I bought my truck 3 years ago and being a first time diesel owner, I thought I would have 500 000 worry free miles.....NOT THE CASE!

Although it's never left me stranded, it needed 2 injectors at 35000 miles, all 6 injectors at 70000 miles, U-joint at 60000 miles, and now who knows what's wrong with it now, it will hardly shift out of park, won't shift into first, and it feels as if the tranny is starting to slip, something big may be wrong with the eingine as it's spewing oil out from the crankcase blow tube at an alarming rate!!!
THIS IS ALL AT 70000 miles!!!!! I have maintained the vehicle like it should be, haven't abuse it, and up until 6000 miles ago didn't even tow anything over 3500#. I have run a smarty on it for about 3000 miles, but all of these issues started before and I dont run the smarty past 5. ( I know it will still wear the tranny out faster)

To me, this is unacceptable!!!!!! Once the warranty is up it seems like all I am going to be doing is throwing money at it to keep it running. The above list is just a little of what I have read what diesel owners are having to contend with. WHY IS EVERYONE ACCEPTING OF THIS ON A $35000-40000+ rig???????????

It just doesn't seem right. My first truck was a 95 GMC gasser, and I used it for the same towing(about 3500# for 200,000 miles) and didn't have a lick of trouble except when the engine finally crapped out at about 210,000miles. The rebuild only cost me about $1800 and I sold it, but it's still running around town without any major problems!!!

I have a 5th wheel, so I need a diesel, but quite frankly, I'm starting to regret it. I like and need the power, but isn't this rediculous?

WHat's up with this? I thought diesel's were the cats meow? WOuld go forever?

Are all the apparent problems with these trucks acceptable to everyone else?

Thanks for listening, just needed to vent, but would like some others opinions on this as well.

 

Luck of the draw I guess, 55k here and never had an issue that was worth complaining much about.

Are there things that I wish worked better? Sure there are but nothing and I mean nothing is perfect. I will do upgrades as money and or issues present themselves but so far I could not be happier with my truck. So I guess I am just too accepting.

 

first of all it is a mechanical thing and it is not if but when it breaks. Everything has its issues its just what you will put up with. I am sure that if you go onto other forums for different types of rigs you will find someone on there with similar complaints/issues. You can do all the maintenance in the world to anything and it will still break or fail in some way, shape or form. You said you have a 5th wheel but only tow 3500#'s? what kind of 5vr is it that only weighs that much? Smarty on 5 with a stock tranny is a no no unless yours is a manual (your sig does not say). Smarty instructions say level 3 for stock tranny (auto tranny) and 5 for stock manual tranny.

Head over to the ford forum and see all the complaints on the 6.4 ($45k plus trucks) with the horror stories of new trucks needing turbos, heads, motors and in the shop for weeks! I have a good friend who is a ford tech (drives a dodge! ) and he is so busy rebuilding transmissions and replacing motors he has job security for a long time.

 

I got 141,000 on my '03 and the biggest thing I ever had to fix is the trans front clutches (I burned them up drag racing a mustang on the main drag in town. LoL). A couple of lift pumps under warr, and then switched to a Holley setup and no problems ever since.
Bum deal on your rig.
She don't burn oil and gets "killer" mileage. I love the power when I need it towing our 18,000# 3-axle gooseneck car trailer and drag boat is no problem either.

Maybe unload 'er while still under warranty and get a different rig.

 

And if you want to tow heavy a gasser is just not economical. My brother has an Excursion with the V10. Sure it will pull a big heavy trailer but it only gets like 9mpg running around empty. I would hate to see what it gets while pulling.
I think a lot of people on these boards accept the issues because they planned on upgrading all the parts we know are prone to failure once we start BOMBing. There are many many totally stock trucks out there with lots of miles and no issues. Dodge did not build your trans to be able to handle the Smarty. They built it to handle stock power. You really can't blame them when the trans takes a crap after being subjected to 700ftlb of torque constantly...
Anyways, every now and then we all start having what seems like a lot of issues and we lose faith in our ride. Once you get that stuff fixed and the truck is running right you will remember why you bought it in the first place.....

 

I've only had the 5th wheel for the last 6000 miles or so, and have only towed the 5th wheel about 3000 miles....it is only 9000#.

And again, the smarty for the last 3000 miles or so, but was having issues before that wit the tranny.

 

It's funny that when you go to the Ford diesel forums one thing you rarely see is transmission problems. I guess the guys with the trans problems are keeping it a secret, or your tech buddy likes to pull your leg.

 

I've had issues with mine and there have been times i want to jump ship. Then I calm down and just deal with it. I have left mine stock and that's the way it will stay. I am no expert but it seems that the trucks that have the problems have been modded some way under the hood. If your 05 is a dog, move on with something that works for you. Just do your research first as there are issues with all the others.

 

You got to have the power to break it before you can do any damage to the transmission!

 

Whoa man, you hit the nail in the head! But That's true.

 

Did you buy your truck new or used?????? I'm guessing it was used,,,, and had the tranny problerms when you got it,,,,, Then when you add the Smarty and start to play the problems just seem to pile up,,,,, ehhhh???? I have to admit,,,, It makes me wonder,,,, 30-40K is alot of coins,,,,, Thats why I bought a Manual tranny,,,,, I will upgrade to the Aftermaket Twin disc Clutch to handle my mild mods,,,,,

If you mod them up and make +++++ extra power,,,,,, your gonna tear up drive line, thats a given,,,,,,,,,

 

I have to agree with you snowmanx. In my opinion, one of the problems is they are electronic diesels with ECU whereas the older mechanical diesels are way more reliable. Anyone that says different are fooling themselves. I guess there are several reasons for this - -Horsepower wars, Federal Emission standards, the higher pressures for injection, engineers or bean counters making disposable and not serviceable parts. My 06 has not been all that bad. My 30 year old backhoe (mechanical diesel of course) would crank faster than my truck when I first got the truck brand new. Had to go get electronic re-flash. A/C went out after warranty. All it needed was a compressor clutch. Can't replace it. Had to buy whole new compressor for a little over 3 year truck, nothing wrong with the compressor, just not made to replace clutch on it. They would rather sell a whole new one I guess. A known common problem left me stranded on side of road on a Sunday, had to get a rollback to get me home.(#4 fuel supply line coming out of common rail vibrated into 2 pieces.) Today all 6 of my spare lines came, so I will put them under back seat for/if next time. My truck is of course modded, but these problems have happened to stock trucks too. I don't think a Duramax or Ford diesel would be any better. If I had it to do over again, I would try to find a really clean older mechanical diesel. I, like you, expected more from a 35 to 40K dollar truck.

 

I bought it used, but it only had 12000 miles on it and was a year old when I got it. Again, it started having problems BEFORE I added any smarty. I expected to replace the tranny at some point, esp running smarty at 5, BUT, no reason for the detent ball to go bad at 70000 miles, and the other issues are not related to the smarty.

Thanks, that's all I'm saying, spend that kind of money, I expect alittle more....as long as people don't expect more, that's what we'll get. I don't think any of the other manufactures are any better, that's the point. I 've bought several used gas vehicles, a 96 dodge van, it has 300,000 miles and I've only relpaced wear parts on it.

I snowmobile as well.....same thing, spend $10000+ on a new sled, and the engine could blow up at 1500 miles. Guess I just have expensive habits! LOL

 

You got the truck used, any chance you got any history of the truck before you had it? I passed on several trucks because I knew who owned them before and they could kill a truck in 1,000 miles. No tellig what happened in those 12,000 miles. REPO? I say trade it in. JMHO. Good Luck!

 

And I wasn't saying you are wrong. Just that lots of us know what's probably gonna go wrong but we accept that and buy the truck anyways because of the potential the truck has when it IS all working right..