bluesurf

Truck has 2500 miles on it and it just started to white smoke upon startup. Is this normal or do I need a reflash. I tried a search but did not come up w/much to answer that. Also is there a flash to get better fuel mileage. This 05 is killing me compared to my 03. I have eyt to see over 15 hwy. I get about 11-12 towing heavy.. Plenty of power but my fuel bill is a third worse compared to my 03. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks

Jfaulkner

Completely normal, cold cylinder temperatures and a little timing. Should clean right up as it warms up.

Fenderstrat72

My 05 has 15,000 on it and just started doing the same thing. Not only that is acts like it is missing or chugging along with the white smoke. I hope this is normal becasue it didnt used to do this until recently.

ed paul

,,,my 04.5 did the same thing, just got worse and worse until i felt the EPA was going to ticket me cause there was so much smoke on start up,a miss also developed till it warmed up,,it is at the dealer right now,,been there for a week,,they changed the lift pump but it still runs rough when cold, they suspect a injector leak down when not running,,they said it runs rough for about a minute if started from cold,,their method of finding the leaker is to try to locate it when running rough ( 1 minute), if they don"t find it in that time( which they haven"t) they let it cool off for 4 hours and try again, been in the shop a week a week and 1 day now,,,any body out there know a better way of checking for a injector that leaks down???? said they called STAR and they didn"t know either,,this sucks!

brk300

My 05 has smoked and missed since almost day one. I have had it in to the dealer 6 times to try to fix it. They finally said stop bringing it in we will not work on it any more its a diesel and its normal to miss and smoke. Now I am waiting till spring so I can take it to a different dealer to see what they can do.

bluesurf

gotta love dealer responses. The thing that botheres me is my 03 never did this. The motor is the same is this in the computer? Also could this be a reason I'm getting such bad mileage. I don't know about this stuff. More info would be great. Thanks

staarma

03 is not even close to the same as a 600. The 600's are prone to rough idle and smoke on cold starts. They are designed that way. As said above, it's timing, 3rd injection event, CAT, etc. They are just different animals. Lower mileage because of more HP and TQ. It's all relative, you rarely get both.

Currently there are 3 threads on this and they are all the same thing.

burlhall

It is rare that anyone complains about the fuel mileage on the 3rd generation trucks if they have more than 20,000 miles and tow heavy part of the time. It takes a while to break these trucks in. The 05 that I owned never got good fuel mileage until after 20,000 miles. I towed a 13,000 pound 5th-wheel camper for about 50% of those miles. After the truck had about 25,000 miles on it, I was getting 17-18 mpg in everyday local driving (approximately 50% highway miles) and 20 mpg when driving 100% highway trips provided I kept the rpm's below 2,000 (ie, speed below 70 mph) and easy on the throttle when taking off. I got about 11-12 mpg when towing my camper at 65 mph. My new 06 has about 10,000 miles on it and I am beginning to see the fuel mileage increase a little. I am now getting about 14-15 in everyday local driving and about 16-17 mpg on the highway. When towing I get 10-11 mpg. The 06 started out much worse but is gradually improving. I feel pretty confident that, given some more miles towing the camper this summer, it will get close to what the 05 did. Both trucks had white smoke at start-up until they got some miles on them. The 06 smokes much less at 10,000 miles than it did when I first got it. Ditto for the 05.

bluesurf

burlhall how do you like your jake exhaust brake. I hope they will come out with a software upgrade for my 05 to accept the brake. I tow all the time so it would be great. Oh yeah my 03 did have a cat on it if that makes any sense.

bekim

Check the TSB's for 2005's at: http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2005-index.htm
cheers
Mike
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thejoker502

When I start my truck I have the same symptoms, white smoke and rough idle. If I run it up to 1000rpms and for about 30 secs to a min it all goes away. According to the sun visor you should idle your truck up to about 1000 every time you start it under 60deg F. I don't like the white smoke but it seems like I am stuck with it.

john

TexasCTD

Mine does the exact same thing. I have had it reflashed twice for it. Im not going back. After the first 30 seconds......It runs like a champ, purrs like a kitten, and pulls like a train, so im happy. It is just the nature of the beast.

Rambunctious1

Yep, I do this same start procedure. Mine smokes a smidgin too at startup and runs just a little rough. I never drive it until I've warmed it up for a minute of two though...never longer than this. She drives great after that. I don't start worrying until the engine light comes on or she starts makin' weird noises.

burlhall

Bluesurf, I like the Jake Exhaust Brake. I have made a couple of trips over Mounteagle in Tennessee pulling my tractor, backhoe, bushhog mower, and yard box. My gross combined weight was probably 20-21K pounds. Going down the mountain in third gear with the Jake on I rarely had to tap the brake to maintain a speed of 45 mph. However, Mounteagle is only about a 5% grade. The real test will be when I take the 5th-wheel camper to Utah this summer. I will be grossing about 22-23K pounds and some of the grades on I70 west of Denver are 7-8% and are loooong. So far, I am very pleased with the exhaust brake.

ed paul

going to bring the thread back to the original subject,,,,,,,does anybody think that the rough idle when cold could be a compression issue???how does one go about checking compression on a diesel?? these things fire on compression, maybe when it"s cold there isn"t enough compession in a cylinder or two for a smooth start,,i did notice the engine doesn"t stop as abruptly as it did when new,,haven"t heard the belt chirp when i shut the engine down in a long time, 22,000 miles on her