Left last Saturday, April 12th from San Jose, Ca. to do a 1,900 mile trip that would take us to the Grand Canyon and then South through Arizona to I-80 West to San Diego to visit our Son and his wife, and then back home up I-5 North, and Highway 101 North to San Jose.

05 cummins ran beautiful taking us through Barstow, and then up to Williams, AZ. to the Circle Pines KOA.

After getting settled Sunday afternoon at Williams, AZ., we prepared to drive the Dodge Cummins on a nice trip on Monday through Flagstaff, AZ., and up North on Highway 89 to Sunset Crater, and Wapatki indian ruins area, and then head West on Highway 64 to the Grand Canyon, and then South from Grand Canyon village back to our Williams, AZ. KOA in the evening.

Well, as we left the Williams KOA on Tuesday morning for our tour of the area, I heard this subtle "whirring or wooing" sound from the truck as a accellerated. First thing I thought was it was a differential sound. I and the wife decided to call ahead to Diamond Dodge in Flagstaff, AZ. and see if they could take us in on short notice. They did, and we ended up renting a Chevy Malibu at the dealer's rate for warranty-work customers, to tour the area while waiting for a call from Diamond Dodge that they had found the problem and it was fixed.

We finally heard from them on Tuesday, late afternoon, and their head diesel mechanic told them that our turbocharger was starting to fail. What a shock, as we have only about 21k miles on our 05 Dodge Cummins.

Anyway, Diamond Dodge fortunately had one Turbocharger in stock for our 05 model Cummin. We had to wait most of Wednesday for the turbo charger to be installed, and also have our A.C. troubleshooted for blowing hot air during our trek across the Mojave desert of Californi too.

Turns out that a little wire that goes into the A.C. compressor and connects to the high pressure switch that controls the compressor clutch/on/off, had a bad or intermittent connection in the compressor. The wire connection is not accessible, and is sealed from the factory. The compressor was replace because of this bad wire connection.

Anyway, we are still under warranty until August 05, but I think our 7/70 Drive train warranty that ended in our year 2005 model, also would have covered the turbocharger, but not the A.C..

I asked the service people what the labor and parts would have been if we had to pay for the work, and is was well over $3,000.00.!

I have nothing but praise for the service people at Diamond Dodge in Flagstaff. They really went out of their way to get us back on the road. As a result we were not late to meet our son and daughter-in-law in San Diego, who were there for a cancer research conference. We had only Thursday and Friday (17th, 18th of April), to see them and they were flying back to Ohio on Saturday, April 19th. We hadn't seen our son and his wife for over a year.

The truck ran beautifully, and you could hear that subtle Cummins turbo whistle while we pulled our 8,000 lbs. TT along on our journey.

Also the A.C. with new compressor kept us nice and cool right through the desert, and home in San Jose, Ca..

I will be writing Diamond Dodge a letter of thanks for all they did to get us on the road, and in time to see our son.
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I heard that this loose wire connection in my year Dodge 2500 ram, cummins A.C. compressor was a common problem and their was a TSB on it.

Anyone know why my turbo charger started to fail at only a little over 20k miles? I change the oil very regularly. In fact my last oil change was Delo 400, and a Napa oil filter. The mechanic said that he's seen several turbos go bad at very low miles. Is it common?*******

I'm in the market for a triple pod, gauge for the "A" column, and will be looking for a pyrometer for the turbo, a auto tranny temp. gauge, and turbo bost gauge.

I'm fairly, mechanically adept, so could I do the installation myself.

Also, do these gauge set manufactures show you where you should drill the hole for your Turbo Pyrometer probe; pre-turbo or after turbo on the 2005 Cummins?

Also, there's so much controversy on where to place the temp probe for the Automatic tranny to get a true tranny oil temperature readout.......anyone got solid information?

Is the air tubing that goes from boost gauge easy to install on the turbo?

Some of these gauge venders say that wiring for the Auto tranny temp gauge is not included.......is it something special that I must hunt down, or is it easily available?

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. I go to the cinders to ride. (it's just south of sunset crater) good to know the dodge dealer there is a good one.
Now for the gauges:
Yes you can do them.
Diesel Manor will sell you the whole kit and then some. They supply you with everything you need. Instruction are Excellent.
I put my pyro pre-turbo. Cyl 1-3, it's your choice on which cylinders you want to read.
I bought the hotside replacement line for the trans temp probe.
Boost gauge is easy. Buy the boost bolt that they sell. Installs in minutes.
You can also view pictures and instruction on Diesel Manors website before hand. The also sell the tap and drill bit for tapping the pyro, so no need to hunt down the right sizes. I'm sure I forgot something here but someone else i'm sure will help me out.

 

Diesel Manors: I'll remember that! They have a website, and I assume a phone number too?

Do they sell various gauge pods too for both the A pillar and mounting it between the ceiling computer and rearview mirror area?

 

I wouldn't deal with anyone but diesel manor for gauges. I bought mine from there and they shipped the same day, they even called me three times to make sure everything was right and even went out of there way to save me like 40 bucks on shipping.

 

Sorry to hear about your issues - Glad you got back on the road... Mine "Whoooo"'s too...!!! I assumed it was because it was a stick that is was louder - Yesterday I put CAI on and now I can hear her whistle but the "whoooing" is still there.. I'll have to take it in.. You have me worried..

 

If a turbo is going to go bad it will usually do it right away like under 50 hours or so. and after that they usually will run forever unless abused.
Biggest cause of turbo failures is from not cooling down the turbo long enough. This causes coakiling(spelling) and over time will take the turbo bearings out. This may be the reason for your turbo having a short life.

 

Just out of curiosity, are you cooling your turbo down after pulling? Letting the truck idle for up to 5 minutes after you stop prior to shutting it down can help cool down the turbo, what RAMRODD has stated above...

 

Diesel manos is the way to go for gauges. I purschased the 3 pod pillar with pyro, trans, and boost gauge kit. Install went great. Just take your time and you will do just fine.

 

Yes, let the turbo cool, especially after towing. Your manual states up to 5 minutes.

EGT probe is best place in the exhaust manifold between cylinders 5 & 6.

Diesel Manor has the hose/line with the mount for the transmission probe (cooler line with sender port). The line is installed on the hot side to give accurate readings.

LINK - http://dieselmanor.com/dm_products/DM-CLG3.asp

Check the gauge packages too. Everything you'll need.

 

Man, you folks are great! Diesel Manor has gotten a lot of recommendations from a lot of diesel owners so far. Looks like the outfit to go to for my needs.

Concerning cool-down: I do idle for a few minutes after towing, but usually don't when just driving empty, as I have to exit the freeway, and drive a little ways to my house at residential speeds, and figured that would suffice for the turbo cool-down in that situation.

I've heard that just bringing your speed down to city or residential speeds after being on the freeway/interstate/pike is a good cool-down period.

Am I incorrect?

By the way, the "wooing" wasn't there until that day I pulled out from the campground empty. Until then, it was that turbo "whistle" that I always heard.

By the way, that wonderful "whistle" sound was back again after Diamond Dodge installed the new turbo.
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Also, anyone heard about this infamous A.C. wire that comes from the compressor to the high pressure switch that sometimes has a bad internal connection in the compressor, and can't be repaired? A new compressor is the only fix, as the wire is sealed where it enters the compressor.

 

Seems like for me when around town and I pull into a parking spot right when I stop the pyro will say about 450. I never shut off the engine above 350.

 

Ramrodd: That's good to know that. I assume you meant your were not towing?

How long does it take in idle-time to get it to come down from 450 to 350 roughly?

 

Not here to entirely say bad things from Diesel Manor. When purchasing gauges for my Dodge I went to them again as i had used them in the past for the Fords.

Close to 3 months ago i ordered everything. It came on time about 1 week later but they sent me two trans temp gauges and no boost gauge. no problem. They charged me for the boost gauge again and i sent in the trans temp gauge. ok so I wait an additional week for the boost gauge it came about 1.5 weeks later. So the next weekend was gauge install time. Go to install everything and they left out the boost bolt. ok so I hook it all up but working boost gauge and notice the lighting is pretty far off on the boost gauge from other two gauges. l them on Monday. They charge me for boost bolt and say in the mail ..No problem...(i clearly find later on website boost bolt included in kit....no big deal $10 plus shipping).....Meanwhile I had to contact Danin Dipricol for warranty on gauges before Diesel Manor would take gauge back or swap it....Ok so now i am in the warranty work w/ manufacturer business....Whatever....I get the ok from Danin then call Diesel manor..They say ok return it well pay for shipping well send you a return label w/ your boost bolt that hasnt gone out yet...Uhhhh ok....So boost bolt comes return label comes and i send gauge back. I wait...and wait...Then call/email about 10 business days later and get an email that says ok Danin warrantied your gauge and the new one will be sent.....Alright I will finally get this gauge project done only about 2 months after the fact. So i wait another week for aguge to arrive. gauge makes it finally ....Now to finish things. open the box and they sent me a 0-35 black faced boost when my order was for a white faced 0-60 boost...ok so now they are sending me random parts.....i call them get no response. i email and get a sorry...ok well nothing short of close to almost 3 full months as shipping times caused HUGE delays. gauge is suppose to be here today. oh and I got charged again for the gauge, and will most likley have to follow this transaction until they refund me.

I am not entirely convinced I personally will do any more business w/ them after what has happened. Yes they are fufilling my order as I placed it months ago. Great i paid for stuff months ago its the least they could do I had great luck with them in the past. This time around its been one mistake after another and being charged again and again for things and having a truck not finished has really gotten old.

Your mileage may vary but there are enough vendors out there that this guy will spend the money w/ someone else.

 

I don't shut down until the EGTs are below 400*. Once you have a gauge you'll see that it takes 30 seconds to a minute to get there. After towing (heavy) I let the truck idle for 5 minutes or so regardless of the EGT reading.

A couple of tips to help cool down faster are: Make sure truck is in Park or Neutral, turn off the A/C, Turn off any fueling boxes (Quad in my case), and Idle up to 1200 rpm for 5 seconds then let idle down, maybe do this a couple of times.

 

I am really curiouse about this A/C wire issue. My A/C stopped blowig cold air right after i bought it and the dealer said it was low on refrigerant and just added more R134a with a dye to look for leaks. Seemed to work ok and a few weeks later they said they found no leaks. Now i'm out of warranty, and it is blowing hot air again. I bought a can of R134a w/ a pressure gauge and went to top it off, thinking it had leaked out again, but the pressure was already reading fine ~35psi, but the compressor was cycling on and off irradically. Wonder if the wire issues is to blame, and also if that was the original problem and the dealer just said it was low on gas?