Preventative maintenance.

[skyship007]

I spent some years at sea depending on one diesel engine and had to cross many oceans where an engine failure would have been both a financial disaster and would have often resulted in the yacht or fishing boat being abandoned as a bad BET (Beyond economic towing). I have never had a failure other than temporary items like fuel filter, water pump or aux belt that could be changed fairly quickly. When your very living depends on an engine you think very carefully about how to almost guarantee it won't fail.

There two main types of maintenance required, routine and preventative. Routine is the same as you are supposed to do (BUT often don't do correctly) for a car and is fairly simple for a marine diesel, even a big Detroit diesel. In fact a small 18hp Yanmar diesel gen set engine is more difficult to maintain than is a big truck engine, except for the 2 vs 30 ltrs of oil involved. Just oil & filter, alternator belt, water pump belt if fitted and screen filter, check coolant and the all important fuel filters. The big diesels don't have an air filter and the valve clearances don't need adjustment, also they have built in oil change pumps.

Not every boat owner practises full preventative maintenance, but most of the sensible tans ocean skippers do. The big trick is getting the schedule and spares list correct, the rest is fairly easy.
The engine dealers or other skippers will often let you know which items are likely to fail, when and even why. For example Y2GM, water pump seal and bearing 5 years (It drips about 6 months before failing) and injector tips (Change all if you just blocked the secondary filter and trashed the injection pump) 10 years assuming run at least once a month. Many items are based on time rather than hours due to corrosion. All the items on the list plus a few one off rare cases failures like an alternator rectifier or starter motor solenoid were carried as a precaution.

I don't want my Volvo to breakdown rather more than some as one of the main routes to the kids school is rather isolated in winter and the ADAC are real slow on bad days unless you call the Police first to say you are in a dangerous position, so I am slowly starting to compile a preventative maintenance list for my old 115 hp P2 V40 diesel, BUT the list is a tad short so far, so if anyone would like to comment on common non finger trouble failures and the number of miles and years to the failure please feel free to comment. The list so far:

Bottom rad hose clip: Iffy at 10 years??
Thermostat: 200K km??
Alternator rectifier or bearings: 250K km?? (Recon alternator)
Battery: 10 years (VOLVO only), or 6 years (BOSCH or similar)
ETC

Some items like the turbo can't be commented on as they fail according to how the car was used or abused, combined with oil service considerations.

[skyship007]

I just got a replacement dipstick from VOLVO and it does not have a silly plastic end, IT'S ALL STEEL!! I will fit it tomorrow, so that will be listed as item no 1.
Just to clarify one point, preventative maintenance does not include items like the turbo as they are too expensive and their life expectancy is mostly dependent on what the car is used for, driver style and oil service considerations. It is however interesting to know the time interval between some symptom like a persistent oil leak from the turbo shaft main seals and failure. The item can then be included as a note. For example (Wild guess):
For cars over 10 years old or 100K miles, think about obtaining a used turbo if you get an oil leak of more than one spot per day from the turbo.