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Are Diesel Trucks More Expensive to Maintain?

Are Diesel Trucks More Expensive to Maintain?

Maintenance of your diesel engine truck requires additional effort to keep them in good condition and avoid any hurdle. In addition, if you do maintenance on your diesel truck, it can cause part damage and increase repair costs. 

Are Diesel Trucks More Expensive to Maintain? Diesel truck maintenance is a difficult task for older vehicles, but it is becoming less expensive with the improved maintenance facilities in modern trucks. It takes more time and effort to keep the diesel truck running with increased labor costs.

 It needs more service, it is not hard, but its parts require regular servicing without a spark plug. There are different factors which make it expensive like costly spare parts, less technician access, and various other reason. 

Are Diesel Trucks More Expensive to Maintain?

Although diesel trucks have an engine with no spark plug, they still require regular maintenance for their performance. For this, you need to replace or repair some essential components like oil filters, fuel.

Costly spare parts

The truck parts and labor cost depending on its model. Sometimes they are less expensive, but there are hard to find.

Expensive spares of it include water pumps, alternators, batteries, and a starter. They require more engine parts, and their cost also high. However, these types of vehicles have high resale value due to the longevity.

High cost on coolant flush

Diesel engines become hot when the chock is on full power, so the essential need for this is the coolant process.

You should monitor the acid level if it becomes high that can result in expensive maintenance.

The cost of coolant splash is around $170-$185. Used engine components will be more costly if they are not readily available or specially ordered. Its repair cost also becomes high if they damage due to the fuel injection system clogging.

Costly diesel truck oil

Due to the supplies, they need oil changes for an engine are usually less common and can cost up to double as much

The estimated cost of it is around $60-$210. The main constituents it contains are the detergent and additives, which enhance charges, but annually you pay less for fuel cost due to several reasons.

It is costly but often more reliable and has high gas mileage, so your chances of a visit to the pump are less. 

However, all diesel gas stations do not provide the fuel opportunity 50%-60% availability present in them, so you should fill up your tank with time, and its cost also high. 

More quantity of diesel oil is required

The diesel oil requirement depends on the working efficiency of your pickup.

If you travel in hot weather conditions with an extreme temperature and hard-driving or towing, then change it more frequently.

The cost requires for it is around $80-$450. An oil change can be 3000-3500 hours or after 150-200 hours of functioning in some vehicles.

If you neglect it and do not change, it can lead to damage to moving parts. According to the recommendation, you can change it after 6,000-8,000 kilometers.

It has a significant impact on the injector lifespan. It can stick or damage due to old oil.

Its condition has a direct link with the situation in which you drive and driving frequency.

You should follow the recommended change interval. It also depends on the towing a load like moderate of heavy and sufficient idling. 

Expensive diesel oil filter

All of your engine components run safe and smooth due to the oil. It also protects your vehicle parts by minimizing friction.

It has two fuel filters that need to replace after a proper recommended interval, like 15,000 to 25,000 kilometers.

Their performance reduces with time due to the accumulation of dirt, burnt fuel resides, grim and others into the oil and shorten its lifespan.

Oil filters protect this component by clogging the debris, so its efficiency also slows down with time. In this situation, its replacement is the necessary objective for you.

Its replacement cost is around $70-$170. You should find in the market the best performance oil filters.

Its lifespan depends on the condition where you drive and driving style. Fuel filter replacement is the most crucial step, and most of the owners neglect it. You have to ensure that the filter is disposable.

Air filter

The replacement of an air filter usually depends on the climate and condition in which you travel.

You can change the ai filter after every10K to 25K miles.

It is essential to check because it can clog up quicker. You should replace it regularly and make sure that air enters the engine safely and clean. The cost for it is approximately $20-$120.

Lack of trained technicians

Although these vehicles need less maintenance but are expensive due to several reasons, these have the best engine efficiency, no need to use spark plugs.

In this way, you can manage the high maintenance cost rather than go to the service center and repair routine.

It cost you more when you cannot find a trained expert. But if you find the right mechanic, then it cost you less.

In-efficiency, delayed services, customer complaints, and driver frustration will enhance if the diesel technician scarcity occurs.

These engines have rugged designs with durable components, and they are different in construction from gasoline or spark ignition systems.

It is essential for the durability and longevity of the service life of your truck. If you cannot get it serviced efficiently due to inexperienced mechanics, dirt and moisture in diesel fuel will damage the engine parts.

High labor rates

Labor rates of these diesel vehicles are high because of less availability of qualified technicians.

However, it can also depend on the truck you owned, and the relative scarcity can enhance it.

Another factor is the difficult access to this engine and the time duration require for its repairing also increase.

Another reason for it is the neutralization of pollutants for which diesel exhaust fluid reservoirs need. 

How can you make diesel truck maintenance cheap?

Regular maintenance of the diesel truck is the essential step. It should proceed on scheduled bases like traveled distance and situation where you drive. 

Fewer maintenance issues due to the absence of spark plugs

Diesel engine trucks do not contain spark plugs because there is no requirement to light the diesel fuel.

In this case, the combustion chamber heat by the glow plug. Power efficiency increases when fuel molecules of these types of the engine move fast.

However, the glow plug ignites the mist against a large surface area, which leads to carbon buildup. Therefore, focus on the fuel system’s regular service because negligence can damage the system. 

Regular preventive maintenance

 Truck maintenance is the safe way to keep the functioning of your truck smoothly.

Unfortunately, modern trucks are expensive to maintain due to various reasons, like the high cost of fuel and increased prices of diesel-specific replacement parts and fluids. 

Better fuel economy

Diesel engines are compression ignition systems where diesel acts as fuel and a lubricant to lubricate the moving parts and remove heat from sliding parts. 

Diesel is light fuel compared to gasoline and reduces the wear and tear of various components.

An example is a rotary fuel pump that supplies diesel from the tank to subsequent systems. 

Diesel forms a layer or film around the sliding or moving parts of fuel pumps and minimizes the frictional force. This feature of diesel fuel makes it superior to others and reduces the maintenance issues of fuel injection systems due to wear and tear due to friction. 

Therefore they face fewer maintenance issues and result in overall savings in costs to keep them in shape. 

Find a trustworthy and expert mechanic

Until taking the help of a professional mechanic or workshop, make sure they have diagnostic tools, spare parts, and other relevant accessories necessary for the engine service.

 Check their profile that they have experience in the maintenance of diesel engines. Seek guidance from user reviews of other truck drivers taking services from that workshop or mechanic.

Finding a trustworthy and expert mechanic is a one-time process, and you should pay due attention to finding one.

Once you find their services satisfactory, stick with them for future maintenance tasks instead of switching to other service providers.

Solve the issues regularly

Most major system-level failures of engines are the result of leaving minor component-level faults unattended. Therefore, follow the general rule of thumb that is ‘nip the evil in the bud.’ 

Modern engines have a built-in computer system to monitor various engine components and parameters. It gives an indication as soon as any part malfunctions or any parameters go beyond permissible limits. 

Some truck drivers find these warnings annoying and bypass these safety features to keep the engine running without paying attention to them.

You should avoid it and pay attention to resolving the problem of finding the root cause behind the indication despite the nature and severity of the fault.

Keep a record of maintenance activities

You must keep an active list of all maintenance activities which you have performed in the recent period.

These activities can be in the form of replacement of torn out or out-of-order spares with a new. Moreover, these activities can be just a modification of old or worn-out components of your vehicle.

You can also develop skills to attend to minor nature repair problems by yourself. It will help to reduce overall maintenance costs and the severity level of faults.

Keep an emergency tool kit

You do not know when you use the toolkit, but you have to keep an accessible toolkit in your diesel truck.

It is better to keep the toolkit, and it costs around $25 to $35. You can make a temporary repair by these until you reach the safe location with proper equipment.

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