I purchased a late model 04 (2500) with approx. 200K miles. I use it sparingly preferring the fuel economy of my 05 Jeep Liberty CRD w/160K miles. I am in central SC and when the weather turned freezing the Dodge was slow to start for about 4 days and then one day nothing. I assumed it was weather related but even in warmer days (temps 55 degrees+) it was a no start. I had it towed to a local diesel shop who advised new injectors. Is this common to go from running well to not at all? I never noticed any smoke. Could this be injectors or something else?

 

Have you verified LP operation? When it was cold, was your fuel gelled?

 

Gages suggested that I had good pressure from the pump. I did not check for gelling before the vehicle was towed. Due to working out of town I had to move the truck while I was home. Thanks for looking into this.

 

seems a little fishy that your mechanic suggested "injectors" blindly.. did he offer a reason why? seems unlikely your issue is all 6 injectors failing at once...

what about CP3? what was your rail pressure?

 

with 200k miles and an unknown history, it is likely that the injectors have seen their better days.

The symptoms you describe point to one or more injectors with high rates of "leak back". This creates hard starts as the cp3 then has to refill the injectors to raise pressure in order to start. The ECM has to see about 3000 psi before it will fire an injector. Now that it won't start at all, that suggests that pressure cannot be built to that point. It only takes one injector or one leak in the system to do this.

The best way to attack it at this point is really to have all injectors bench tested.

Or... you can try to cap off one injector at a time to start the engine. When you get to the one capped and the engine starts, then you have your bad injector.

If this fails, then you know to look elsewhere or it may be a combination of issues.

 

I have been reading numerous posts concerning injector failure and most opinions suggest that if you replace one injector you should do all. I have approx. $12k in this truck so spending a lot on this repair is something I'd like to avoid. Is there a vendor to be recommended for rebuilding my set? This seems to be less costly than an outright purchase. I am not out for HP gains but rather economy. Is there anybody local to SC? And Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

F1 Diesel for rebuild.. it's not going to be cheap by any measure.. I'd get a firm injector diagnosis before embarking on the rebuild though..