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My lead tech was dead wrong about fuel filters
Mike kept telling me to change fuel filters every 10k miles on the Freightliners, but I finally checked the manual after my third clog in a month. Turns out the spec is 25k for our model year and I was just wasting filters and introducing air into the system. Anyone else have a shop "expert" give them bad advice that cost them time and money?
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the_kim1mo ago
...and that's exactly what gets me, right? I read something about this a while back that said most guys who run fleets just use whatever filters are cheapest and swap them as often as possible because they think it's "better safe than sorry." But that's backwards. Like you said, introducing air every time you crack that system is worse than letting a filter go a few extra thousand miles. I've seen a Freightliner throw a code for low rail pressure just because someone changed the filter too fast and didn't prime it right. Mike probably meant well, but the manual didn't write itself.
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smith.anna1mo ago
Oh boy. So you changed three filters before checking the manual? That sounds more like a you problem than Mike being some kind of villain. Maybe he was just going off what worked on older models or something. Three clogs in a month is a lot, but if you were already changing them that often you'd think you'd notice the air issue after the first swap. Honestly, it's a filter. You waste 20 bucks and ten minutes of bleeding the system. Hardly the end of the world.
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miles_young591mo ago
...and that's just it, right? It's like people forget the manual exists because they trust someone else's word over the written specs from the manufacturer. I see it all the time with stuff like lawnmowers or even basic maintenance on cars. Someone tells you "oh yeah, you gotta do this every year" and suddenly that's gospel until you actually look it up and find out it's every other year. It's not even about Mike being wrong, it's about how often we just take someone's word instead of taking two minutes to verify. Three clogs in a month should have been a red flag way sooner, but I get how it happens when you're busy and someone with "experience" is calling the shots.
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