TIL a 30-second air dryer check saved me a $900 compressor bill

Last Tuesday I was swapping a fuel filter on a Freightliner and the owner walked over, said the air dryer purge was spitting oil. I shrugged it off, figured it was normal. Then he showed me the desiccant cartridge, it was soaked through. I had never checked that on my own rig, figured it was a 100k mile part. Has anyone else found a cheap preventative check that saved a big repair down the road?

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1 Comment

max_ramirez481mo ago

The 80/20 rule applies to most maintenance work, 80% of failures come from 20% of cheap parts nobody checks. I do the same thing with my own truck, I check the fuel water separator every oil change now because a $15 filter beats a $400 injector pump any day. It's funny how the little things we skip are exactly the ones that bite us in the wallet later.