Is the Right Oil Getting Into Your Engines?
When you switch to new oils and don’t drain enough out of your bulk tank first, you may lose benefits such as longer oil drains. Photo: Shell
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When you switch to new oils and don’t drain enough out of your bulk tank first, you may lose benefits such as longer oil drains. Photo: Shell
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Choosing the best oil for your operation is only part of the equation when it comes to making sure you’ve got the right oil in your trucks. There are a lot of things that can happen between the order and the fill, including the distributor delivering the wrong oil or oil that’s accidentally mixed with other oil; having a bulk oil tank with a mishmash of oils that keeps you from getting the performance you need and expect; and contaminants getting into the oil before or during the fill.
First of all, when you’re choosing an oil and an oil supplier, the American Petroleum Institute (API) always cautions that “meets” is not the same as “licensed.”
“An oil marketer could say it ‘meets the standard,’ but the only way to verify it’s licensed is to check with API or look at our online directory to make sure it’s really licensed,” says Kevin Ferrick, who manages the API’s licensing program. “If it’s licensed, the maker is warrantying it meets the API standard. If it’s not, it doesn’t have that added assurance. So there’s a difference.”
Even if you choose the right licensed oil, that’s no guarantee that it’s the oil actually going into your truck engines.
Bruce Stockton, who’s now a fleet consultant under the company name Stockton Solutions, has worked for some of the country’s largest fleets. When he arrived to head up the maintenance department at one major carrier, he discovered that the brand of oil being spec’ed was not what was actually in the fleet facility’s bulk tanks.
“When we tested the bulk oil, which some people don’t think about testing — they assume if that’s what …Read the rest of this story
