Propane Specific Preventative Maintenance
Propane autogas vehicles do promise less maintenance requirements than diesel. But, that doesn’t mean that there are no maintenance requirements. We’ve put together the top three preventive maintenance guidelines you should be following. These will help keep your propane vehicles running smoothly.
Fuel Filters
Propane autogas fuel systems require much less maintenance than diesel fuel systems and are more comparable to gasoline fuel systems. It’s recommended that operators follow the same maintenance intervals and fluid specifications as called out by the OEM for the gasoline engine when operating a ROUSH CleanTech propane autogas fuel system.
The only additional maintenance items for our propane autogas fuel systems are fuel filters. One filter is added into the filling line on all generations of our fuel systems. Another one is the supply line filter between the fuel tank and engine on a Generation 4 style fuel system.
Both fuel filters are serviceable without draining the propane from the fuel tank. There are not any maintenance items within the fuel tank requiring it to be drained for any type of maintenance.
These filters are both recommended to be changed out every 50,000 miles.
If the operator notices a decreased filling rate on a unit as compared to others in the fleet, it could be a sign of a partially clogged filter and it should be replaced regardless of the vehicle’s mileage.
Fuel Tank – Corrosion and Refinishing
Propane autogas fuel tanks should be inspected for signs of surface rust or corrosion on an annual basis. If corrosion or surface rust are found, the fuel tank should be refinished to inhibit any further surface rust or corrosion from forming.
We’ve worked with our propane autogas tank suppliers to develop refinishing procedures. We also have a FAQ document which answers many common questions in regards to tank corrosion and tank inspection at https://roushcleantprd.wpengine.com/service-manuals/.
Special Tools
ROUSH CleanTech propane autogas fuel systems work with standard OBD II diagnostic equipment and require very minimal tooling to work on. However, we created a list of relatively low-cost special tools that we recommend you have in your shop. That list can be found at https://roushcleantprd.wpengine.com/training/.
We also have information on several types of propane transfer systems. These can be used to speed up the repair process when in-tank repairs are necessary and require the propane fuel to be drained from the tanks. There’s the ROUSH CleanTech Transfer System that uses in-tank fuel pumps plus two other manufacturers’ transfer systems we recommend. You can find out more at https://roushcleantprd.wpengine.com/training/.
We’ve also developed our own diagnostic software application, known as the ROUSH RDT tool. This tool is available to download for free. It’s like other OEM forms of diagnostic software and requires the use of one of our recommended pass-through devices to communicate between the vehicle and the computer. To download the free ROUSH RDT tool, or for more information about the recommended pass-through devices, visit https://roushcleantprd.wpengine.com/rdt/.
If you have any questions about preventive maintenance, please contact Mario Genovese at Mario.Genovese@roush.com.
