Who changes your engine filters?
I imagine that one of your engineers will do it during routine maintenance, but what about when an engine overhaul is being carried out?
Once the overhaul is completed, do you know that the filters have been changed properly?
The reason I ask is that two of our engineers have just returned from carrying out a 2-yearly service on a standby generator and they had a serious concern with the lub oil filtration.
The engine they were working on had four filters and although everything was in order on the first three, they came up against a problem on the fourth, where they found the housing was empty.
When they went to fit the new element, there was something at the bottom, so the element would not sit properly.
On investigation, this is what was found:
Yes, that’s right – the bottom of an old cartridge.
Once they removed this, the new element could be fitted and the filters could start operating correctly again.
But this rectification is after at least 12 months without any filtration on the B-bank, risking some major engine problems if there had been any debris in the oil.
The operator was running regular oil sampling, so they would have known if there was anything in the oil, but it could have been too late by then.
With no element, there was no protection to the possible damage to the key internal engine components.
For such a simple process to be carried out incorrectly and ignored, the outcome could have been disastrous.
It may be worth checking this at the next opportunity to save some major downtime!
