2007 Dodge Buy Backs????????

[ADoty]

is anyone having any luck in getting dodge to take your truck back? we are getting ready to pursue the lemon law on ours. it is constantly one thing after another and trip after trip to the dealer. we were very pleased with the truck when we got in in June and it was making 18 - 18. 9 mpg. first thing to happen to it was the electronic throttle control light came on, of course no part in stock and had to be ordered they flashed to clear the light. the front

bumper broke in the seam and to be ordered, so that was a trip over and

another when the bumper was ready to be installed. the way the service people treated us and went over it with a fine tooth comb, they were trying to put the blame on us. it was a factory defect.

another trip when the part for the electronic throttle control came in, flashed again.

then we got the recall for g30 and trip over to have 02 sensor installed and flashed again. it has been downhill from there. fuel mileage has dropped to under 10 mpg. then the check engine light came on, trip to dealer to be told that it is the thermostat and none in stock. flashed to clear light. drove 6 blocks and light on again and another trip back to have it flashed

we took 900 mile trip running empty but running hard and averaged 10 mpg. got home and the ck engine light on again. service said ok to drive unless it starts blinking. trip over to have thermostat installed, flashed again and 2 days and 74 miles later, ck engine light back on. truck was parked in shed and we have been trying to get something done. dealer came after truck on tuesday, had it all week and brought it back on friday. all that is noted on the service copy is test driven 14. 1 mpg. engine light PO128, updated to AX. flashed again. the owner said he drove it and it was

getting 17+ but we have not seen it. dealer filled it drove it back to us 62. 5 miles and filled 4. 843 gal and that is 12. 90 mpg not the 17 that he said they were getting from it.

every time to the service dept, they have tried to put the blame on us, accusing of letting it idle, (we had fast idle turned on right after we got it and found out it couldn't idle) and who wants to let it sit and idle with the price of fuel. accused of not driving it hard enough and it is driven hwy miles to and from twice a day. they just don't want to take the responsibility they make you feel like they don't want you coming back. we found out that the service department does not record all the times that they flash the truck. we have our phone records that correspond with the times that we called to get the truck in and they do not have all of them

recorded. dodge reviewed the service record and said it didn't warrant a buyback. the dealership screwed us on that



how about diesel in the exhaust?we took the ss tip off before they took the truck for service and it is slick with diesel. the owner of the dealership

said he believed us, but they couldn't find any in it now. diesel is also coming up on the dipstick.

GUESS THAT THE DODGE CUSTOMER IS NEVER RIGHT ANYMORE, WE NEED TO ALL BAN TOGETHER AND MAKE DODGE TAKE ALL OF THESE JOKES BACK UNDER LEMON LAW. BEEN IN BUSINESS 48 YRS AND THE CUSTOMER IS RIGHT NO MATTER WHAT IN MY PLACE OF BUSINESS.

 

[AHarris]

Try a different dealer

Sorry to hear about your truck. Stories like this make me keep my fingers crossed when I go back to the States in 3 months and start driving my 2007. 5 every day.



Before you give up on your truck and your investment, you should try another dealer and see if they have better luck finding out what the real problem is.



Good luck

 

[cojhl2]

The Pickup was not designed to have all these problems. and not only that they repeat.



Therefore the dealer has no clue and should be reported to DC. Also I would get another dealer as quickly as possible.



There are at least two relatined issues that could be the basis for all the other problems. 1) Slick exhaust, and 2) Diesel in the crankcase.



I would without delay go whereever you have to to get to another dealer, maybe even try a Cummins repair shop and then worry about Warranty later.



This prob is not going away and with a knowledgable mechanic can be fixed easier tahn getting Dodge to buy it back. Especially if you expect your current dealer to be your advocate.



And the other thing I. m sick and tired hearing the idle too long and not driving it correctly excuse. These dealers will fill you full of BS.

 

[MMeilicke]

What is "slick exhaust"? I never heard of that before reading this thread.

 

[TAbbott]

If you're getting raw fuel through all of that emissions equipment all the way to the tailpipe, you've got at least one bad injector in my opinion. Diesel contamination of the crankcase oil is another symptom of that. Poorly atomized fuel is being injected into the cylinders, and your problem is only gonna get worse, not better.

 

[grasmo]

Man I'm Gonna lemon law mine. I'm convinced that some of these trucks are very good and the other ones cannot be fixed ,if they can why is there so many stories like mine and yours every where about trip after trip to the dealer?????

 

['strokeThis_'07]

Man I'm Gonna lemon law mine. I'm convinced that some of these trucks are very good and the other ones cannot be fixed ,if they can why is there so many stories like mine and yours every where about trip after trip to the dealer?????

You cant just go and lemon law, your truck has to have had problems, more so than a check engine light or two. Its gotta be like the first post (not sure if youve had any problems or not, just thought Id throw that out there)

 

[Jeepstang]

Good luck on a buy back i doubt that will happen. I am one of those with over 8k and no issues. I keep writing the same thing here over and over again. A Friend of mine is the top tech at a Dodge dealership he has had classes on the 6. 7

the instructors teach them that the main issue they are having is people running the wrong fuel in their trucks. I have a hard time finding ULSD here near Washington DC i can only think of a handfull of stations that sell it that I know of in a 60 mile radius. Also the stations that do label their pumps with ULSD often do not have ULSD in their tanks. I only purchase from big brand name stations and pay close attention to the stickers on the pumps. And you can tell your dealership that they are FOS on the idle thing. for the past month or so almost all of my driving had been 1 mile trips each way twice a day three times a week. I have also idled my truck for over an hour stuck in traffic several times. and guess what? NO CEL!

i get mad when I see posts like this that dealerships tell them the reason they have issues is from to much idling the engine. I live in between Washington and Baltimore we have the second worst traffic in the nation it often takes me 5 minutes to go one block to get off of my street I dont have a choice to not idle my truck and I have no reason not to idle it since I have never had an issue with it. I agree there are some known issues out of the box with these trucks and I beileve the flashes have resolved most of them. A guy who used to work for me is a shop forman at a Dealership in Northern VA. he said they have not been having any issues with the 6. 7 trucks that he knows about but has been told that people on these forums seem to have alot of issues. They can tell if you have LSD of ULSD with a device that they had in their training classes I would like to find out more information on that device and have people with the issues test their fuel and see what they are getting from the fuel stations

 

[catoiler]

Well I know for a FACT I use ULSD because it is the only thing sold here!!

 

[Jeepstang]

Usld

Well I know for a FACT I use ULSD because it is the only thing sold here!!

Where are you located?



Someone on this forum replied to a post of mine awhile back saying something about how he delivered fuel and that the pump read ULSD but since it was cheaper for them to purchase LSD that was what they purchased from his company and stuck in the tanks with the pumps labled ULSD

and said this was common. Why would your area only sell ULSD? and in my area it's hard to find it? this is what I want to know. you would think being close to DC where these laws are made that it would be easy to find. i talked to a friend of mine who drives all over the country and said all he was able to find has been ULSD and his older truck gets less mpg with it and wanted to know where I am finding LSD fuel so I told him I know of 2-3 stations in my area that sell ULSD and all the rest are selling LSD. I think he must be reading the pumps wrong. Sunoco is the only brand of fuel that I have found that always has ULSD, Shell and Exxon are hit or miss most sell what they call #2 and do not have the ULSD sticker on them.

 

[grasmo]

How can I test the fuel I am buying ??? in lay terms

 

[Jeepstang]

fuel testing

I was wondering the same thing and just ran across this post from sag2

he seems very knowledgeable on all of his posts. I assume this is how they test the fuel in their training classes. If I was having issues I would spend money on one of these. I just found this on a google search





ULSD KIT



here is the post by sag2



Herguth Labs in Vallejo CA just sent a flier that they reduced the price of their sulfur test kit from $250 to $195 for the ten test kit. It works even better now since they upgraded the kit chemicals. I have tried it on several kinds of diesel and it is a little hard to read on red fuel because of the dye, but it does a great job of reading the sulfur content.

 

[cojhl2]

I've beenj running ULSD in my 1990 since about a year ago. (I guess anyway, thats what the pumps say).



I started running it in 2006 Fall, the engine sat thru Dec, Jan, and Feb. Then when I started it again in Mar the pump seeped fuel.



I had the pump rebuilt, (I expected this on an engine that has never been touched with well over 1/2 mil miles (not quite true, had a rear seal and new bearings spun in about 100K).



Well anyway all seems OK to me.

 

[HBarlow]

Good luck on a buy back i doubt that will happen. I am one of those with over 8k and no issues. I keep writing the same thing here over and over again. A Friend of mine is the top tech at a Dodge dealership he has had classes on the 6. 7

the instructors teach them that the main issue they are having is people running the wrong fuel in their trucks. I have a hard time finding ULSD here near Washington DC i can only think of a handfull of stations that sell it that I know of in a 60 mile radius. Also the stations that do label their pumps with ULSD often do not have ULSD in their tanks. I only purchase from big brand name stations and pay close attention to the stickers on the pumps. And you can tell your dealership that they are FOS on the idle thing. for the past month or so almost all of my driving had been 1 mile trips each way twice a day three times a week. I have also idled my truck for over an hour stuck in traffic several times. and guess what? NO CEL!

i get mad when I see posts like this that dealerships tell them the reason they have issues is from to much idling the engine. I live in between Washington and Baltimore we have the second worst traffic in the nation it often takes me 5 minutes to go one block to get off of my street I dont have a choice to not idle my truck and I have no reason not to idle it since I have never had an issue with it. I agree there are some known issues out of the box with these trucks and I beileve the flashes have resolved most of them. A guy who used to work for me is a shop forman at a Dealership in Northern VA. he said they have not been having any issues with the 6. 7 trucks that he knows about but has been told that people on these forums seem to have alot of issues. They can tell if you have LSD of ULSD with a device that they had in their training classes I would like to find out more information on that device and have people with the issues test their fuel and see what they are getting from the fuel stations

Jeepstang,



Your post is excellent and for those who are seeking answers it may help answer the question of why some are experiencing terrible problems and some are completely satisfied.



I'm not writing this to annoy those who are having problems, I honestly don't have a clue why your truck is not reliable and my intention is not to blame you or minimize the problem you report. I am interested because I have ordered a new one and am seeking an understanding of the issues for my own benefit.



As I've written before, I have a lot of confidence in Cummins Inc. I am not naive or gullible enough to believe that they are perfect or incapable of making a mistake, but I am confident that they did not intentionally or knowingly release an engine that they believed had problems. I have seen with my own eyes the testing they put the Dodge Rams through before the new Gen III HPCR engines were released to the public. I believe that Cummins, and Dodge, thought the engines were ready for the market when they began selling them. It is possible, of course, they they overlooked something or that a problematic part on their test mules didn't fail during testing but I think it more likely that something in the driving environment, possibly fuel, is contributing to the problem.



In the interest of helping everyone find satisfaction I hope more information such as jeepstang's post above are made available to TDR members.



Harvey

 

[jelag]

Several points here.....

1 - Never take your truck into the dealer without a receipt of what you told them and what they did... if there is no paper there is no record... if they make a receipt for warranty it has to be entered in their computer for tracking... .

2 - I know of no oil company actually delivering LSD to any stations in the US or Canada. You can't depend on anyone at the station level for correct answers. . we found this out 4-5 years ago over a clouding issue..... Here and in a lot of the area we cover only ULSD is available and dyed diesel is also ULSD...

3 - since the refineries have switched over, and most fuel flows through a pipeline I'm also betting that home heating oil (#2 diesel) is also ULSD.

4 - The local dist pulls the fuel off the pipeline, adds those additions to prevent clouding and or dye for dyed diesel and delivers it to the end users (stations)

5 - We get 95% of our fuel from 2 card lock companies in 5 states and BC, Alberta, Canada. Of these two groups, which include a lot of local distributors they tell me that they do no sell any LSD, just USLD in all their locations because they fear their tanks being dipped and tested... and the related fines!!! They fear their own drivers dropping the wrong product in the tanks or their customers (stations) trying to cheat... so all fuel they dump is USLD

6 - LDS will not effect the engine, but will clog the DPF and render it useless. I just finished a 2 day class on DPF's late in Jan. Its the same effect that leaded gas had on the cat in a car... . It (leaded gas) renders the cat useless and plugs it... so its not sold. . the soot from LSD clogs the DPF so only USLD should be used...

My fuel bill is a few thousand a month..... we've not had problems but we've also found that our fuel distributors are more than willing to talk about their issues... .

Hope this helps... I know it will go against the grain of some of whats said above...

 

[HBarlow]

Jim,



Your post above quoting your fuel retailers makes a lot of sense. I'd like to blame the problems reported by some or even many on something easily corrected like wrong fuel or bad fuel but the explanation above makes it harder for me to believe that a lot of LSD fuel is being mislabeled and sold as ULSD.



Is your 5500 on the road yet?



Harvey

 

['strokeThis_'07]

I would bet that sellin LSD as ULSD probabl isnt terribly common; would there not be a liability issue on them if they sold LSD as ULSD? Guaranteed if I had a 6. 7 and got LSD from a ULSD labeled pump Id be after someones tail...



Also agree with the post that Cummins/Dodge didnt knowingly release these engines with problems. I just dont see it...



As for the cause of the problems... ?? It all comes down to the DPG and EGR and the changes that needed to be made for that crap. Thats all it boils down to... thank the government.

 

[Jeepstang]

Fuel

Jim,



Your post above quoting your fuel retailers makes a lot of sense. I'd like to blame the problems reported by some or even many on something easily corrected like wrong fuel or bad fuel but the explanation above makes it harder for me to believe that a lot of LSD fuel is being mislabeled and sold as ULSD.



Is your 5500 on the road yet?



Harvey

I only posted what I was told by a top level tech at a Dodge dealership that he was told in his training classes and what another TDR member posted who drove a fuel truck.

For some reason the area I live in is difficult to find ULSD. I wish I can put someone in the passenger seat and show them how I can drive to six stations that sell Diesel fuel in a 2 mile radius and none of them have ULSD diesel decals on their pumps. I am not willing to take the chance of running LSD when I know where I can get ULSD in my area. Unless the pumps read ULSD i will not use them. They have the stickers that read not for 2007 and newer vehciles. In the area I live in light duty diesel trucks are not common like they are in other areas of the country. We have mostly Honda and Toyota passenger cars here. If you are very close to a highway like I-95 they almost always have ULSD. I live 1. 5 miles from I-95 It's hard to know for sure why some trucks are having issues and some are not. I know that mine spends alot of time at idle infact most of my driving is stop and go traffic and I have 8,000 miles and no issues to complain about yet. Once after a trip from MA to MD I had a CEL for the turbo actuator being sooted up and that was after a long highway trip so in my opinion idling the truck is not an issue

if I were having all these issues that some are having and talking about losing thousands of dollars trying to get Chrysler to buy back their trucks I would invest the 200. 00 and test the fuel in my tank without thinking about it.

 

[HBarlow]

jeepstang,



I hope you didn't think I was saying I disbelieved or doubted the accuracy of your earlier report. That is not my meaning. I believe that ULSD is not available in all areas and have no doubt that Dodge and its dealers believe that many problems are being caused by fuel related issues.



I think Jelag's fuel retailers are probably telling him the truth also that they don't intentionally mislabel LSD fuel as ULSD fuel.



I value all good information. I think the cause of problems some owners report is still unclear and I seek the answer.



Harvey

 

[SNiebaum]

FWIW: Until December 1, 2010, only 80% of diesel produced or imported for consumption in the US has to be ULSD. LSD and ULSD can be sold concurrently until this time.