New member here. Will be picking up my new Gmc duramax Monday. Just wondering if anyone has come up with a monthly or yearly budget for normal maintance.Just from reading here the last few days I see its a lot more costly then a gasser. Also wondering if anyone would recommend using tires plus or tire kingdom or walmart repair centers for normal maintnace (oil changes, fuel filters) ? Id consider doing it myself but i do so much on equipment just not sure if I want more of a load.

It's not too bad. Twice as much oil as a gasser and $30-50 for a fuel filter ever 10,000 miles. If you do all the work yourself you won't even notice the extra cost.

Another newbie here, I've also learned a lot from this site. I've printed out just about every "Do it yourself" articles from this site. If I worked on equipment a lot like you, I may not want to work on my truck either. But I guess you can call me a "weekend warrior" diesel mechanic, I like getting under the hood and learning about my truck first hand.

As fas as a budget, I still have a few more free oil changes from the dealer where I bought the truck. Other than that, I've been doing it all myself. I spent some $$$ up front and bought a bunch of fuel filters, spin on tranny filters, and air filters. Once I have to start changing my own oil, I'll spend some more $$$ and stock up on that stuff too. I feel I've got enough stuff for one year of service on my truck, than there's no need to budget but once a year, when I re-stock my garage.

Just my .02, welcome aboard and enjoy your truck.

Changing fuel and oil filters is a breeze. Lots of room under the truck. Although from the factory, the fuel and oil filters are, as my dealer's diesel mechanic joked, "tightend by the hand of god". Boy was he right. When I took my factory oil filter off, I stuck a screwdriver thru it, and bent 2 screwdrivers. Finally drilled a 1/2" hole thru it, and stuck a steel 1/2" rod thru it and beat the he!! out of it with a hammer until it budged loose. Also, the factory skid plates (if you have them) are a BIG pain because they JUSTT BARELY catch the edge of the oil stream when it drains. So instead of all going into your catch basin, half of the oil stream hits the skid plate and gets dispersed nicely all over your driveway or garage. Doing that once frustrated me enough so I went and bought a good quality quick drain adapter from Femco. (www.nospillsystems.com) I like their quick drains better than the popular Fumoto valves because they are much more low profile (much less prone to catching on something and breaking off) and they only open when you screw on the special drain hose. The Fumoto's drain when you move a little lever, and this seems a bit too easy to me... The fuel filter is easy to change, but I recommend buying the special fuel filter wrench from Kennedy-Diesel or Eric at Merchant Automotive. 50 dollars, but WELL worth it. Keeps you from stripping your WIF (water in fuel) sensor and also has a perfectly sized screwdriver on the end for opening the bleeder screw.

---Ben

I took mine off with my bear hands. Always do, I never use a filter wrench.