duramax problems

[Foil Freak 1211]

The Chevy trucks have nicer interiors.

I agree...



















If you are comparing it to a first gen Dodge.

 

[Cowpunk]

Hey I had an 03' chevy and it was awesome! For a minuet. by 21k the entire truck was falling apart. The interior could be deassembled by the passenger. (trust me I had friends do it. ) Also the brains at GM put the cheapest gaskets they could in all areas of the dmax. Under heat and pressure they just crumble away.

 

[MHorne]

wow this post really took off. Thanks for all the input even on just chevy in general. But one thing in their defense that i love about them is their warranties and service deparment. My buddy took his chevy car in and left, well they called him about 2 hours later telling him "hey do you want a rental, your warranty covers it. " i can't evrn get dodge to give me a rental cause i have had my truck in there for the same problem 3 times now. How screwed up is that.



Yes i do not like the chevy inteirors either. I hear the electrical system sucks.

And oh yeah her uncle makes it sound just so simple to make that d-max run 10's. It may be possible but i know it ain't going to be simple.



anyway thanks for all this valuable information guys its really going to help.

 

[master1578]

But Hey, he says my cummins is too noisy...

I hope you told him "Thats because it's still running!"



:-laf :-laf :-laf



Just tell them you bought the Cummins so you could go pick up parts for them...

 

[MRosinski]

Their interiors remind me of our POS chevy box truck. For some reason the only way it moves alot of times is because of cummins power and a trailer :-laf I cant tell you how many times my boss picked me up, went back to get my truck and trailer and then go to the job site and finish the job w/the truck on the trailer(need the tools that are in the POS) Oh yea, the 2002 wt has almost the identical interior to my old 94'

 

[MMiller]

I agree...



















If you are comparing it to a first gen Dodge.

Hey whats wrong with my first gen?? :-laf



I rode in a new duramax 4X4 completely stock crew short bed. I was expecting a real nice comfortable car ride. I was suprised to find it was not that great. Now I'm a first genner owner, and when a brand new truck ride does not impress me, it ain't that great.



Just tell the family members, that you were looking out for their best intrest. You bought a real truck that will be able to show up and rescue them, when they have trouble.



Michael

 

[OKish]

Hey whats wrong with my first gen?? :-laf



I rode in a new duramax 4X4 completely stock crew short bed. I was expecting a real nice comfortable car ride. I was suprised to find it was not that great. Now I'm a first genner owner, and when a brand new truck ride does not impress me, it ain't that great.



Just tell the family members, that you were looking out for their best intrest. You bought a real truck that will be able to show up and rescue them, when they have trouble.



Michael

yea, oof. i thought my 89 rode bad. took a ride in my neighbors 05 ford powerstroke, it was rougher than my 1st gen. oh btw, his truck is in the shop. :-laf

 

[LOtero]

just heard from our diesel tech here saying that the city trucks are running

biodiesel now and are all choked up. they are plugging injectors and filters.

so maybe not a good idea to run bio.

 

[MMiller]

just heard from our diesel tech here saying that the city trucks are running

biodiesel now and are all choked up. they are plugging injectors and filters.

so maybe not a good idea to run bio.

Hmm, this is a little off topic. Bio always cleans out crap in the tank, putting it in the filters. After a while of changing filters, they will run fine, in my experiance. If the filters were good, it wouldn't be ending up in the injectors.



Michael

 

[PKitzman]

The Chebys are also having problems with EGR valves failing on them every 5 -10 K miles. I guess it is pretty standard to run with the check engine light on because the EGR valve is always messing up. It also takes about three weeks to get a new one through the dealer because they are going through them like water.

 

[Yo Hoot]

Duramax is not durable

From personal experience and from spending years owning and reading, posting.



On the dieselplace site if you go to first generation forum take notice they are losing headgaskets and injector failures are very common.



Early on they (we) swore headgaskets would not be an issue but low and behold the first trucks out there seem to be showing an abnormal jump in headgasket failure.



I owned a 2001 GMC Duramax for 3 years and about 70,000 miles.



It was a very nice truck... . overall. But for the long haul I would not touch one. Forget buying a used one because of the chance you are taking that someone beat it to death or it having had or has major issues.



My truck would defuel under load... dealer could never fix it. It would fall on it's face pulling a trailer up a hill (Stock). Kept getting an overboost code and MAF sensor code.



At 50,000 or so it started puking coolant. Had head gaskets replaced.



The Allison is a tough transmission but not too tough. Put a 80hp extra on it and it goes into LIMP mode... . I learned that one too.



There is a bandwagon of old time Dmax supporters on the GM sites that are now seeing or have experienced some of the same things I have.



I traded mine in two years ago on my 04 Dodge Cummins. Even if the 48RE transmission isn't proven, I can tell you first hand it NEVER limps. The engine NEVER defuels. No running quirks at all.



My big beef with the Dmax/Ally combination is the "NEW" diesel technology that uses the customers as guinea pigs.



To top it off the biggest Dmax issue of all is injector failure. If you plan on owning one to 100,000 or more miles you can plan on it. The bad part is many had replacements multiple times at low miles.



It's really ashamed cause it's sweet running engine and a really well designed transmission.



Finally, the high performance guys are exploding blocks. 600-700hp is about where the block begins stressing. GM acknowledged it. It even showed up in the early load testing years ago. They have sinced beefed up the block in 2006 but that has not be put to the real test yet.



I have been running TST for quite some time on my Dodge. Almost 40,000 miles and she takes a good whippin without hiccups. I sometines run on the higher settings. Even now I'm set on 8/5 but I don't thrash the crap out of it and I don't powerbrake it.



My Dodge has been good to me. Much better than the GMC was with similar abuse.

 

[WTBurke]

I have to chime in here.

I love my 1990 Chevy 1/2 ton Z-71 it's been faithful for 16 years @ 171,000 miles. The fit and finish of the body and interior is way better than my Dodge product. This is where it ends... I Love my GM gasser product.



Now for the D-Max, I'm an avid electronic communication enthusiast (no not CB) and I'm very pleased with my Cummins because it's DEAD QUIET! I mean "electronically". My fellow Amateur Radio operators who operate HF (3. 5 to 21 MHz) are miserable and regret their choice of the GM D-Max product. The fuel injection system tears everything to pieces from DC to nearly daylight and GM has NO FIX FOR THIS! I guess the military won't be using this platform due to the GROSS NEGLIGENCE in SPECTRAL PURITY!



I am extremely pleased with my Cummins platform for many reasons including the "clean" RF transparency. For all the "dumb" stuff Dodge has done I would bless my misfortunes compared to the GM D-Max and the Ford stepchild goofball.

 

[GIT-R-DONE]

A friend of mine in his Duramax and I in my Cummins , pulling similar size campers, up a looong hill coming back from Harrisburg. I lost him half way up the hill, and at the top of the hill I call back to him on the radio and tell him there was a cop at the top shooting us with radar. He hollers back to me, "I dont have to worry about that, he was only at 45mph". I was at 60.



I tried telling him before he bought it..... some people dont learn.

 

[litespeed]

The Chebys are also having problems with EGR valves failing on them every 5 -10 K miles. I guess it is pretty standard to run with the check engine light on because the EGR valve is always messing up. It also takes about three weeks to get a new one through the dealer because they are going through them like water.

That damn EGR system is not cheap either!



This sounds like the same problem they had when the injector problems started popping up. The one I had was in the shop for months (back in 2003). Supposedly waiting for injectors that they could not get (backordered)? They were having a massive problem with the injectors. Problem was the wait was just too long and then there was the possibility of another problem. After the newer injectors were installed the warranty was extened (on the injectors). Too little too late for me... ... .



Sold the damn thing... ... . Never going back. What good is a truck if you cannot use it?



Also... ..... I have to disagree with GM's customer service. But then again... I think the're all bad in that respect.



On another note... ... ... I'm sure there are a few guys who had a Dodge Cummins, had a VP 44 and LP die, went to the Duramax with no problems and are happy as little clams bashing the Dodge on another forum... . :-{}

 

[Rebel Ram]

On another note... ... ... I'm sure there are a few guys who had a Dodge Cummins, had a VP 44 and LP die, went to the Duramax with no problems and are happy as little clams bashing the Dodge on another forum... . :-{}

I would (and have) gladly pony up $1100 for a new VP and $600. for a FASS rather than 8 injectors @ ? $s. Since the new 44 and pump my truck has been flawless and I push it hard.

 

[JUeckert]

you make a good point about them injectors being being a little more expensive than the vp44. but at least gm extended the warranty on them,heck they even extended the warranty on the old eletronic 6. 5 injector pumps when it showed it's problemed self. what i have read,seen with dodge on it's vp44 and lift pump issues,they never admitted a problem,much less extended any warranties.

 

[litespeed]

I would (and have) gladly pony up $1100 for a new VP and $600. for a FASS rather than 8 injectors @ ? $s. Since the new 44 and pump my truck has been flawless and I push it hard.

You got that right... ...



You see what I am driving.....



I'll be driving this truck for a long time regardless of the stupid little problems (steering, interior, LP's, VP's, etc... . ).



I went through the 6. 5 Chevy fiasco too (before the Duramax). Enough was enough for me. It was a matter of going from bad (6. 5) to worse (d'max) for me.



Its a shame too. When those trucks were running. They ran damn good.





But... .

 

[COBRAJET]

I have 17 "field engineers" that work for me... 12 are in diesel trucks. We do not haul a lot... 500lbs or so under bed covers. We all drive 50-65K miles a year. Four of the trucks are Dmax's. One is an 02... around 170K... . injectors replaced twice, once at 20K and again at 70K with an udgraded design. Both times the crankcase was filled with fuel. No engine problems since. It is a 4X2 and honestly gets around 20-21 all day on the freeway. Two are 03's with over 100K... no engine issues. Both 2500 4X4 crewcabs. Both get 18-19 and have a steady diet of front hubs. They cannot go more than 50-60K on a hub. One has had both replaced twice and the right 3 times. The other truck. . both twice. There is a problem here. All three of these have had constant emergency brake issues... falls apart or quits working due to dragging all the time. The 02 sounds different... almost a fuel cackling sound like the 7. 3PSD's had for a while.



The last is a brand spanking new 06 with the good motor and 6 speed auto. Nice truck with good power... not near my cup of tea. I can not stand the way the 4X4's sit or the front seats which seem to be made for a midget or a LADY. My arms hang off my side until they finally reach the armrests.

 

[BSwope]

My Step dad is a Chevy freak and am surrouned by Chevy fans, even the whole way through high school i was the only dude with a DODGE and u know what I LOVED EVERY MINET OF IT AND I STILL AM!!!!! Wouldnt trade my DODGE for the world! CUMMINS INLINE 6 ALL THE WAY!!!

 

[scalpel06]

Well, i had both and i have to say, motor to motor power is about the same but the duramax will outpull the cummins because of the auto transmission. But i still like my dodge alot better because its more of a truck, rides better, got a growl from the factory, easier to work on. It does seem like the duramax engine was a little smoother and the transmission was very nice with the tow haul.