harleydodge

I am trying to find any info on why clamps for high pressure injector lines may come loose after engine only has 25,000 miles on it. I found this after getting into an accident after driving for one hour on the highway at 70 mph with cruise control on. I have a 2005 dodge truck 2500 diesel cummins engine. Getting back to the accident. The road was a bit wet from rains earlier that day....I noticed black smoke coming from rear end and then started losing traction of the road when I put on the brake slightly to pullover into the left lane. I then swerved left and then right and spun into a ditch........I got out of the car and smelled and saw diesel fuel coming from my engine. The next day I bumbed the truck over and found one of mny high pressure injector line leaking with a nice v shape spray. The spray looked like it was coming from a crack close to the fitting into the manifold. Further investigation revealed the clamp that holds the injector line in place was loose. My question is how often is these clamps checked for tightness? Has anyone ever seen this problem with loose clamps resulting in cracked injector lines? Dymler Chrysler is adament that there was no mechanical defect that caused my accident. Yet I should get the injector line and clamp replaced via the warranty. My whole point here is this is a safety concern with me. Two minutes earlier or later I may not be here typing this...........I am open for any comments or recommendations.

PourinDiesel

I have lost 3 gallons of coolant on the road without getting into an accident. How did a fine mist of diesel cause you to wreck???

53 willys

sounds like you hydroplaned to me????? and when you crashed it broke the line???

AlCorr

I would agree.

MikeyB

First of all, never ever use the cruise control during inclement weather (including wet roads). Way to many accidents with this combination.

I haven't heard any reports of mounting bracket issues. Ever had your truck in for injector issues?

MikeyB

79warlock

I don't know how the truck was running with a high pressure fuel leak. In class, we installed a injector connector tube with a nick that you could barely feel with your finger nail and the truck wouldn't even make half the pressure needed to start.

03 ant a hemi

These trucks run all the time with leaks on them. There is a memo about ensuring that the fuel transfer tubes are not nicked. Thsi could result in a low power situation.
Ensureing that the fuel lines connections are tight and not over torqued, may be leaking fuel. Be carefull as HP fuel may be present.

harleydodge

To all, I will begin to say that I doubt that the fuel line broke form the crash. The only damage I received during the wreck was my left rear tire rim. Oh and the plastic piece on the bumper. The engine is on motor mounts and I would expect other damage to happen before an injector line cracked as well as the clamp that holds it in place came loose. All the other injector lines are okay and the clamps are tight. At idle the engine is putting out a spray, at 70 mph what kind of spray is it putting out? How many gallons of fuel? As far as the road it was barely wet. No one was spraying any water whatsoever. The other thing of curiosity, where did the black smoke come from in the rear of my rteuck prior to the accident? I mean the truck had good traction on the road when the black smoke was sighted by me. That is when I started to get a little uneasy, because at first I thought it was water spray, but no ther cars or trucks were spewing up water. Then I realized it was black smoke from something. Within minutes after sighting the black smoek I started losing traction of the road. If I had a diagram of the truck I could better pinpoint the injector line that was leaking. I think I will look on Google to see if I can gewt a pick of my engine. No work on the fuel lines has been done since I bought the car 10K miles ago. Bought it used at the dealership.

huwenfut

A few years ago I was driving along a 2 lane road here and almost spun out. My rear end came around. I wasn't speeding and the road was slightly wet. This happened to me a couple more times even after I had slowed down. A couple more miles up the road (I was going uphill) I came across a car in the ditch on the shoulder. I stopped and all though the guy was unhurt he claimed that he was just driving along and sullenly his car spun out around the corner. Later we found out that a truck was leaking diesel as he drove up the road and was responsible for numerous accidents on this road including a police officer investigating the accidents. I can only assume that damp road+diesel=very slippery road. So it could have been the feul leaking out onto your tires and maybe it wasn't your fault.

harleydodge

a chrysler technician found the no. 4 injector line cracked. The clamp was also loose. It was determined that the accident did not cause the injector line to crack. it must have cracked due to vibration of engine. The clamp was supposed to hold it tight. Is the clamp supposed to have any type of lock tight on it?

wreedCTD

im confused how did you wreck?

harleydodge

I was driving on the highway at 70 mph and noticed black smoke in my rearview mirror coming from the back end of my truck. No more than a minute or so did I feel like I was not getting good traction on the highway. The highway was just a tad bit wet from previous rains a few hours earlier. Feeling uncomfortable I started to slow down to pull off the side of the road to see waht was wrong. As I was getting ready to get in the right hand lane I started swerving to the left and then I tried correcting to the the right but had no traction on the road. I did a 360 or two and landed into a ditch. After getting out I noticed fuel fumes coming from the engine. I am convinced for whatever reason that fuel ran underneath my carriage and interfered with the traction of the road. The next day I found the no. 4 injector line had a nice spray of fuel from a crack in the line. Further investigation revealed a clamp that is designed for the line not to vibrate was loose. So a natural conclusion is the clamp worked its way loose and then the injector line finally cracked after hours of vibration. So I am wondering how the clamp came loose. Could it have been a factory failure or what........Some would say that the accident caused the line to crack and I would challenge them and ask why was the clamp loose. The engine is on motor mounts and doubt very much the accident caused the line to crack. The only damage to truck was the left rear tire rim. This was damaged because of landing on a concrete drainage ditch......No other damage to truck other than the air damper that was ripped because of landing in a ditch. There is no way the injector line would have cracked from this accident. So I hope this explains the accident..........