03 not starting...again

[DDemere]

I bought an '03 2500 4x4 5. 9 liter about 4 months ago with 108,000 miles and have had same problem. The previous owner had paid Maxwell Dodge in Austin, TX about $2,400 to change the lift pump and injection pump a couple hundred miles before I bought the truck. He had a long crank time, and then a no start situation. He gave me the receipts verifying these repairs in case any problems arose. And they did. In the first 3000 miles I had crank times that increased until it wouldn't start. The truck ran perfectly once started, and the longer it sat between starts the longer the crank time. Maxwell Dodge once again diagnosed a bad injection pump which they changed under warranty. I also called the Dodge customer service line to express my discontent. I then drove another 1000 or so miles in which the crank times once again crept up until another no start situation. I live in San Marcos, TX and this is where it ceased to start, so I had it towed to the local Dodge dealer. They had the truck for 3 weeks, and changed the inection pump, cam position sensor, and the #1 injector. I paid $750 for the latter two. I also had a chance to look at the truck's service record which showed this would be the 5th injection pump and there had been several injectors changed starting at around 30,000 miles. It is now a few days and a couple hundred miles later and same no start. The last thing the service manager told me is all the injectors probably need to be changed. I've now had a long conversation with the customer service line, and they have forwarded a "file" to the dealer in San Marcos, as well as the regional manager. Dodge has now told dealers to change all 6 injectors if one is showing signs of problems. I believe that faulty injectors must have been the problem for a long time, and that Dodge should now replace them retroactively, because if they had diagnosed and implemented this policy at the first sign of a no start problem much time, money, and their now tarnished image would have been saved. This seems to be a problem many have had with this truck, and Dodge has disappointed many otherwise longtime, loyal customers.

 

[rbattelle]

You're probably right, and your story seems logical. Unfortunately, it's very unlikely Dodge is going to do anything for you.

Ryan

 

[kglenn]

I live in central Texas where dodges are everywhere and used to work with on a daily biases, but that is about to change. My brother-in-law runs his own shop and within the last few months he has been swamped with dodge trucks. He has always had alot of vp44s and and a few injectors now and then, but now he is swamped with the comonrail injectors. The whole shop is covered with them and the owners are all getting the same story from thier dealers- you have contaminated fuel, we won't warrenty them. Most of these people are on thier second or third dodge truck but said never again will they purchase another one. This seems to be dodges new answere for all problems now. It not the owners falt if we are getting contaminated fuel, we can't check for bad fuel before we fill up. The worst part is that its all cummins fuel systems that are having problems here. I myself have two cummins trucks and have had no problems, but after all of this and the way they are treating their customers I will probly have to go another direction myself unless they change their ways.

 

[LesStallings]

My 04 has been flawless, but when I do buy a new one, the first thing I will do will be improve the fuel filtering system.



I believe that especially now with the "new and improved" diesel fuel, filtering should be better than the 7 micron currently available. Ryan's fuel system filtering arrangement in a new CTD should dramatically extend the life of the fuel system.

 

[chwhit]

My 03' which now has 115550 miles has been flawless. I have been told that ever since they switched from low sulfur to ultra low sulfur fuel, mechanics have been seeing a lot of fuel system problems. The pumps are not getting the proper lubrication with all of the sulfur being filtered out. I now run lucas oil in every tank to lubricate the pumps. Your problem sounds pretty rediculous, I think I would have called cummins by now and gotten a new engine (a lot easier said than done). I know tons of people with 300k+ miles on their cummins and haven't had it in the shop for repairs ever. I hope that you get that worked out buddy.

 

[JJGarrett]

ME TOO!!!!!!!!!



I have an 05, and it has been nothing but trouble. It had injector problems when I bought it; not being familiar with HPCR, I thought it sounded normal. It went so far as Chrysler restricting the warranty on the engine and fuel system. I sued the dealership to recover out of pocket expenses and get the restrictions lifted. Now, it has long, longer-longer cranks, when pulling up to a stop, it surges 3-8 times before settling down to ide (if it doesn't quit altogether). After my first experience, I put a GDP Fleetgaurd secondary filter just about 3000 miles ago. When I installed that extra, I went ahead and changed the factory filter, and everything looked good. Originally, when I had trouble, the dealer said there was a tremendous amount of corrosion and sediment in the filter bowl. Fortunately for me, I was not out of pocket for the first two visits to Dodge. The second resulted in a restricted warranty, or basically none at all. Different story, different day. I can give you my phone# and discuss sorted details. Anyway, the problem has manifested itself differently this time and I hope warranty covers the repairs. Like everyone else, I go to two or three places to buy fuel and use Stanadyne treatment( recommended by the local Cummins repair facility); they all have very high turn-over and I most certainly don't stop when the tanker is there. I feel like Dodge needs to step forward and figure out a cure for 03-06 so that the newly mandated ULSD won't damage the engine. In this day and age, I think an additive or something along those lines should remedy most problems. Maybe I'm wrong. Anyway, enough venting; I want to sit back and listen to the experts, or someone who has had the same trouble as me. I'm still very "virgin" to the Diesel scene. Thanks



JJGarrett,

c130ife

 

[sag2]

I firmly believe that it has more to do with fuel quality and filter maintenance than a "bad" fuel system. As stated above, there are tens of thousands of trucks out there that have hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles. If the CR system was bad, everyone would have trouble. The only trouble I had with my last three trucks was when I got a bad load of fuel in the 06. It was fuel related for sure because the evidence was right there in the filter bowl. If you have corrosion in your system, then you have/had something in the fuel to cause it.

 

[kglenn]

I agree that some of the trucks having problems are not maintained like they should be, but alot of them are properly maintained. We do see some with badly contaminated fuel, we also see alot that are not. The thing is, these people buy these trucks to work with down here. They are not weekend pull the boat to the lake and race someone along the way. They bought them for dependability from the cummins, so when you start trying to tell someone that they need to add more fuel filters and change them every 2500 miles or carry a spare lift pump at all times for your vp44, and be sure to take a fuel sample at the next fill up they don't feel like they got what they was told they were getting. I to have had very good luck with my two trucks (2000 and 2001) but I also spend more money than I should have to to prolong the life of the fuel systems. I'm not bashing our trucks guys, I have had four in all but this latest rash of injector problems I have been seeing and help work on scares me. My point is, we can't get good fuel all the time, we have no control. With proper maintenance these fuel systems should be able to handle REAL LIFE CONDITIONS and it does'nt seem to be that way. Again, I don't mean to bash Dodge trucks, but as an owner and someone who got alot of people to switch over to the cummins I feel they need to step up and take care of a not so tough fuel system.

 

[DDemere]

I've driven a combined total of probably 600,000 miles on other gas vehicles and my '96 12-valve Dodge 2500 and never had a fuel contamination problem. I had a lift pump go out in a '86 Ford Crew Cab with a gas engine, had it changed for about $200 and never another problem. I understand that the new low sulphur diesel could be the problem, but I have never read a notification or been told by the dealer or customer service that we should be adding a fuel additive for improved lubrication with the new fuel. I was told by Justin at Austin Fuel Injection that a fuel additive is necessary with the new fuel. Dodge/Chrysler have really *!/*ed up, they know this, and they are just trying to avoid paying the consequences for their mistakes.