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The Complete guide on maintaining your 2006-2007 6.6L LBZ Duramax Diesel GM truck

Are you the proud owner of a 6.6L LBZ Duramax? If you’re reading this post, you’re probably looking for a little help in the maintenance department. As you probably know, the LBZ Duramax is one of the most sought after diesel trucks around. They’re one of the most capable pre-emissions diesels around and they can produce a lot of power with only a tuner. They were built to be durable, but the lack of emissions makes them much more reliable than the newer trucks too. Despite this, it’s good practice to take care of your LBZ and follow OEM recommendations when it comes to maintenance. In our Comprehensive Guide to 6.6L LBZ Duramax we make it easy for you, and provide you with the best service schedules to follow, maintenance parts to use, and the fluid capacities so you know exactly how much you’ll need to purchase.

How Often Should I Service My LBZ?

If you want to keep your LBZ Duramax in tip-top shape, you’re going to need to service your truck at least every 10,000 miles under normal operating conditions, and at least every 5,000 miles under severe operating conditions. We’ll go into what these two different circumstances entail and it should be very clear which category you fall in. Different parts will need to be serviced at different intervals so make sure you pay attention to our LBZ Duramax Maintenance schedules, so you know what service you are approaching.

What to Do If you Just Purchased Your Truck

If you just purchased your LBZ Duramax, I strongly recommend doing a maintenance overhaul of your truck. Unless you know the person you bought your truck from, and you’re confident that they pampered the truck you just bought, I would replace all the oil, fluid, and filters found on the truck as soon as possible. They could’ve been using cheap aftermarket fluids, filters, and engine oil, so it’s best to start fresh and use the parts that were designed by the manufacturer or quality engine oils like Shell’s Rotella T4 15W-40. After the initial overhaul, follow either the normal operating conditions service schedule or the severe operating conditions service schedule.

Normal Operating Conditions Service Schedule

What does normal operating conditions mean? To follow this category, your truck is likely a personal vehicle you use for transportation and light towing. You don’t idle frequently, and you don’t do significant city driving. Most people with diesel trucks will fit in this category.

Severe Operating Conditions Service Schedule

Severe operating conditions include towing heavy loads frequently, excessive idling, lots of driving in the city, and fleet vehicles. Commercial vehicles should be serviced under the severe operating conditions guidelines listed below.

Tasks That Need To Be Done Every Maintenance Interval

The following tasks are things that should be done every time you service your vehicle. Whether you change your oil every 5,000 or 10,000 miles, you should be doing everything on this checklist every time you’re performing maintenance.

• Rotate Your Tires
• Check all tires for signs of wear or damage.
• Thoroughly inspect steering and suspension components for wear, damage, or faulty parts. (replace if necessary)
• Check for fluid and oil leaks by taking a look at where you most often park your truck, under the hood, and under the vehicle itself.
• Inspect Brake Hoses & Check Brake Pads for wear

6.6L LBZ Duramax Fluid Capacity

Before you can get to work on servicing your truck, you need to know how much fluid or oil for a proper service re-fill. It’s always good to keep some extra fluid and oil around, just in case you spill some of what you bought, or a leak develops later on. The figures below may not be exact. Make sure you check dipsticks and pay attention to fill lines on reservoir tanks. There’s more information in your 2006 or 2007 Duramax Diesel supplement about servicing your truck if you need more help.

2006-2007 6.6L LBZ Duramax Maintenance Parts – Fluids, Filters, and Oil

Using high quality parts, filters, and fluids is so important if you want to keep your LBZ Duramax on the road for a long time. To make it easy on our readers and fellow diesel lovers, we compiled a list of the most common LBZ Duramax maintenance parts. Take a look at the chart below. Click on the links below if you’d like to purchase the parts from Amazon! The prices are great and the shipping is awesome for Amazon Prime members.

LBZ Duramax Steering & Suspension Components

Remember when I mentioned checking steering and suspension components as something you should do every time you change your oil? What happens if you discover one of your steering components needs to be replaced or if you just want to change your shocks because the old factory ones aren’t cutting it anymore? Below is a list of high quality aftermarket products and OEM replacement parts for many of your steering and suspension components. Steering and suspension parts are a known weak-point in the Duramax trucks because they don’t share the same robust straight axle design as Ram or Ford trucks. By replacing weak parts in your IFS, or independent front suspension, you can save yourself a lot of headaches down the road.

LBZ Duramax Front Shock Absorbers

The Shock absorbers your LBZ Duramax comes with are very poor in quality compared to aftermarket ones like Bilstein or Fox shocks. If it’s time to replace your shocks, I strongly recommend replacing them with one of the options i’ve listed below. You will notice a huge improvement over factory ride quality.

LBZ Duramax Rear Shock Absorbers

Learn More About the LBZ

Want to learn more about the LBZ Duramax? Visit some of our other LBZ Resources and articles by clicking on one of the links below.

• 6.6L LBZ Duramax Specs