Use Proper Maintenance to Reduce Costs

Your quarry can’t make money if its machines aren’t working. The best way to keep equipment up and running—and to avoid unanticipated downtime—is to practice proper maintenance techniques. Another factor is what you put in your equipment, particularly in terms of oil and coolant.

Caterpillar offers a complete line of oil, coolant and filter options. We believe these products are the best matches for our machines—and those built by other manufacturers.

Oil
The first step is to use quality oil that meets manufacturers’ specifications. Next, follow change interval recommendations in your Operation and Maintenance Manual (OMM). Otherwise, contamination may develop. Oil life also is affected by operating conditions and numerous other factors.

S•O•S
Your Caterpillar Dealer can work with you to conduct regular S•O•S Fluids Analysis sampling to monitor fluid conditions throughout your equipment.

The S•O•S service is key to maintaining your fleet. Here’s why:

• S•O•S enables you to keep minor repairs from becoming major ones, and helps you to avoid complete failures.
• It enables you to predict wear-related problems, allowing greater flexibility in repair scheduling and downtime control.
• It shortens repair time. Using the S•O•S Services Report as a guide, troubleshooting time is often reduced, enabling a service technician to go directly to the core of the problem.
• You can optimize oil change intervals because S•O•S analysis accurately determines oil condition. That means you’re only changing the oil when necessary.

Filters
Good maintenance begins with quality filters. Follow recommendations in your OMM for changing all filters.
What else do you need to know?

• Changing fuel filters at recommended intervals is critical to protecting engine components and fuel injectors from contamination.
• Handle filters carefully during removal so contaminants do not re-enter the system.
• Contaminants in fuel are controlled by installing new filters before plugging occurs, and by using high-efficiency secondary fuel filters.
• An air filter service indicator alerts you to the best time to change that filter.

Coolant
Select a quality coolant and perform checks periodically to ensure that your coolant:

• ­Has adequate coolant additives.
• Meets Caterpillar recommendations.
• Is kept topped off.
• Is not past its useful life.

Watch for warning signs
You’ve bought quality oil, filters and coolant. Now what?

Be aware of high temperature gauge readings. Also watch for unusually high readings of wear metals or oxidation from S•O•S Fluids Analysis; these measures can indicate overheating or abnormal wear conditions that should be addressed immediately.