Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Have read a number of the issues cited by other members and some of them seem to address parts of what I am experiencing with my truck but then agian maybe, not so much.
Have a 2002, 2500 auto 4X4 extended cab. Bought it 104k now has 109K. Bought the truck in FL pulled a boat weighing 6800 lbs from there to Alaska and had this problem the entire trip. The truck is equiped with a quadzilla programer called the xzileraider which I know nothing about as it did not come with any sort of literature of how to use it. Be that as it may, I ran through the different settings on it during the 9 day trip and could not see that it made any difference in the performance of the engine, fuel economy or the problem I will here-in detail. No matter what I did to this thing, nothing changed.
I really believe I may have more than one problem here. In order to give as much info as I can I will separate what I believe might be two or three of the problems.
When the vehicle was operated in Florida, after starting the engine it would cycle the alternator for a short period as the engine was warming up. I took this to be some sort of normal warming program the engine was going through. Possibly running glow plugs, heating fuel, or some other draw on the electrical system to assist the engine in coming up to operating temperature. When I got to Great Falls MT and spent the night the temp went down into the low thirties. When I started the truck it sounded as though it was running on four cylinders, I was getting quit a large concentration of unburned atomized fuel fromt the exhaust and the engine was ofcourse running very rough. This continued without change for several minutes. I finally recoginzed I was not getting the surging of fan speed or dimming of the dash lights I had been normally getting when I had started it in Fl. I increased the engine speed to no avail, I got more unburned fuel with no increase in engine performance, (still ran very rough even though engine RPM would come up to about 3K but no higher. After a couple of throttle migration attempts I shut the engine down and restarted allowing for the "WAIT" light to go out as I had previously. Same thing happened, still had the same symptoms. I shut it down again after running a few more minutes under these conditions observing all the indications I had visibility of. I never got a service engine light at any time while any of this was going on.
After going through the start cycle for the third time I noticed I was getting the cycling of the electrical system. The truck was running better and I was not getting nearly so much unburned fuel. The truck was allowed to warm up and the triip was continued.
After getting to Alaska, I have had this same problem twice with only having used the truck about five times. It doesnot seem to this other than when it is rather cool.
Recently I have had a problem with the truck stalling when shifted. It might be when going from forward to reverse or visa versa. Again, no service engine lights no indications of anything what so-ever, the engine just dies. You turn it off it starts right back up. It might do this a couple of times or it might only do it once. No pattern that I can detect.
Now the accellerator. This is much more complicated. But I will try to be brief here. It seems to operate fine in cruise metering more fuel as needed or decreasing fuel flow to maintain speeds when descended. But even in cruise it will do it on occasion. In manual speed control and any demand for an increase will generally be ignored. The engine speed with stay the same or be reduced because of the increase in drag you were trying to compensate for. Engine rpm will not be responsive to the throttle position other than to go to idle, if you allow the engine to wind down to idle or near idle and then accellerate it will accellerate normally, (as though nothing had happened), until something requires you change the throttle setting again. In other words you get up to the speed you want, back off the throttle to maintain that speed and then need more power again. The whole thing starts over again and again and again. Still no service engine lites no response to throttle position, With the rare accepttion that sometimes when you hold the peddle to the floor the transmission will down shift and the fuel will be increased accordingly to speed up the engine to the throttle setting. I have changed the fuel fuel filter. OH! there seems to have been added some sort of fuel filter indicator light on the dash. it is a very small red light bulb that the dealer tells me is not OEM. IT has no data or reference information about it. During the trip I noticed it would flicker when going up hill or any time there was an increase in vacuum and or demand for fuel so I changed the fuel filter and it has never flickered since. But my problem with the accelerator never changed. And the fuel filter did appear to be quite soiled.
Don't want to wish anything on anyone but I sure do hope I am not the first one with this problem. If I had to guess, I would say there is something going on between the throttle position transmitter and the ECU or injector pump. They seem to get out of synch with each other. With the foot off the accelerator and the engine rpm comes down to match the position of the throttle, things seem to get back in synch and you can accellerate normally. When something changes they get out of synch again.
Have a 2002, 2500 auto 4X4 extended cab. Bought it 104k now has 109K. Bought the truck in FL pulled a boat weighing 6800 lbs from there to Alaska and had this problem the entire trip. The truck is equiped with a quadzilla programer called the xzileraider which I know nothing about as it did not come with any sort of literature of how to use it. Be that as it may, I ran through the different settings on it during the 9 day trip and could not see that it made any difference in the performance of the engine, fuel economy or the problem I will here-in detail. No matter what I did to this thing, nothing changed.
I really believe I may have more than one problem here. In order to give as much info as I can I will separate what I believe might be two or three of the problems.
When the vehicle was operated in Florida, after starting the engine it would cycle the alternator for a short period as the engine was warming up. I took this to be some sort of normal warming program the engine was going through. Possibly running glow plugs, heating fuel, or some other draw on the electrical system to assist the engine in coming up to operating temperature. When I got to Great Falls MT and spent the night the temp went down into the low thirties. When I started the truck it sounded as though it was running on four cylinders, I was getting quit a large concentration of unburned atomized fuel fromt the exhaust and the engine was ofcourse running very rough. This continued without change for several minutes. I finally recoginzed I was not getting the surging of fan speed or dimming of the dash lights I had been normally getting when I had started it in Fl. I increased the engine speed to no avail, I got more unburned fuel with no increase in engine performance, (still ran very rough even though engine RPM would come up to about 3K but no higher. After a couple of throttle migration attempts I shut the engine down and restarted allowing for the "WAIT" light to go out as I had previously. Same thing happened, still had the same symptoms. I shut it down again after running a few more minutes under these conditions observing all the indications I had visibility of. I never got a service engine light at any time while any of this was going on.
After going through the start cycle for the third time I noticed I was getting the cycling of the electrical system. The truck was running better and I was not getting nearly so much unburned fuel. The truck was allowed to warm up and the triip was continued.
After getting to Alaska, I have had this same problem twice with only having used the truck about five times. It doesnot seem to this other than when it is rather cool.
Recently I have had a problem with the truck stalling when shifted. It might be when going from forward to reverse or visa versa. Again, no service engine lights no indications of anything what so-ever, the engine just dies. You turn it off it starts right back up. It might do this a couple of times or it might only do it once. No pattern that I can detect.
Now the accellerator. This is much more complicated. But I will try to be brief here. It seems to operate fine in cruise metering more fuel as needed or decreasing fuel flow to maintain speeds when descended. But even in cruise it will do it on occasion. In manual speed control and any demand for an increase will generally be ignored. The engine speed with stay the same or be reduced because of the increase in drag you were trying to compensate for. Engine rpm will not be responsive to the throttle position other than to go to idle, if you allow the engine to wind down to idle or near idle and then accellerate it will accellerate normally, (as though nothing had happened), until something requires you change the throttle setting again. In other words you get up to the speed you want, back off the throttle to maintain that speed and then need more power again. The whole thing starts over again and again and again. Still no service engine lites no response to throttle position, With the rare accepttion that sometimes when you hold the peddle to the floor the transmission will down shift and the fuel will be increased accordingly to speed up the engine to the throttle setting. I have changed the fuel fuel filter. OH! there seems to have been added some sort of fuel filter indicator light on the dash. it is a very small red light bulb that the dealer tells me is not OEM. IT has no data or reference information about it. During the trip I noticed it would flicker when going up hill or any time there was an increase in vacuum and or demand for fuel so I changed the fuel filter and it has never flickered since. But my problem with the accelerator never changed. And the fuel filter did appear to be quite soiled.
Don't want to wish anything on anyone but I sure do hope I am not the first one with this problem. If I had to guess, I would say there is something going on between the throttle position transmitter and the ECU or injector pump. They seem to get out of synch with each other. With the foot off the accelerator and the engine rpm comes down to match the position of the throttle, things seem to get back in synch and you can accellerate normally. When something changes they get out of synch again.
Last edited:
