Report: Another Troublesome 6.7 Engine

[EB]

Is it possible the dealership(s) is flashing the incorrect software? I know this happened to a member on this site when he had an issue with his C&C. They flashed in an update for the regular(nonC&C) trucks and it caused quite a list of issues.

There should be an old thread somewhere on TDR about this.

That was me. I did have a problem with the wrong flash, or a flash put in wrong. To my knowledge there has only been one flash for the C&C that has to do with those problems. All TSB's can be found on this site, TSB Index Page for DR 2007 Ram Truck All Engines-All Groups I believe that it is pretty up to date. The TSB 18-009-07B is the only flash that has to do with engine performance on the C&C that I am aware of, and, once a flash has been done, it can't be done again. (sag2, can you confirm or disagree with that?) Since that problem, which was actually a throttle control valve that failed and the tech was guessing at the problem and put a flash on it, I've had no problems at all. I went over 108,000 miles yesterday, no problems.

 

[FATCAT]

FATCAT,



Since I wrote the post that caused you to worry let me add a comment or two to the issue. First, I've decided to let my order stand and take the truck when it arrives. I trust Dodge and Cummins not to build perfect engines and trucks but to build good ones and try their best to make the new ones as good as the older 5. 9 ISBs. I guess I'm going to do what I've laughed at Ford owners for doing. I'm going to remain loyal.



Second, since you've already put your $500 deposit down and would lose it if you cancel I would suggest sitting on the sidelines and reading the TDR reports by owners of the new trucks up until the day your dealer calls to tell you your truck is in. That may be two or three months. A lot could change. If you still have doubts you could refuse to buy it then. You'd still only lose your $500.



Harvey

Well, I am going to stick with my purchase, BUT!!! I am keeping my 1997 just in case ... "FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS YOU CAN TAKE MY '97 AND NOT A MOMENT SOONER!!!". I am thinking on pre-buying my dump body (before any more major steel price increases), where my upfitter will have it waiting for the new truck.



One thing I know is that the dealership I am buying the truck from has two excellent diesel machanics and are both Dodge Cummins owners. So, I have to have faith. Anyway, I need to purchase this year, my Jetta should have no problems lasting till the truck is paid off at which time it will be time for another little tin can car purchase (this time a used Civic, Corolla, or little Ford). Don't get me wrong I love my TDI Jetta, but they are just too expensive USED to buy these days.

 

[Larry Willard]

Harvey and others, I talked to John Holmes about a month ago and he said that most of the problems had tapered off with the '08 trucks. I only have 1000 miles on mine so far, and use it the way everyone warns about, you know 5 miles to work each day and have been on the highway only 3 times for about 100 miles each trip, I do always keep it plugged in any time the temps are below 40, which is every night now, that lets it at least warm up quicker and get pretty much up to full temp. There seems to be only a few complaints about the new ones, just everybody is beating the drums about those few and throw out their fears about the new motor and all the emission stuff on them. Sure I wish we could still have an old 12 valve with our present power levels. I will start getting a bunch of miles on mine as spring gets here and we start getting on the road with the 5er and am not expecting to have any major problems, Tom Sweeney has about 5000 milkes on his '08 and has towed some with it and has also had zero problems.



Hopefully you will get yours and not have the nagging problems a few have had.



Larry

 

[jmorse]

HBarlow,

I have an '07 C&C ordered in sept. of '06 and took delivery in Jan. '07. It curently has 13202 mi. on it. Most of the miles are towing. It has a custom service body on it and weighs approx. 9400 lbs. empty. I had the clutch fail @ 2200 mi. , but the dealer turned it around in 24 hrs. for me and it has been trouble free since. I had a CEL come on , but cleared itself after about 4-5 restarts. Dealer said it was the MAF senser in the intake and that it probably had some moisture on it due to the very cold weather we were havig at the time. The truck has been flawless since. I absolutely love it. It definetly was a step up from my '99 it replaced. I would do it again in a heart beat. As the saying goes : an unsatisfied customer will tell 20 of his buddies, but a satisfied one will only tell one. Hope this helps you with your decision.



Jim

 

[HBarlow]

Thanks Larry and Jim and all others who have posted. It eases my concern to hear that there are many satisfied owners out there. I have decided to leave my order in place and hope for the best. "For better or worse" as the words go.



Larry I have heard from mutual friends that you and Tom normally attend May Madness every year. If you are going this year I'll see you there. I have made my reservation at the host RV park and plan to send Joe my completed attendance form soon.



Harvey

 

[jjdiesel]

I went over 108,000 miles yesterday, no problems. [/QUOTE]



Wow... . that's a lot of miles in one day!

 

[lubeguy]

the o8's seem better than 07"s. one thing I have found that the body builders are not putting on the vent hoses. the aft axle tank will cake up with mud and snow and suck in the water and mud causing a huge repair bill. if you have an aft axle tank get rid of that 3" hose and have some one extend it to a dry clean high spot. . it seems it is righ there where the wheels throw everything on top of the tank

 

[MCummings]

From what I've seen here on the boards, but not in the fields are that the '07. 5's are more problematic than the '08's.



However, the poor Fords can't catch a break. (or they do catch a break? what's the right way of saying that? :-laf )



Merrick

 

[Larry Willard]

Harvey

I do plan on going to May Madness (Tom too) and look forward to seeing you there. Hope you can have the new truck there, that is actually what I originally was thinking of purchsing.

Now we need to get that mutual friend on for the trip.

Larry

 

[tom sweeney]

Harvey, i hope to improve my mileage on this May Madness trip by "drafting" Larry all the way out there!!!:-laf..... good luck,cya there!!!!... ..... tom

 

[HBarlow]

Great. I'll look forward to seeing both of you there.



I ordered the truck almost three weeks ago so unless something out of the ordinary occurs I should have it and have plenty of time to get all the towing equipment and accessories installed before MM.



I'll talk to our friend again about attending.



Harvey

 

[HBarlow]

UPDATE:



The hotshotter called me from his home today. He said the dealership called him and told him they installed the new parts and tried driving his truck this a. m. It ran terrible according to the report he got so the dealership ordered another part. He wasn't sure what it was, something like "upper fuel valve. " I have no idea what that is or if he even had the name straight. He wasn't sure either. It is beginning to sound like this dealership is easter egg hunting for the cause.



I e-mailed the hotshotter a link to this thread and "grasmo's" description of all the codes he was getting with his truck plus "sag2s" comments about the way the dealership tech should approach the problem. I also e-mailed him the link to the proper TBS provided by "EB. " He called back later and said that "grasmo's" symptoms and codes were identical to the problem he is having. He plans to bring copies of all the info from the TDR with him when he returns in case the dealership tech is wandering in the dark.



The hotshotter hopes to drive back out here to Lubbock tomorrow to pick up his repaired truck. Personally, I'm not expecting the dealer to have it repaired. My opinion is they are not likely to find and correct the problem. My gut feeling is the tech is clueless. I hope I'm wrong.



Harvey

 

[JLDanner]

sag2,



You are right. I would be grateful to you if you would post your observations and opinions about the problems that owners are complaining about and tell us if you can how Dodge/Cummins are responding. I value your opinion.



Harvey

I have had my 2007. 5 for several months now. 3000 miles - all city grocery getting except for a couple of 300 mile travel trailer pulls. Runs like a top - regens like clockwork. No codes. Oo. I had the G30 done immediately after purchase (within 200 miles). I only get the oil changed at the dealer, I don't even trust the local Jiffy Lubes etc... and buy my ULSD from high volume reputable gas stations (99% from the same station). I absolutely love this truck - its a brute. So far so good - it "feels" right to me. I'd be willing to bet an awful lot of this trouble will go away once LSD is finally completely off the market. (Read as I'll bet LSD is causing most of these problems - the dpf should never plug) You just know some gas station pumps labeled ULSD might not always actually have ULSD. #@$%!

 

[HBarlow]

You may be right. I read a thread on the other Dodge site. An owner who used his truck commercially and had lots of miles posted that he had an occurrence of codes set after using fuel additives for a time. I think his problem was EGR related. His dealer fixed it and told him to stop using additives and he did and said he had no further problems. Who knows?



I guess we don't know much about these engines yet. They may be very sensitive to fuels and also to fuel additives.



Harvey

 

[EB]

I don't believe the hotshotters problems are from using LSD. The C&C trucks don't have a NOx absorber and can run either ULSD or LSD. This is a quote from TSB 14-007-06



"- Ultra Low Sulfur Highway Diesel Fuel (preferred) or Low Sulfur Highway Diesel Fuel (500

ppm of sulfur or less) are required for use in Dodge Ram Trucks equipped with a 5. 9L

diesel engine. If the 2007 Ram Truck (DC) Cab and Chassis is equipped with a 6. 7L diesel

engine and no NOx absorber, then this vehicle engine may use either Ultra Low Sulfur

Highway Diesel Fuel (preferred) or Low Sulfur Highway Diesel Fuel (500 ppm of sulfur or less. "



I know my C&C does not have a NOx absorber, I think they are all like that, maybe the newer ones do, I don't know. That is probably why I've had no problems running in South Texas where they still don't have ULSD in most places. If he idles a lot, maybe that is the problem. It is possible that he had a wrong flash or a flash put on his truck wrong like I did. If that is the case, the tech will have to get with STAR and take his truck back to the beginning and go from there. That's what they had to do on mine. It took several days and many phone calls between STAR and the tech working on the truck to get it done. As a point of information, I do not use any fuel supplements, I idle as little as possible, and if I do idle, I use the high idle at at least 900-1000 rpm. I also run my exhaust brake all the time, I never shut it off, except under very slick road conditions.

 

[HBarlow]

EB,



How can we determine is one of these trucks has a NOx absorber?



Harvey

 

[MCummings]

If you have a C&C made in '07 you DO NOT have a nOX absorber. I'm not sure about the 4500/5500.



All other 6. 7's havea nOX absorber, Cat, and DPF along with a removable muffler. Removable as in, it is not a required part, and the vehicle remains 100% legally compliant without it.



Merrick

 

[EB]

The NOx absorber is in the exhaust pipe between the turbo and the Cat. If that pipe is fairly uniform in size, it doesn't have a NOx absorber, if it looks like it has another Cat, that is the NOx absorber. In other words, if it looks like it has two Cats, and a DPF, then a muffler, you have a NOx absorber.

 

[HBarlow]

Thanks EB and Merrick. I'll look under my new friend the hotshotter's truck today or whenever he returns to Lubbock to recover his truck.



He told me he had done some oilfield hotshotting and may have used some LSD fuel although his truck is an early '07 and probably not NOx absorber equipped.



Harvey

 

[JLDanner]

Thanks EB and Merrick. I'll look under my new friend the hotshotter's truck today or whenever he returns to Lubbock to recover his truck.



He told me he had done some oilfield hotshotting and may have used some LSD fuel although his truck is an early '07 and probably not NOx absorber equipped.



Harvey

Careful here - there is some bad info flying around. :-{} If the vehicle is a 6. 7 it will have the cat and dpf. The new cat and dpf can not be used with lsd, infact it is illegal to use the lsd. It will damage your emissions system. The cooled EGR takes care of the NOX. There are no NOX absorbers. Must also be very careful to use Low ash engine oil - otherwise the ash will accumulate in the dpf (can't burn ash) and plug her up over time. Of course the infrastructure that processes, ships and stores ULSD is the same for LSD. There will be sulfur contamination in ULSD from LSD. This was of great concern to the processing industry. It was be interesting to see some random testing done around the country. I've seen pink ULSD here in dallas - from what I understand that pink tint is contamination left over from off road diesel processing. It's all gonna be a mess till LSD is all gone. IMHO. I get a kick out of the additive industry (snake oil). The biggest ULSD providers in the world clearly state DO NOT USE ADDITIVES. They are not necessary - even Cummins recommends that you DO NOT not use them. Why do we think we know better?! I must admit though, I think it's crazy they did not use a 7th injector.