Thoughts on Maintenance

[Citroen/Dave]

While we have been on the general topic of maintenance in the C16 column, I thought I might pass this document along for your consideration.  While the title specifies automobiles, the comments apply to all mechanical devices.  I first published this article in the North American Citroen Car Club news letter. 

I live most of the month in Northern Virginia: shop cost for a fluid change for most cars is around $800!  When I drive home to Central Virginia, I sometimes drive a family member's car for the same service that cost about $80.  If you have an anticipated major maintenance item, it might pay to take a trip (before failure) to a less expensive yard for the work.

Disclamer: I have no comercial interest in SynLube products.

Best regards,
Dave

Maintenance and How to Make a Car "Last Forever"

Maintenance is presently thought of at five levels.  Many Americans are stuck at level one, Failure Maintenance.   A friend, on his morning walk around the neighborhood on garbage pickup days, collected 7 "weed eaters" in one year.  Five of the seven trimmers only required new cutting string to be functional.   An example of Scheduled Maintenance was a local industry that had twin-belt driven equipment.  The repair technician monthly purchased drive belts and installed them during pauses in the factory's output.  If he had taken the time to align the pulleys, evenly driven belt-sets would have lasted for years.  The parts store was happy for the additional sales; the repairman was happy with his steady job; and the industry thought they had a good maintenance program because there were no broken belts.  Note that each level of maintenance has its usefulness not necessarily at the exclusion of others.   

1.) Failure Maintenance:  A two-cycle chain saw may be cheaper to replace than to pay for
a technician's salary, the parts to fix, and shop time plus the inconvenience of down time. 

2.) Scheduled Maintenance: Based on time or miles, this level of maintenance is the method by which a manufacturer "covers his fanny" preventing ignorant owners from abusing his equipment under warranty: the owner's manual says change the oil at 3,000 miles. 

Change facilities thrive on ignorance and oils refined from asphalt-crude petroleum requiring constant replacements: paraffin-crude oils function a little better.  Both eventually oxidize and form sludge plus the additive packages eventually wear out.  The additives attempt to compensate for poor performance.  Note that many so-called "synthetic oils" are petroleum based, meaning that they are built from crude oil molecules: they are better than paraffin based oils but they are not true synthetic oils.  True synthetic oils have designed molecules that are not constructed from petroleum.

3.) Preventive Maintenance:  Check the tire air pressure so the tires don't overheat and fail.  Check the battery terminals for corrosion especially before winter to prevent electric motor failures like the starter and window motors plus alternator failure.  Top up the tank and check the oil dipstick.  Note that preventive maintenance inter-fingers with safety: a well maintained vehicle is a safer vehicle.  Fleet operators require a morning preventive maintenance check by the driver before the day's drive.

4.) Conditional Maintenance: Based on oil analysis, the look of belts and hoses, vibration analysis, infrared examination for hot spots, and etc.  Anticipate up-coming problems based on regular appropriate testing.  With a $12 oil analysis at 6,000 mile intervals, many cars will not need an oil change even past 12,000 miles.  The use of a true synthetic oil like SynLube (brand) will allow near indefinite change intervals.  One must know what contaminates indicate and act on that knowledge.  Elevated tin, lead, and copper levels predict a main bearing failure.  Antifreeze or fuel in the sample may indicate an approaching head gasket failure, and etc.  If the test indicates a problem, address the problem.  In any case, a repetitive 3,000 mile oil change will not be the solution.   

5.) Predictive Maintenance is based on the life expectancy of the components.  An alternator may have a life expectancy of 150,000 miles.  Instead of having a road failure at 160,000, replace it at your convenience at 140,000 miles.  No losses of trip time, towing expenses, or motel bills, plus you get to choose the repairman. Maintained automobiles should function well past 300,000 miles. 

Proper maintenance means no failures: planes do not fall out of the skies because the airline industry can not tolerate breakdowns "on the road".  Nuclear submarines do not develop equipment-squeaks that would be fatal if detected by an enemy.  Proper maintenance procedures are used by the savvy.  The goal of automotive maintenance is not to keep part stores full of counter people and shops full of repair technicians available for emergency repair work over holidays.  The goal of maintenance is to prevent failure, not to fix breakdowns.  If something fails on the road, you have not done your job.   

Think of maintenance as long-term health rather than a Rescue Squad trip to the hospital.  In human terms, people need care at infancy and old age.  Middle age is the time when things tend to go well.  With equipment, machines usually fail right out of the box or after a "service life".  The goal of Conditional and Predictive Maintenance is to extend that sweet spot of middle age. 

In addition to synthetic oil, two other products should be considered with oil systems for longer engine life: glass-fiber filters that trap smaller particle sizes and super magnets to capture susceptible small particles that otherwise pass the filter.  These small iron and steel particles, scrubbed from bearings and cylinder walls, can magnetically aggregate once past the filter to act like a large particle ultimately causing crankshaft journal and other bearings to fail.  Discard that drain plug with a weak magnet if you have one; it may make things worse rather than better.   Magnon and Big Eye, Industries produce super-strong exotic alloy magnets for automotive filter application.  Note that these high-powered magnets work best with low viscosity oils such as the synthetics and at low fluid-velocity locations where aggregating particles are not accidentally flushed back into circulation.  Magnon seems to have solved this fluid-velocity problem. Similar products are used in automatic transmissions, hydraulic systems, gearboxes, differentials, and in the injector fuel systems that must maintain critical injector dimensions, especially in expensive mine and quarry equipment and long haul tractor-trailer trucks. 

Be wary of car owner's manuals that state that the automotive fluids "last the life of the vehicle".  Automotive fluids ultimately fail.  Ignored cyclic fluid replacements drive new car sales because, subsequent to fluid failure, parts fail.  Many Americans look for a new car when a part fails: Failure Maintenance. 

"Antifreeze" has a water pump lubricant and a corrosion inhibiter in addition to the antifreeze and boil-over component.  All three functions fail in different times.  Do you want to replace your water pump, fix endless pinhole leaks in your radiators, and watch your engine overheat because of poor heat transfer through the corrosion inside your engine's cooling system?  Of course you do a yearly check to see if you still have freezing protection, right?  Did you check the other two functions?  No?  Regularly change your antifreeze as recommended by the fluid manufacture; he knows the lifespan of his product.  Ordinary brake fluid is hygroscopic: adsorbed water causes master and brake cylinder rubber seals to swell and fail.  In addition, such brake fluids past their service life may rust brake lines from the inside creating abrasive particles.  Power steering fluid, gearbox oil, differential oil, and automatic transmission fluids all become metal contaminated plus their molecules become sheared or "worn out".  Regularly replace all automotive fluids as recommended by the fluid manufacturer.  Until recently, automatic transmissions required filter and fluid replacement at 30,000 miles to prevent failure.  Newly designed fluids have better lubricating qualities and extended life spans greatly increasing the length of time between cyclic fluid replacements.  See SynLube.com and other manufacturers for extended-life automotive fluids to greatly reduce service intervals and costs.  Stop rust by flushing road and sea salts after exposure.  Use a primer and touch-up paint on the scratches.  If rust has started use a rust converting primer like Extend (brand) and then touch up.  The difference between a new car and a worn out car is a coat of paint, a set of seat covers and a couple of ten thousands of an inch of metal and rubber at critical locations.  Paint and seat covers are cheap: protect the bearing surfaces and seals! 

Three things kill a car:  telephone poles (accidents), obsolescence (no replacement parts), and people.  Which type person are you?  Do you prefer car payments forever plus the 3,000-mile Scheduled Maintenances or the modest cost of extended-life synthetic fluids combined with a Conditional and Predictive Maintenance program?  Note that no one owns a new car: once you cross the curb at a new-car dealer parking lot you are driving a used car "worth" thousands less.  Maintaining a used car makes sense.

This article is based on conversations with Carl Stevens, the Fleet Manager for VDOT at Lynchburg, Virginia who is a pioneer in Conditional and Predictive Maintenance.   Stevens has well documented the results for his fleet of cars, truck, and construction equipment: the initial costs go up for the Conditional Maintenance testing.  Then costs decline as Conditional Maintenance identifies fluids and parts soon to fail.  A head gasket is much less expensive than an engine to replace.  Under Predictive Maintenance the costs fall off the chart.   

Dave Woolley