I am working on an 03 dodge it is starting hard or sometimes will not start without ether.The lift pump has been replaced fuel filter replaced. If you get it running with ether it runs fine and know dtc's please help.

 

edy,

Don't use ether!!! These trucks have an electric grid heater and you are creating a big boom by using ether!

As for the hard starting. Are you certain that you are getting fuel up to the injection pump? Pull the inlet line off at the injection pump and bump the starter for a second. This should engage the lift pump and dump fuel out pretty well if everything is working properly there. Try that and let us know what you get.....

 

I have checked the fuel pressure at the injection pump with special fitings the fuel pressure is in spec.

 

Alright, start looking ahead of the injection pump then.....

This is where my fuel system knowledge runs out on the newer HPCR engines. I'm not sure if you can or if it would be a good idea to crack an injector line or two and bleed the system free of any air. If you have good fuel pressure at the injection pump the problem is beyond the inlet. It could be the CP3 itself or one or multiple injectors.

Have you had the truck hooked up to a scan tool? OBDII/DRBIII? I hate to say this, but maybe it is time to let the dealer look at it. They can at least scan it and tell you what is wrong with it if there are any codes present. Then you can use that information to dig deeper and decide if you want to throw parts at it or let them throw parts at it.

Is the unit in question still under warranty?

 

I'm sorry, I just noticed you said no DTC's. I'm pretty sure Cummins can't look at that truck because DC went proprietary on the electronics with the 3rd Gen trucks. Maybe I'm wrong, it might have been on the '04.5+ trucks. If that's the case the dealer is your only option.

 

went thru this on my 03 the injectors were letting to much fuel by-pass started good with aresol asistance or by push start. had a weird idle sound to it. Ended up replacing all 6 injectors. they ran the test were they plugged the cross over return line at the filter then ran a quanity test on each injector. it was done per the spec manual at dodge. they thought it might have been the pressure relief valve on the cp3. if you need injectors best price i got was from hotroddeisels.com