D-max forum?

[aphillips]

A buddy of mine lost his head yesterday and bought a new Duramax because of GM employee pricing and no sales tax with D-plate in Illinois. Anyway, is there any website or forum for these trucks? Or do you guys know of any mods that should be done like the vents on the top of our truck's fuel tank?Thanks in advance, Andy

 

[BHolm]

"thedieselpage.com" Like here it is a pay site if you want to post. Having formerly owned two of those trucks and spent a bunch of time there, I can say it is not like this site. It is full of whiners and diesel truck drag racers. Not a whole lot of practical info as they insist the trucks have no faults Just my opinion of course.



His truck will need bigger tires because the 245's look sad, or even worse if its a dually with 215/85's. Of course the rims are only 6. 5" wide so shop for wheels too. It will need shocks to cure the "Buick float", I ran Bilstiens, worked well. Then it will need new mirrors if he has something big to tow as the GM tow mirrors are aweful. Beyond that..... make friends with the dealer service manager. If my experiences are any indication, he will see him often.

 

[TFucili]

rotsa ruck

I hope his so-called Allison works better than the POS I got.



Other than that BHolm is right on the money on all counts above. I can't believe they call them trailer-towing mirrors when you can't see shyt with them.

 

[Buffalo]

Another Duramax website is "dieselplace.com". It's free but, you do have to register to use it. No big deal.

Two of my friends have Duramaxes ('03 & '04). They love them! I've got to admit that they really seem to respond well to fueling upgrades (boxes). The '03 had a Duramaximizer & Duramaximizer Tech 4 and is quick. It gets terrific fuel mileage (25. 5 mpg on the hwy. , sometimes, hand calculated).

The '04 has the Edge Juice/Attitude and runs well, also. Seems to be quick, to me.

You have to be careful with fueling upgrades so as not to compromise the Allison, like with all auto's. The '03 is on its second Allison.

The '04 is never run over the "2 setting" so as not to hurt the Allison. It's pretty fast on the 2 setting and there are 5, altogether. The '04 gets a little over 20 mpg's on highway.

The '04 is, also, having problems with the tow mirrors. Some problem with the gear that extends the mirror, I believe.

The Bilstein's are a good idea, also. Made a big difference on both trucks.



Personally, I think the Duramax/Allison's are better than I had expected them to be, considering GM's previous diesel attempts. There are guys towing professionaly with them and not having any more problems than anyone else. I, also, think GM is taking care of its customers by providing an extended 200,000 mile warranty on the engine. They are, also, making more of an attempt to offer better fuel filteration with a dual element fuel filter (5 or 7 microns, I believe).

Aparently, the GM Employee Discounts are a good deal and they are selling the hell out of them.



I still like my Dodge/Cummins trucks. However, I've been having some injector issues which I'm having a hard time getting DC to take care of. You have to go through a "chain of command" to try to get anything done. I wonder if GM would respond better?



Joe F. (Buffalo)

 

[TFucili]

[ I wonder if GM would respond better?



Joe F. (Buffalo)[/QUOTE]



The answer is an unequivocal NO!! Been there, done that. They ran me around like a loon until I hired a lawyer and went Lemon Law. It worked, but it took quite a while and incredible aggravation. If you think DC has worse customer service than the other guys you are sadly mistaken. I've been around the horn with GM and Ford.

 

[Buffalo]

TFucili.



I'm sorry your experience with GM's service has been lousy.

I was kind of hoping that their service would be better so as to set the bar a little higher for the other auto manufacturers. I was impressed by their willingness to extend the engine warranty to 200,000 miles. I heard they did that to increase GM buyers confidence in the Duramax engine & lessen the likelyhood of customers, with higher mileage engines, getting hit with expensive repair bills. The rumor I heard is that the injectors on the earlier LB-7 Duramaxes are buried in the engine and it takes 18 hours of labor, plus the cost of the injectors, to replace them. Could be a very expensive bill. And that is one of the reasons for the extended warranty.



I still like my Dodge/Cummins combo. I believe it to be the strongest/best engine available and that is why I bought my '91. 5 & '03. If I could get my injector issue fixed, I'd be happy as a clam! (Anyone know how happy clam's are?).



Joe F. (Buffalo)

 

[gsbrockman]

I, also, think GM is taking care of its customers by providing an extended 200,000 mile warranty on the engine.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but only the injectors are covered thru 200k.

Greg

 

[BHolm]

That is correct, it is an extended warranty on the injectors. They have rampant failure rates. A poll on the board showed nearly 20% had failed injectors. On those trucks they do all 8 at once, knowing full well the rest will go too. I also had to around and around with GM customer service on my '03. They are really bad, DC is slightly better. Unless they have changed the fuel filter it is 10 micron just like ours. Lots of guys adding extra filtration though, it is a very popular mod to try and get the injectors to live longer.



None of the trucks are perfect but I got burned twice on d-max trucks. The Allison was partially the issue on my '01 and the main issue on my '03, both trucks were dead stock except tire size. I do not believe that they get over 20 mpg EVER. My '03 averaged 13-14 in mixed driving. My '05 CTD averages 17-18 for the same driving. Anyone who thinks a GM truck makes a better work rig than the Dodge needs their head examined. I have run them side by side and none of my drivers wanted to drive the chevy with a load on. They chose the old 7. 3 Ford over the d-max, and certainly liked the '03 CTD's the best. The GM trucks are really nice 4wd cars, thats about where it ends for me

 

[Morse]

I've had them all as well. . The 7. 3 Ford does pull better than the dmax in my opinion. . The dmax flies unloaded, though it dies with a load on. . To be honest, it's not even a comparison. . The dmax was awesome unloaded and mine ran 13's with programming. . It doesn't have a heavy truck like feel. . Not saying that's bad, it's just different. . It got as good as 19 mpg empty, though it dropped down to around 10 with 11,000 pounds behind it. I liked the stock allison much more than the 48RE. . My ford felt bulletproof. . Could be because it wasn't overly powerful. . The interior materials quality are better in the Ford and Chevy than the Dodge (seats, carpet). . I put my dmax in a truck pull and broke both cv joints, tie rods, etc... . It was bad. . Tires wrapped in front of the truck and I pushed over them. . The crowd cheered. . I could feel my wallet lighten. . God bless the straight axle. . I drive a cummins. . Two of 'em. .

 

[Morse]

I recommend thedieselplace.com ... ... . It's informative, and the guys like to race and pull. . Good group...

 

[DPKetchum]

There ALL THE SAME. You could take G/M. s customer service,Fords,D. C. and at a lunch hour send them all back to differant buildings and manufactures and they wouldn't lose 15 minutes to get started up and working.

 

[RonsRig]

I heard from a local vendor that after market fuel pump/filtration options the FASS are popular. I was told by a Dmax owner that there was no lift/transfer/fuel pump on the Dmax and a lift pump really wakes up the Dmax.