Method for servicing a vehicle

1. A method for monitoring at least one characteristic of a particular engine, the method comprising:

generating a data set wherein said data set includes data responsive to the at least one characteristic, said data generated by collecting at least one engine fluid of the engine after the engine has been in operation and at a predetermined interval, and analyzing said engine fluid;

storing said data on a storage device;

comparing said data set against predetermined parametric data;

creating trend line data with a slope by a computer processor for the particular engine for a plurality of said data sets of the collected engine fluid of that engine; and

analyzing said trend line data with the slope by the computer processor . . . based on said trend line data with the slope outside of a routine maintenance schedule.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said generating further includes an elemental analysis of said engine fluid to generate data responsive to at least two or more of Iron, Copper, Chromium, Lead, Tin, Aluminum, Zinc, Silver, Silicon, Boron and/or Sodium.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said data set includes at least one data element and wherein said generating includes generating a historical data set by storing at least one data element and said data set for a plurality of sampling intervals.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said predetermined parametric data includes a predetermined parametric data range and wherein said comparing includes comparing said data set with said predetermined parametric data to determine whether said data is within said predetermined parametric data range.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising servicing the engine responsive to whether said data set is within said predetermined data range.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said creating further includes processing said data set to generate a trend line.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein said creating analyzing includes analyzing at least one of said trend data and said trend line to predict whether future data sets will fall within a predetermined parametric data range.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein said analyzing further includes analyzing the slope of said trend line to predict whether future data sets will fall within a predetermined parametric data range.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising at least me of servicing and maintaining at least a portion of the engine responsive to said analyzing.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said generating includes associating said data set with the engine.

11. A system for monitoring at least one characteristic of a particular engine, the system comprising:

an input device for receiving data responsive to the at least one characteristic, wherein said data is associated with that particular engine and generated by analyzing at least one fluid collected from said engine after the engine has been in operation and at a predetermined interval;

a storage device for storing said data for a plurality of receiving events; and

a data processing device for processing at least a portion of said data to generate trend line data with a slope, and also for analyzing said trend line data with the slope . . . based on said trend line data with the slope outside of a routine maintenance schedule.

12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising an output device for communicating said trend data.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein said processing device processes said data to generate a trend line responsive to said trend data.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein said processing device processes at least one of said trend data and said trend line to predict whether future data will fall within a predetermined parametric data range.

15. A method according to claim 2 , wherein said elemental analysis further includes identifying possible causes for a locomotive engine exceeding said predetermined parametric data.