Caltex Lubricants 

  Maintaining a mixed fleet is no easy task. Many managers take a traditional approach to maintenance schedules and oil drain intervals by trying to find a common interval that works across the fleet.  The reasoning behind this conservative schedule is that they believe this will eliminate the need for regular oil analysis. However, what these managers don’t understand is that oil analysis is not only about oil.  Through oil analysis you can recognize all kinds of problems with your equipment –fuel dilution, dirt contamination, coolant leakage, or some other issue that could undermine performance. Oil analysis helps you predict and possibly avoid unforeseen equipment failures. By setting up one common maintenance schedule across one's fleet, and removing oil analysis, one may increase material and labor costs, while raising one's risk of failure on any machine by up to 11%. For example, take a common piece of equipment, such as a scraper. Oil changes, including the cost o...