I need serious help diagnosing a problem with my 03 2500.

[RobAZ]

I am a new member here and would like top say this is an awesome site and that I'm glad I found it. Now on to my problem. I have an 03 2500 Ram... I bought it new and it has about 110,000 miles on it. Since last summer I have been having a problem with it hesitating from take off. To be more specific, if I'm sitting at a light and press the accelerator the truck kind of shakes and holds back and then will take off, after putting out a big plume of black smoke. If I lightly press the pedal it seems to lessen the hesitation a bit and it does this hesitation on and off, and seems to be worse when the A/C is on and during warm weather. I can feel the hesitation while driving if I back off the pedal and then step on it again, but not as bad. It has done this in drive and reverse. I have had it in to 2 dealers and they cannot find the problem( no codes and all gauges read normal). The have flushed the transmission, flashed the software and more recently replaced the lift pump with an in tank replacement. I have tried injector cleaner, and other diesel additives and nothing works, I am baffled! It is driving me nuts. Does anyone have any ideas on what the malfunction is?

 

[jkoplin]

Hey man, Sorry you are having problems. I may have some help. You may not like it. I had an 02. It had a lot of problems with the lift pumps going bad. This was just before they came up with a in tank fix. I bought a whole new truck to fix the problem. Anyway, If your lift pump was bad or going bad you would not know it unless you hooked a gauge to the test port or you injector pump goes bad. And if your lift pump went bad and you drove it until your lift pump was fixed, your injector pump is almost definitely damaged. I had a lifter pump go bad, then 3 months later the injector pump went bad. This happened 3 more times between 45,000 and 98,000 miles By the second time, I would plead with the dealer to replace the injector pump too because I knew it was fatally worn from the bad lifter pump. They would say "we can't replace it till its broke" And sure enough a month or two later the injector pump would go. The cycle went on like that till I got a new 05. In fact the dealer took good care of me by paying off the loan on my truck and giving me a smoking deal on a new one. Any way, have the injector pump looked at. It is probably bad. You can have them rebuilt and there is a company called blue chip diesel on the web that specializes in upgraded injector pumps.
With all the electronics in these new trucks I was baffled that there was no code thrown for low pressure from the lift pump. The dealer said " well its only a $150 pump" I said well it feeds a $2300 pump" dumb******.

 

[MMeier]

I am a new member here and would like top say this is an awesome site and that I'm glad I found it. Now on to my problem. I have an 03 2500 Ram... I bought it new and it has about 110,000 miles on it. Since last summer I have been having a problem with it hesitating from take off. To be more specific, if I'm sitting at a light and press the accelerator the truck kind of shakes and holds back and then will take off, after putting out a big plume of black smoke. If I lightly press the pedal it seems to lessen the hesitation a bit and it does this hesitation on and off, and seems to be worse when the A/C is on and during warm weather. I can feel the hesitation while driving if I back off the pedal and then step on it again, but not as bad. It has done this in drive and reverse. I have had it in to 2 dealers and they cannot find the problem( no codes and all gauges read normal). The have flushed the transmission, flashed the software and more recently replaced the lift pump with an in tank replacement. I have tried injector cleaner, and other diesel additives and nothing works, I am baffled! It is driving me nuts. Does anyone have any ideas on what the malfunction is?

Might be worth your time to swap out the $100 FCA... ( fuel control actuator).

 

[Pawpaw]

My truck has been doing the exact same thing. I've been thinking about doing the FCA mod to see if that fixes it.



Relentless Diesel.com :: View topic - CP3 Modifications you can do yourself!



Bob

 

[wcjp]

Hope this helps.

 

[RobAZ]

I will talk to the dealer about the injector pump. Is it possible that it could be a bad injector or an air intake problem or even a transmission problem like a sticky valve or bad sensor? How do you test an injector pump?

 

[Pawpaw]

I will talk to the dealer about the injector pump. Is it possible that it could be a bad injector or an air intake problem or even a transmission problem like a sticky valve or bad sensor? How do you test an injector pump?

We don't really have an "injection pump", in the traditional sense of the term. Instead, we have the CP3 which is a high-pressure fuel pump. It provides full pressure to the rail and the computer fires the injectors.



Now, having said that... I don't understand exactly how the FCA would cause this problem, but apparently it can.



Bob

 

[RobAZ]

I talked to the dealer and they suggested getting a valve adjustment because they said that may be the cause of the trouble. They also said that they tested the FCA when the new lift pump was put in and it was fine. Then they suggested a complete transmission flush. They said that they only did a pan drop not a complete flush last time. Would an out of adjustment valve cause this?

 

[MMeier]

You have changed your fuel and air filters recently, correct? Sounds like you have a "typical" dealer there, I would steer way clear of them!

 

[JEstes]

Yeah, I would stear clear of that dealer... A transmission flush isn't going to cure a smoking engine. That's like saying you can treat a sprained ankle by putting ice on your elbow... .



BTW, the valve adjustment might not be a bad idea since Cummins reccomends doing it at 100,000 anyway. I doubt a valve adjustment will solve an intermittant problem, but it might.

 

[DPKetchum]

Its more like at 150k.

 

[JHardwick]

Anyway, If your lift pump was bad or going bad you would not know it unless you hooked a gauge to the test port or you injector pump goes bad. And if your lift pump went bad and you drove it until your lift pump was fixed, your injector pump is almost definitely damaged.

I don't believe that the CP3 is vulnerable like the VP44 was in this regard.



I know that thay said they "tested" the FCA, but that's where my vote goes.

 

[Foot]

Did you dealers check the crank position sensor and cam position sensors? My truck had a bad crank position sensor and had symptoms to what you described (e. g. stumblimg) for quite a while before throwing any codes. My crank position sensor was probably working intermittently before going south. Somehow my dealer was able to reprogram the ECM to ignore the crank position sensor input until they got a new one and put it in my truck.

 

[RDyson]

I also replaced the FCA after reading that SteveD had good luck with that. My idle smoothed out, seems to start easier also. I took my old one apart but it looked good.

It is cheaper from a Cummins dealer than from Dodge. I would give that a try.



Randy

 

[RobAZ]

If there is a leak in the fuel system that allows air in... like maybe in the rail or near the injectors could that cause this stumble or hesitation? I noticed on the rail side of the engine I have a leak very small but none the less a leak. It appears to be from the rail. I'm gonna clean it off and monitor it to find its location.

 

[JHardwick]

If there is a leak in the fuel system that allows air in... like maybe in the rail or near the injectors could that cause this stumble or hesitation? I noticed on the rail side of the engine I have a leak very small but none the less a leak. It appears to be from the rail. I'm gonna clean it off and monitor it to find its location.

If you had a leak at the rail, that 26,000psi of diesel fuel would drill a hole in your hood :-laf