Volvo engine runs 1.5M miles without an overhaul

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DOTHAN, Ala. — Volvo and its customer AAA Cooper Transportation (ACT) are celebrating the life of a Volvo D12 engine that ran 1.5 million miles over seven years without an overhaul.

The D12 powered a Volvo VN 630 that was placed into service in May 2003 and logged up to 250,000 miles per year.

“Volvo engines are designed for long-running performance and AAA Cooper always takes great care of their vehicles,” said Greg Holderfield, director of product reliability for Volvo Trucks North America and ACT’s first account representative. “We design all our engine components with the goal of longer life – even so, it’s impressive that this particular truck has logged 1.5 million miles without any significant work on the engine.”

Will Davis, fleet maintenance advisor for ACT said most of the carrier’s engines require at least one overhaul during their trade cycle, however this D12 needed only an injector to be replaced.

As the miles climbed, ACT owner Mack Dove decided to keep the engine running to see just how long it would last. He said it soon became a point of pride for the drivers.

“The truck still runs and looks great,” said Volvo’s Holderfield.

The truck has been taken out of service and the engine delivered to Volvo so the manufacturer can review its longevity and continue improving the correlation between engineering tests and real-world experience, Volvo says. Engineers will take the engine apart to analyze every line, hose, fitting and wiring connection.
“Our engineers are eager to see what the engine looks like on the inside and use that information to improve our product line moving forward,” Holderfield said. “Quality is at the heart of everything we do at Volvo Trucks.  Our design, manufacturing and testing processes are extremely rigorous.  We have other examples of high-mileage trucks, and view all of them as opportunities for continuous improvement.”

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  • my 1999 d12 425 hp volvo engine has 2,270,000 miles on it and never been overhauled, replaced bearings and 1 injector.