Cummins E-brake and turbo failure?

[STEVALLA]

I've been a TDR member since '98 and have read and studied info on this site hoping to learn as much as possible. Never thought i had anything to contribute, till now. I'm a 98. 5 3500,4x4, auto. All stock except for addition of E-brake. Used mostly for pleasure and towing 26' sport uttility trailer(9600 lbs loaded). about a month ago the E- brake began giving a high pitched squeal when turned on. Still seemed to have proper braking effect, but ear splitting. Cummins Great Lakes in Wausau, WI sold me the brake so I took it back to them to look at. They analyzed the situation and told me the turbo needed to be replaced. Still under warrenty by dodge who said OK to repairs. Truck seems to run fine accelerates good and has no noises when brake is off. Cummins said the back pressure from the brake was pressing the vanes causing the noise. Technician showed me when turbo was turned upside down,i. e. exhaust up, the vanes did not move freely,said this indicated failure. Question to members is does this sound right? Has anyone ever had a similar problem? suggestions appreciated.

 

[David Oxland]

The endplay on the rotor, normally restricted by a thrust bearing, might have worn a bit allowing the rotor to touch on the compressor or turbine end. If you push the rotor to it's axial extremes while turning by hand and it touches that sounds like the problem. Don't be surprised to find considerable endplay as long as it doesn't touch.



It might never touch until the back pressure occurs. Are you thinking that perhaps the brake caused this?



I suppose that a build up of exhaust or compressor side dirt might be being touched to but would have thought it would have been quickly rubbed off.

 

[Ron Bissett]

Lucky you

Will you get a new brake from them too ? should be covered too. Ron in Louisville KY

 

[bbsher]

May have some good news for you. The first year I

had my 98 1/2 3500 w/24v I drove it a few thousand

miles and decided to put a Pac Brake on it. When

I first started using it I had that squeal, very high pitched like you said. I looked it all over

and tightened gaskets and all but did not change.

Called Pac Brake and asked them. Still no luck.

Couldn't use it because it was so loud. Always

sounded like it was up close to the firewall on

the pass. side. Looked it over several times and

was very unhappy with it when finally one day I

noticed two bolts missing off back end of the

exhaust manifold. One bolt was gone and the other

I found lying on the assembly under the manifold.

These are metric bolts with thick spacers on them

for heat expansion. I don't recall the size.

Anyway I replaced these and that solved my problem.

Hope this is the answer and would like to hear

if it is or not.

 

[Thomas]

Here's the Loose Exhaust Manifold Bolts TSB.

 

[STEVALLA]

Update on my post regarding E-brake and turbo failure. After the Cummins facility had kept me from my truck, they said it was fixed today. They found the exhaust header blowing-by when back pressure was applied by E-brake. Apparently, they cleaned and replaced gasket and bolts and the noise went away. It took them two days to get a new turbo and they told me they didn't use it.

BullS***, they put the new turbo on and it still made noise, i. e. it wasn't the turbo that caused the problem!! So, the looked a little harder and found the correct solution. When I asked about the TSB on exhaust bolts that I had seen mentioned in TDR, all I got was a dumb look. It occured to me later that TSB's were a Dodge thing not Cummins. Any way problem appears to be solved but I'm not too impressed with the expertise of Cummins. Thanks to all who were kind enough to respond to my first post.