Here is the latest on my "adventure" with Dodge. As a recap I bought the truck in Feb and now have 10000 miles on it. At 8400 miles I had them look at it for rough Idle and white smoke at startup. The first time I mentioned it was actually at 2000 miles but like a dummy I didn’t have them document it. The dealership replaced 1 injector in the #1 cylinder. When I picked up the truck (after 8 days) the tech hand wrote a note on my paperwork that my idle time was 38% and dodge said anything over 18% is excessive. I did not notice the note until I had left the dealership and since they didn’t mention anything when I talked to them I figured it was just informational.

The next morning the truck showed no improvement so I called the dealership and set up an appointment for the next week. I dropped the truck off with about 9400 miles on it the next week. After having the truck for 6 days the dealership called me to let me know Dodge would not cover the 2 additional faulty injectors because the trucks Idle time was too high and the load was too low. In effect I was not working the truck hard enough. Dodge stated they "would not cover warranty service until the customer changes his driving style and the idle numbers are lowered from the current 32%." Of course I was a little upset to say the least. The service tech told me I needed to run the truck hard and burn the carbon off the injectors. What I could not and still cant get, is a straight answer on what dodge is logging as Idle time. What struck me as odd is that in the 1000 miles between service my Idle time had dropped from 38% to 32%. I had not changed my driving habits during the 2 weeks between them checking the numbers. I bought the truck (new) with 600 miles on it. We are all thinking that it must have sat on a lot idling for a long periods of time on a lot somewhere prior to them getting it on dealer trade. It was the middle of winter up here in MN.

I called back to the dealer and set up a meeting with the shop manager and the diesel tech. When I arrived the Manager was just hanging up the phone after talking to STAR regarding my injectors. They are still refusing to replace the injectors. I talked to the manager and the tech for quite a while and gave them a history of how I drive the truck. What kinds of towing I do , the trips I have taken the miles I commute to work… And asked them to tell me how I was suppose to change my driving to meet Dodges requirements. They could not see anything I was doing wrong. The manager and the tech are going to pull all of my injectors and attempt to clean them to see if they can get them to work better.

After talking to them I walked back out the sales floor and talked to the sales person that sold me the truck and my wife's van. He has been following my problems and trying to help where he can. He suggested talking to the general manager of the dealership. So off we went…. The manager was unbelievable he listened to me answered all my questions and even walked out to my truck with me and showed me how to get the trucks total run hours to show on the odometer. He completely agreed with me that Dodge is totally wrong and he would personally make sure that Dodge would fix my truck. He took my contact info and promised me he would call me next week. I really believe that the dealer is doing all they can to help me out and have even talked about buying the truck back if they cant fix it to my satisfaction.

 

Have you called DC directly? You need to keep leaning on them!!!they will give.

 

What strikes me as odd is how can DC sell a truck and expect you not to idle. Do people that live in the city have disclaimers on their paperwork stating that city driving is not recommended because it causes carbon build up on the injectors ?

One thing I do agree on is that these trucks really do need to be worked...after a long pull with my trailer it does run alot better and adding some fuel conditioner periodically helps quite a bit.

 

How do you check the idle time?

Thanks, Mike

 

Words fail me. Traffic is traffic - can't do anything about it.

If DC is serious about this, then they DO need to state, even in advertising, that these trucks will NOT be covered in city driving, because the injectors can't handle it. What year is this? 1920??

 

BRK300, run some Standyne through it. I've had a few customers that after a tank or two running additive it cleared up the noise.

 

I read these articles on what Dodge thinks is right and wrong for these trucks, and it makes me laugh, and also amazes me too. I bought my truck for all intentions of having a heavy duty truck, to take abuse, and last a long time. I live In Staten Island, and stop and go is a daily thing around here. These truck are supposed to have "well known", "heavy duty" Cummins engies in them that are almost supposed to last forever. I have my truck since mid June, and only have 1,300 mi. on it, its because I do as little driving as possible on S.I. simply because of the conditions, but when I have to get out, nothing I can do about Idling, or stop and go.

If Dodge is trying to protect there Butt$, To me, they should totally advertise these trucks in a different way. I think its a cryin' shame, that people on here have there trucks only a few months, and are having these problems, and on top of that, Dodge is crawling into hiding, when it comes to crunch time.

If thats the case with these so called "Heavy Duty" trucks, They should advertise and word there product better, and steer these trucks to Businesses, and Farmers and such, and not the average Joe, that thought he might be getting a trouble free truck for a long time.

I pray to GOD, that I dont start encountering these problems, My first new vehicle since I got my license, Five year note on it, But these are the reasons I bought a Heavy Duty truck in the first place!!, so it would be trouble free for a loooong time. I guess time will tell.

 

What do they count as Idling time? Is it in park or neutral? is it measured at 0 vehicle speed, even when in gear? Is it a calculation the computer does?

Does anyone know?

Mike

 

Marine,

It is my understanding anything under 1000 rpm is considered idling. So you can imagine any time you're
slowing down while approaching a red light, idling out/into your driveway, parking or moving around in a
parking lot such as Walmart they will be calling this idle time.

I think it would be interesting to ask a dealership employee ( the few that own a diesel) just what his idle time
was. More than likely they wouldn't check it for you.

Larry

 

Larry,
did DC tell you the 1000 rpm rule? Where did you get this understanding from?
Mike

 

...It wouldn't matter. All our fueling boxes mess up that data anyways.

 

how do we check the idle time through the odometer?

 

...as far as I know you can't yfz, only total engine running hours.

 

Correct J Body..

The total hours can be viewed by turning the key to ON (dont start it) and holding in the trip reset button for about 10 seconds.

 

I thought I saw a thread somewhere that indicated that Dodge's computer could pull up what proportion of time the engine has spent at various load levels... IE they could tell you the % of time the engine was at 90% throttle and above, and so forth...

Can't find that thread...