Big 3 Diesel Engine Problems Survey

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Found this on USA Today. Look at lower part of chart for diesels. Left hand column is problem occurances with the diesel model and right hand column compares it to its gas-powered counterpart.



This chart is for the last 3 model years. Dodge Cummins stacks up pretty good



http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2004-07-26-engines.htm#diesel



Vaughn

 

[JDougherty]

kinda wierd how the gmc and chevy have such different figures. they are the same thing!

 

[rbattelle]

Originally posted by JDougherty

kinda wierd how the gmc and chevy have such different figures. they are the same thing!

Very strange, indeed. The GMC and the Dodge were the only models whose diesels had fewer problems than the gassers. I wonder if the Ford numbers represent the 6. 0 or 7. 3? And the VW is awful!!

 

[Crunch]

Originally posted by Vaughn MacKenzie

This chart is for the last 3 model years. Dodge Cummins stacks up pretty good

I wonder if the bulk of the problems with the Fords and Chevys come from bombed vehicles. Kind of funny that Ford had a lot of hard to start complaints. Of course, that could be because there wasn't any "Will not start" option on the survey.



From the looks of that chart, Dodge did phenomenonally well. Strange to see the oil leaks on Dodge cracking the 6% level. I've never seen a drop of oil under my truck that I didn't spill myself. And I'll admit to forgetting to take the pour cap off of my drain pan, which caused about 3 quarts of oil to spill out on the driveway, and myself as I was taking the filter off.

 

[jcarey]

I was surprised about the VW. We have two Jetta TDI's, both 2002's, and 0 problems with them.

 

[JMcDowell]

Originally posted by jcarey

I was surprised about the VW. We have two Jetta TDI's, both 2002's, and 0 problems with them.

2003 jetta tdi no issues. It was a great car with good power and awesome fuel milage.

 

[BoostIsGood]

Chevy and GMC gassers ranked high in "unusual engine noises"



Can you say Piston slap?

 

[klenger]

#ad




Here are the results of the Dodge. Very interesting indeed. Considering how much harder the diesels get worked, I'm not surprised that the numbers for the diesel are higher in some cases.

 

[MKoth]

Re: Re: Big 3 Diesel Engine Problems Survey

Originally posted by Crunch

\ Strange to see the oil leaks on Dodge cracking the 6% level. I've never seen a drop of oil under my truck that I didn't spill myself. And I'll admit to forgetting to take the pour cap off of my drain pan, which caused about 3 quarts of oil to spill out on the driveway, and myself as I was taking the filter off.

Might be putting all the breather bottle spillage as an oil leak.



My engine has a fair share of oil on it, but never loses a drop between changes.

 

[mattymac]

The ford diesel has 0 emssion repair problems and 0 fuel system leaks/problems? Whats up with that? No way this can be the 6. 0 but the copyright is 2004.

 

[nickleinonen]

Originally posted by Crunch

I wonder if the bulk of the problems with the Fords and Chevys come from bombed vehicles. Kind of funny that Ford had a lot of hard to start complaints. Of course, that could be because there wasn't any "Will not start" option on the survey.

take a closer look. 2nd item down the list "won't start at all" 5. 5 for fraud, 3. 9 for gm [0 for gmc ] and 1. 4 for dodge

 

[klenger]

So what if they (Ford 6. 0's) don't start. Other than that they are really nice trucks, and you have lots of room it the crew cab rear seat to stretch out while waiting for the tow truck. Sort of like the old quote: "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

 

[n5ifi]

I was looking at my 02's oil pan today. It looks like it has about 2 million miles on it. Reminds me of an old Detroit. Everything else is clean except for a minor leak in what appears to be the rear main seal. The truck doesn't use a drop of oil between changes so go figure. (oil bottle I guess) I bought the truck with 50,000 miles and it has 72,000 or so now. I have a friend that Hotshots with a 04 6. 0 Ford and he has had zero problems with it. He told me it has not been in the shop one time. Thats better than my truck and I've only had it 22,000 miles. He pulls a 40' goose just like I do and I watched him take off from a stop today with about a 17,000lb load and the truck tint even seem to labor at all. I've read post about the Ford dying when people take off so I watched a listened carefully. Those people must not be able to drive because I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He didn't have to rev the motor at all. Thats a 8500lb trailer with a 17,000lb load. I like the inline cummins much better for a lot of different reasons but the ford does work. I will let the group know the minute he has problems.

 

[mcoleman]

Is it the auto or the stick? I haven't driven a stick equipped Fraud yet that would take off without having to slip the clutch like a gasser and that is running empty. I've even heard that Fraud is not going to offer the 6. 0 with a stick option in 05 because of the driveablity issues. Sounds like he has one of the only good sick. 0s out there. even the diehard fraud owners over at the fraud dieselstop website don't claim to have that kind of luck.

 

[n5ifi]

Source: J. D. Power & Associates' 2004 Vehicle Dependability Study of 2001-model Cars and Trucks



Don't think they were talking about the 6. 0.

 

[rrausch]

Posted by Klenger... "So what if they (Ford 6. 0's) don't start. Other than that they are really nice trucks, and you have lots of room it the crew cab rear seat to stretch out while waiting for the tow truck. Sort of like the old quote: "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?""



Klenger, you crack me up!!

 

[CajunDieselMan]

I agree with JDougherty. I'm far from a diesel expert, but I wonder why there was such a difference between Chevy and GMC trucks--I thought they both shared the Isuzu Duramax? As my stats professor said, the difference is "statistically significant. "

 

[Paychk]

The bottom line might explain which year vehicles are being compared.

 

[Mike Ellis]

These figures are for 'reported' problems, right? If so, it is likely that many of the diesel problems reported by the owners are of the "hey it doesn't sound or act like my old gas engine so it must be broke" variety. In general the diesels have been pretty reliable.



The difference in the Chevy/GMC numbers could be due to the same sort of effect, perhaps one of the buyer demographics is "pickier" than the other. As far as I know there was no difference in the drivetrain config between the two families of pickups.



I really enjoyed one thing in the poll though - the fact that the Ford gasoline engine had the FEWEST reports of problems of any of the vehicles listed. Ha ha ha ha ha! Love to see the imports get fed a dose of humble pie