When was your vans last oil change?
We do oil changes on our own vans every 3000 miles. The most important thing to do with a diesel engine is to keep the oil clean as a part of its design is to pick up dirt. Dirty oil can lead to destroying a turbo, wearing out the oil pump and tends to find any opportunity to escape the engine.
If you have to top up the oil, is it because of the leak or engine wear do to oil not doing its job?
Have you thought about cleaning the engine down and having an oil change to find out were its leaking?
The service regime on my 2006 Peugeot Boxer 2.8 HDi shows it as 20,000 miles or 2 years which ever comes first.
Personally i think 2 years is too long inbetween oil changes so i change mine every year.
We do approx 6 - 7,000 miles a year but that will increase shortly.
Too little use can be just as bad too much use as the moisture doesn`t get burnt off and builds up inside the engine.
I`m lucky enough to be able to do the job myself and have done since the first service.
I have always used Castrol GTX 10W40 Semi-Synthetic A3,B4 and after 8 years and nearly 45,000 miles it runs better now than when i first got it brand new.
The oil i buy when it`s on offer ( normally ASDA £10 / £12 for 4 litres ) so two of them comes in at £20 /£24.
The oil filter i also buy when on offer ( normally Euro Car Parts £9 ), i also buy my other service parts at the same time whilst cheap.
The offers are round about christmas time and even though i only service it in March i buy them at the right price.
So, for between £29 and £33 approx it gets nice new clean oil & filter every year which i don`t think is too expensive.
Other people will argue differently and say it`s a waste of money, well that`s fine by me they are allowed their opinion and so am i.
This is the way i do it and it works for me and my van.