Of course when I'm running hard and/or loaded I idle my truck down for at least a few minutes before shutting off, but what about unloaded runs around town? Is it less of a concern now than it used to be on older diesels? I don't have an EGT gauge yet so I have to wing it. My pops has his 04 with 60K+ miles on it and he always just shuts it right down without idling. Thoughts? What do you guys do?

 

Not idling, I'm surprised the turbo hasn't had any problems. Without a EGT gauge I would guess 45 seconds to a minute should be ok on light drives.

 

I have a temp-based turbo timer and during normal driving it rarely idles more than 30 seconds. If I have been running hard or towing it can take as long as 3 minutes.

 

No load, just running around town, takes about 30-45s to cool the exhaust down to ~300-325F. This is the lowest temp I shut down at. Annoys my buddies at work when we go to lunch. I don't care...I want the turbo and the whole motor to last as long as possible!

HTH

Tony

 

There should be in your owners manual on estimated times you should idle before shutdown. I have an EGT guage on mine and as soon I put it in Park it goes to around 300 in about 15-20 sec.

 

Yep it's in the manual, I don't idle down after my commute, but I am also coasting into my driveway or parking spot from around the corner, so that's at least 10-15 seconds of idle cool down. If I go on a long trip 100 miles or more, I'll idle her down for a minute. I have yet to tow or haul anything substantial yet to warrant anything longer.

 

With my 06 (Had the Juice with turbo timer), I could come off a 200 mile run at 75mph (No trailer) and it would only idle for around 30 seconds.

 

I'm kinda lucky, its about 3/4 mile from the highway to my driveway, then abouut another 1/8 mile on my property so I just idle it into the parking space from the highway... Main thing is to get EGT's down so than when u shut down, the oil in the turbo doesn't Bar-B-Que. Tends to cause torn up seals, warped shafts, and lots of headaches.
I've actually been wondering if somebody makes a post lube accumulator for the Cummins in the event of a hot shutdown.

 

I hear ya'll and I do my best to idle it down for at least 30+ seconds (longer if on a hard run), but I know of so many diesel guys who laugh at me and just shut her right down after pulling into a spot. None have ever had any turbo problems at all.

Has anyone actually experienced a problem on a modern truck caused by hot shut down?

 

Just turn it off. If turning it off was a problem you'd hear more about burned-up turbos, or Dodge would have put an EGT gauge or turbo timer in the truck. If you're worried about it after putting it in park count to 10 then turn it off.