300tdi oil change intervals

Just a thought-I know you change the oil every 6k miles but if you offroad a lot there will be lots of engine and not so much moving
Any one know how many hours of operation between changes and anyone ever fitted an engine running hour meter

Its a good point Paul heavy off road use will involve lots of high load application which will produce more soot than general everyday driving (as does towing trailers/caravans etc)

As its not a fixed cycle it would be hard to say how many hours you should change the oil. If it was purely an offroad toy then i dont see any harm changing it every 1000 miles, it its more of a greenlane tool with quite a bit of road use then maybe every 3-4000k.

Does it state anything in the owners manual about adapting the service interal with regards to useage? As many were bought for farms and to be used as just tow vehicles.

Manufacturers generally aim their service intervals for worst case scenario so for light use they are always overkill.

Hi Tusken
I dont recall any info on RAVE but will have another look

Guess you could say 6000 miles at an average of 40mph = 150 hrs? So 150 hrs at 10mph = 1500 miles, thus Tuskenraider's idea of every 1000 miles makes sense
Also depends on the oil of course, but let's not go there

Nooooooo-not the engine oil type road
Spose you could fit some kind of timer that counts when th ignition is on-will give some idea

pauli said:

Just a thought-I know you change the oil every 6k miles but if you offroad a lot there will be lots of engine and not so much moving
Any one know how many hours of operation between changes and anyone ever fitted an engine running hour meter

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Dont know if ill be ripped into as a 90 owner posting in Disco forum but I think you are right on the money.Im driving off road most days and towing and it must be heavy on the oil.I dont have an hor meter but would fit if I came across one.All I do is change at 3000 miles instead.Hour meters are made ,there is one in my tractor.Its done 4200 hours since 1985.It doesnt do much roadwork either but I just change the oil once a year.

Hi Turboman
Useful comments always welcome
I will do a search for a 12 volt hour meter-they must be out there

There are plenty of hourmeters out there.Every piece of earthmoving equipment has an hour meter.Try tour local JCB dealer to check prices or scrap people who break excavators.We had hour meters in excavators years ago when they didn't even have an oil pressure gauge.

cheers
jim Anderson
1996 300Tdi auto(Jap reimport)

janderson41 said:

There are plenty of hourmeters out there.Every piece of earthmoving equipment has an hour meter.Try tour local JCB dealer to check prices or scrap people who break excavators.We had hour meters in excavators years ago when they didn't even have an oil pressure gauge.

cheers
jim Anderson
1996 300Tdi auto(Jap reimport)

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Thats helpful Jim and tis true all the plant Ive ever hired or owned had one.I live right down in the pointy end and dont know of any plant breakers around here, might look into it when Im upcountry in a few weeks time.Could be a tricky job to fit esp.getting the gearing right.

pauli said:

Hi Turboman
Useful comments always welcome
I will do a search for a 12 volt hour meter-they must be out there

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Thanks pauli,not sure it cn be electric the ones Ive seen are driven off a cable as they need to take the revs into account.My internet connection is so bad I do as little searching as poss.but be good to hear what you come up with.

I think the hand book states you have to reduce the normal service interval by half for regular off road use . If you do deep wading I read somewhere the axle diff oil needs to be changed straight after !!! .If you have no oil leaks and extended breathers just regular checks and reduce the service interval by half should be OK . It is always better to change the fluids too often than not enough. Regards Jonathan

To give you an idea, on the dyno tests we do here at work we generally change the oil between every 60 and 100hrs depending on the cycle

Take a look
http://www.practical-sailor.com/marine/hourmeter.pdf

And here
12 Volt Hour Meter

Not expensive either

I assume they have a perminant live to keep the memory and a switched live off the ignition to start/stop the timer

As far as I can tell they do not need power to retain their memory.Thay have a non volatile ram
There are two types though.3 wire and 2 wire.Only difference is the 2 wire only displays when power is switched on and the 3 wire has a permanent 12V feed so it displays when the ignition is off :clap2:

pauli said:

And here
12 Volt Hour Meter

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Thanx for that pauli ,most interesting and as tusken says,inexpensive.You guys seem informed about electrics,im happy spannering but always get auto electrician if its more than component replace

Im an engineer in the broadcast industry
Got a 1995 300tdi for free that sat outside the PO mums house for two years after it was broken into
Have spent hours and hours on it so far and replaced loads of stuff
Will get local lr indie to do timing belt and bushes as my spanners arnt big enough
Then giving it to my daughter and future son in law to transport their dogs around

Vehicle Wiring Products do the old fashioned type,works like your odo,so no chance of losing numbers when theres no power....its what we got on our mini diggers,cant remember price but not much and easy fit.