Normal cold start?

[rbattelle]

What really burns me is the **** poor attitude the dealer/service dept displays when you bring your truck in for a problem. It's like they don't believe anything you say or treat you like you don't know sh&t & just try to get rid of you.

This is quite true. There are some fine dealer/service reps on this board, but if you don't live near one you're in trouble.



Are there any statistics anywhere on failure rates of aftermarket common rail injectors? I ask because I wonder if those who experience a failure might achieve better results from replacing with aftermarket injectors. Or, it seems like Bosch has a complete monopoly in this country on common rail injectors... perhaps one day if diesel popularity grows with the American public we'll see some competition come into play and we'll get better injectors. Of course, that could take a LONG time.



-Ryan

 

[roperteacher]

The reason I clicked on this thread is because I am beginning to experience what some have said on here. This morning I cold started after a night time low of about 20-23 degrees. I am not sure I even let the wait to start lite go all the way off. Truck fired right up and ran rough for ONLY about 5 sec. One small puff of white smoke, then off we went like a charm. From what I gather on this thread my little puff and Little rough appear to be normal???

 

[macdaddy]

I agree wit welsh. My 05 will do this from time to time here in so Ca with 70 degree temps it quits right away and she runs as smooth as ever. I'm not worried about it at all.



05 3500 4X4 Laramie 325/610 DRW 6 spd 4:10's she came in on 10/30/04.

Sold 99 3500 4X4 SLT Laramie DRW ATS trans w/VB TC Comander Auto meter Edge AFE and a 53. :{

 

[nickleinonen]

well, when i went outside to leave from work this morning [gotta love midnights ] the temp gauge on the center console showed 4°f and the truck started up pretty well. the grids were on for like 30 sec before the light went out. the engine started up right to 1000rpm and idled a little rough [grids loading up] and lots of blue smoke... and that smoke was solid for about 10min, and after that you only saw it when you loaded the engine [throttling up after shifting] i've got a 30 drive to work, and the temp gauge didn't move off minimum for the first 15-20min and the engine didn't even get up to full operating temp... suppose to be like -5°f in the morning... should be ok starting, but i wish i had heated seats [got block heater on at home, but can't plug it in at work]

 

[AMink]

Thank you ! After lurking here on the forums since August, I have heard that many drivers with the auto transmission wanted a flash to allow their engines to run a little higher RPM when cold. I hadnt heard or read that the manual transmission had this feature. Do you know if it will do it at warmer temperatures also? I just picked up my truck in late November, so now I will need to wait until June :-laf until it warms up enough to test. Its either that or move back to Santa Cruz, California... .....

I think I'd wait til June! My '97 says on the visor to run up to 1000rpm on cool to cold starts. I start it, wait for the pressure to come up, then take it up to 1000 for a few seconds. It always idles smoothly after that. HOWEVER- You don't want to be pulling out into traffic for a few minutes. The turbo spools very slowly when cold and it takes a pretty good punch to get moving.

 

[mikepvg]

Boy, thats a good question.

What are the statitics regarding injector failure? Seems like a lot of people having the same problem.



It also seems the DMax guys are having similiar issues/problems.



AND are there any superior aftermarket injectors available to solve this?

 

[DGFoster]

Yesterday it was 0 outside,truck was not plugged in,started right up,very little stumble and no white smoke,just the normal steam,I was very happy.

This morning,-5 outside,truck plugged in and same result,fired right up. .



Still Happy

 

[BHolm]

The only stats on the web that I know of are on the "Diesel Page" Duramax site I used to frequent as a D-Max ownwer. They have a poll up that now has 300+ responses. Those with injector failures are at a solid 20% of respondants. 90% of those responding have less than 75k miles and 65% have completely stock trucks.



That is one in five guys, not too good. That is also on a site like this where many take better than average care of the trucks. It is a big enough problem that GM issued extended warranty certificates to owners of '01-'02 trucks that covers injectors for 7 years or 200k miles. that tells me that the problem is very real. They are still seeing problems in the '04s over there so even the supposedly "improved" versions fitted to '03 and newer trucks are still failing.



I have never heard anyone mention another vendor for injectors and the replacements on the GM trucks are around $800 each The problem is big enough that there is often a 1-2 week wait for parts, that sounds about what CTD owners are finding as well.



Seems pretty widespread, and it has been going on for years without resolution. I wish I had some good news. I hope the Cummins engines do not suffer the same fate as the D-max. So far, the CTD seems much less prone to failure but we also have fewer units on the road right now with these injectors.

 

[nickleinonen]

well, it was -15°f this morning leaving from work and my truck started ok i guess... boy did she crank over a little slow until she fired, then was louder than normal [not quite as loud as a 24v vp44 one, but close]. . so cold, i pushed the clutch in to start, and i came up on the clutch pretty quickly and everything was so stiff, it came up slower than my foot. [and was REALLY heavy to use]



i had it running for 2 hours on the way home [idling like 45 min at work while i boosted other peoples cars and got them running with some joy juice and dropped one guy home cause his pos ford probe wouldn't start at all] and the temp gauge moved about 1/4" off the low end mark...



i hate cold weather...

 

[rbattelle]

i hate cold weather...

Me too, but you got it WAY worse than me. Started mine after work today it was +15. Cranked SLOW, but fired right up (then ran like a washing machine full of rocks) at 1000 RPM.



Nick, are you running 15w-40?



-Ryan

 

[Scooby]

I started mine up this morning (15 degrees) and it cranked a little slow and then came alive... the motor ran really rough and coughed a bunch of white and black smoke. Idled really rough (felt like a cylinder wasn't firing) and then smoothed out after 10-20 seconds.



Other than the REALLY rough idle at the beginning there (and all the smoke), it smoothed out and ran well a few minutes later. When the motor warms up, I think it runs better in the cold air.

 

[nickleinonen]

Nick, are you running 15w-40?

nope, i've got petrocanada duron 5w40 cracked-synthetic in there... will probably go to rotella 5w40 next time unless i can get my hands on some delvac1/M1 truck&suv.