The $127.00 dumb mistake

Like most people, I have a hard time admitting a dumb mistake, but in this case I might helps someone else avoid making the same mistake. Had the error not been discovered, the price tag would eventually been a much higher.

Two weeks ago we had the periodic service done on our Cummins M11 engine. I painfully noticed that the cost of the replacement air filter was $104.00. Two days ago when we drove the last 20 miles or so to our present location we were on dust choked roads. I thought about the air filter and thought: aha, I'll just take it out, blow the dust from it and we'll be good to go.

Fortunately, I posted this filter cleaning activity on the ForeForum for Foretravel owners. Part of what made me do this was the huge size of this filter. I've never seen anything like it.

Long story short. Cleaning the air filter is one of the “ Deadly Sins” of owning a diesel pusher. What I did created the possibility of introducing dust particles (think tiny gritty pieces of limestone) into the engine. As a result of my doing something that seemed like good maintenance meant the new $104 filter had to go before we even started the engine to move on to Hays, Kansas.

With not a lot of options available to me I had to pony up $127.00 to the local NAPA store which just happened to have one in stock. On the positive side, no damage was done to the engine and I learned another thing about these monster engines that push us all over America and up any mountian range that has a paved road.