I think there was a thread about a mod on the EZ change or Finger Touch drain plug to fix that.

 

[EEdmondson]

I'm with you Grizzly -- I prefill my FRAM filter every oil change.

Doesn't Ford own Fram?

 

[67guzzler]

Doesn't Ford own Fram?

Yes -- Ford owns Fram and Cummings.



That's why Fram and Cummings hate each other so much. You know -- TSB's back and forth. Sibling rivalry thing. Engines goes South and then Cummings blames Fram / Fram blames Cummings.



The truth is, they're both grrreeaaattt! And... . They're both owned by Ford.

 

[TCluff]

That is just CRAZY - TALK!



You just haven't seen the beauty of big orange!!!!



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So you see, you just can beat a FRAAAMMMM!

your right, fram will and chrysler wont :-laf

 

[67guzzler]

your right, fram will and chrysler wont :-laf

Just having some fun! Everyone is so serious on this board. Sorry for the hijack.



Yup -- 12 quarts is the number for 3rd gen's (at least the 2004 & 2005 models) I believe. Anything more I'd guess is either mis-measurements or overfill.

 

[EBottema]

Let me ask, why the heck would you let a wally world monkey change your oil?? That is a recipe for disaster

 

[Sorensen]

I like to do my own oil changes too, will that void the warranty because I can't prove that they were done and how often they were done?

 

[EBottema]

NO- It will no void your warranty by law. Unless the dealer is providing the oil changes at no cost to you, you can use any brand of filter and change the oil yourself. Just to be safe, order your fleetgaurd filters from genos, keep the reciept, and keep the matenaince log... you will be fine

 

[Colonel102]

Let me ask, why the heck would you let a wally world monkey change your oil?? That is a recipe for disaster

Since you asked,

I don't have time (working 12+hrs a day for the railroad) nor a route to get rid of the 3 gal of oil once drained (I don't want to cart it around somewhere to dump it off at an auto parts store or something). Also, the paper trail is what I'm looking for too. With the paperwork in hand from Wally, Dodge can't say that I did not do the oil changes and lube work that needs to be done inorder for the warranty to stay valid (just a reciept for the oil and filter is not enough insurance for me).



BTW... . The charge for them to do the work is something along the lines of $19. 95. That includes 5 qts of oil. I just have to pay for the rest of the oil. Where I went to school at $2. 04/qt of Rotella, and reducing the cost of the oil change b/c I always bring my own filter, I think I'm paying around $5 in labor. A no brainer in my book.



Just my $. 02.



I didn't know this was such a hot topic... thanks for all the reply's... . this is why this place ROCKS!!!!!

 

[EBottema]

Sure, you got the right idea to save money but you get what you pay for. I have heard many many stories of wally world and jiffy lube changing oil and overtightening the plug, leaving it off, overfilling, underfilling and so on. I wouldnt want to risk my engine to one of those fools. Your paying about 5 bucks labor, who is going to work for that? only a undertrained idiot most likely. That is the problem right there... You might get lucky and never have a problem but one day it will come back and bite you in the butt .

 

[67guzzler]

I don't think they can just "globally void the warranty" if a customer chooses to do their own maintenance. Where it gets interesting is say you had an internal engine part failure that could possibly come from never changing the oil or running too low in oil and you had no proof of oil changes. Then it might be voided for that specific failure. The weight of the proof would be on them to prove that not changing the oil, changing it wrong or running without enough oil caused the failure and most likely was the sole cause of the failure. But I don't think that the warranty is voided by virtue of your doing maintenance yourself. But if you did the maintenance incorrectly or incompletely then it would void it for failures that resulted from your poor workmanship.



Which raises another question -- what is proof of oil changes anyway? I've always been told to keep the receipts. But I really don't know what good it will do. If there is an internal engine part failure can't they just claim you didn't do change it correctly, that the oil leaked out somehow and you refilled the crankcase trying to hide the problem before bringing / towing the truck in, or that you bought the stuff and never changed it at all. I mean -- I think that they might try to do whatever they want to try to get out of providing warranty coverage.



I don't know but it would seem fundamentally unfair for the manufacturer's to blatantly say the warranty is voided unless oil changes were only done by a certified mechanic.

 

[FJfonda]

You folks got it all wrong!!!! One of my earlier posts below:



"So, I have developed a new oil change procedure that will enhance the cleanliness of your engine oil. Soon to be a DC TSB!!!

- Drain oil

-Change filter (prefilled of course)

-Fill with 16 Q new oil

-Run 30 sec

-Drain 5 Q out via oil pan drain plug

-add 1 Q to top off

I think using this procedure will drastically reduce the engine wear

associated with used oil contamination... ...

Of course you all realize... that if I was stupid enough to put 4 gals of oil in

during my oil change, I would have to do the same thing!!! "



But to answer the question..... 04. 5 takes 3 gal. Some of the 3 gal used for the filter pre wet.

 

[SThorud]

First of all, if DC was going to void the warranty for do-it-yourself oil changers, they wouldn't show you in the manual how to change the oil.



Secondly, engine failures related to parts lubricated by engine oil are a rarity. When they do happen, Cummins steps in and I'd be willing to bet they will take an oil sample as one of the first things they do before diagnosing failure. They'll know if it's been in there for 50K miles or if it was ran low and then topped off before brought in for repair. They aren't idiots.



I simply would never let any outfit change oil in my trucks/cars because you always wonder if they overtorqued the drain plug, didn't tighten it at all, pre-filled the filter and dropped in a piece of the foil cap from the oil jug, forgot to put on the fill cap, etc.



I'd spend more time checking over things when I got back home than I would changing it myself and knowing all of those things were done right.

 

[GaryCarter]

I'm with that. What's the savings worth if you're on the side of the road with your oil plug half a mile behind you.



True story- an associate of mine moved his oil change business from the dealer to a quick lube place. After the engine failed due to use of incorrect oil, the repair bill was $9k. (Foreign car) So now he pays the bill and has to deal with trying to get reimbursed by the quick lube place. Any guesses on how long that will take or how painful it will be?



Peace of mind from doing my own work... Priceless.



Gary

 

[rbattelle]

That is a good argument, but I'm going to stick to prefill. The most dangerous part of prefill is to get a piece of the oil container seal into the filter.

Here's what Cummins has to say about it. From page 7-13 of Cummins P/N 4021271, Troubleshooting and Repair Manual ISBe and ISB (Common Rail Fuel System) Series Engines:

CAUTION: The lack of lubrication during the delay until the filter is pumped full of oil at start-up can damage the engine.

-Ryan

 

[Grizzly]

Here's what Cummins has to say about it. From page 7-13 of Cummins P/N 4021271, Troubleshooting and Repair Manual ISBe and ISB (Common Rail Fuel System) Series Engines:





-Ryan

This is what we have been hearing all along. However, the damage of not prefilling may be very insignificant, especially if you do not intend to keep the truck very long. But what about the poor ******* who buys your truck when you decide to buy a new one and intends on keeping it a long time? Yes to prefill in the cleanest environment you can.

 

[Grizzly]

Yes -- Ford owns Fram and Cummings.



That's why Fram and Cummings hate each other so much. You know -- TSB's back and forth. Sibling rivalry thing. Engines goes South and then Cummings blames Fram / Fram blames Cummings.



The truth is, they're both grrreeaaattt! And... . They're both owned by Ford.

And Dodge owns Powerjoke

 

[67guzzler]

Prefilling. It's the right thing to do....

I have to ask -- what's the big deal? Why is there even a question? You want to limit the time (even if it's milliseconds) that the engine is running dry on the first startup after an oil change. I mean -- why not just prefill the filter? If it's the right thing to do, then why not just do it? This is like wearing seatbelts or putting kids in the back seat to when your car has airbags. It's just the right thing to do.

And Dodge owns Powerjoke

:-laf Now Grizzly -- Stop trying to confuse me!!!!