ramruff

This is a long read........please bear with me !

I have a 2008 Ram 2500 4x4 with just 27,000 miles on it I bought brand new.

Some background info:

When it had about 8000 miles on it (all stock) & about a year old, I had an issue while on vacation up north in Canada where the overhead chime went off stating immediate service required (oil change).

Having less than 1000 miles on the current oil change, I knew that old oil wasn't the problem. We were 28 km back an old logging road at a remote lake when the chime went off on the way back to camp. Back at camp we checked the oil & it was about a gallon over full. Being a almost new truck I had only 1 gallon of new oil up there with me. We drained 2 gallons out, added the new gallon to top it back off at full & headed the 3 1/2 hours south to the US border.

After clearing customs I pulled into the first available station to check the oil level. It was still right at the full mark & hadn't gained any, so we headed home (9 hour trip), & had no more issues. (pulling boat & gear approx 5000# total load ).


Took it to the dealer when we got back & told them what happened & they called the next day & said my turbo was being replaced under warranty & that was the issue ??? (Didn't seem right to me........never had a lack of power, smoke etc, & always use the engine brake). How's the turbo gonna make oil ? The high oil level was fuel in the oil !!!!

Drove the truck about 1000 miles after that, then did the cali style delete....complete straight exhaust turbo back to the stock muffler, freeze plugs in the egr tube, smarty JR me tune just set to lowest setting with deletes. Unhooked & disabled per the instructions on the smarty web site.

Trouble & code free for the next 2 years. Truck never ran better.

Last summer on our Canadian trip my truck was sitting idling at the boat ramp & my brother commented that my truck was knocking & I said it's a diesel........they do that & never thought too much about it.

The ticking/knock has gotten progressively louder over the past 2 years. This spring I took it back to the dealer & had their diesel tech take a listen to it before I took it back north on vacation.......he said it was noisier than some, but didn't think there was a problem.

Took it home & I did a pre trip oil change & service & sent out an oil sample for analysis which came back normal in all regards. Oil really stays clean with the deletes & is so clear it's hard to see on the dip stick..........it's that clean.

I run power service diesel additive in my fuel & if anything I'm over maintaining the truck. The truck doesn't come out of the garage unless it's towing something & I don't use it as a daily driver.

We came back 2 weeks ago from our 2nd trip up north this season & it really seems even louder that in the spring. The truck runs great & got me about 16 mpg towing running 75 mph+ down I-75 through Michigan back to Ohio.

Since I have only about a month of warranty left, I reinstalled all the emissions crap, unloaded the smarty jr, & ran the truck for the past 2 weeks.......towing a heavy equipment tag trailer to a job hauling a forklift, as well as dragging the boat out last weekend to a lake an hour away.

Ran it in to the dealer & had them check it & hook it up to their scanner & everything comes up normal. (But still the noise).

If I use my mechanics stethoscope & put the end on the third injector line back, it sounds like a midget in there with a ball peen hammer banging away........yet they claim it's normal & they won't tear into it because they don't see a code or any abnormal readings on their scanner. They want to blow me out the door & won't dig any further. I pretty much know that if they swap out the #3 injector the noise will be gone, but they won't authorize the job due to the cost.

I'm a heavy equipment mechanic by trade & know when something doesn't sound right. I have a Cummins industrial dealer & class 8 truck service center a 1/2 mile from my shop & the shop foreman agrees with me that something isn't right.

Also took the truck to a performance diesel shop & let them check it out & they also agree with me that something isn't quite right. I have 2 close friends with the 6.7's in their trucks both with way over 100K miles & they're quiet compared to mine. One of them is a dually company truck beat to s... & is still quiet compared to mine

I have bought 3 new diesel trucks from this dealer, as well as a new minivan for the wife.

What would you do if you were in my position ?

Thanks in advance !

mega-engr

I would not give up personally... Make sure it is documented at this dealer so that even if you go out of warantee and something happens this can be pointed to and they should take care of it then...

ramruff

The thing that really bums me out is I traded a mint 2006 5.9 mega cab 4x4 with 30 k miles in on this 2008 pollution laden trouble maker !

(my dealer was trading me for $10k difference out the door every two years)

All the write-offs & always in a new truck till the economy crashed & my business slowed down. I now use my 2001 with 265k for my heavy dirty work & the' 08 is the vacation/recreation truck.

Lary Ellis (Top)

I would buy a injector and move on before the tip comes off and it fills your oil pan with fuel taking out the whole bottom end......

Come on man, you are your own warranty station when you mod the engine like that, you can't expect Ram to cover anything that they don't put on it from the factory, sure the injectors are factory but you are not running a factory tune...suck it up and move on

As you asked, that's what I would do

ramruff

Lary..........if you read my original post, that's exactly what happened at bone stock 8000 miles & they claimed the turbo did it. I don't think it was ever fixed right from the original issue. I deleted to avoid ever having to replace the turbo again & for the other obvious benefits.

They deny that there is an injector issue..........I'll man up & buy one if that's what it takes, but they say it's normal.

mega-engr

Kinda reminds me of a timing belt issue I had in my Toyota Camry... It was underwarantee and the belt was making noise, slapping when cold, etc., and could break at any time. They didn't want to replace it because it wasn't "broke". I ask them if they wanted to incur all the extra costs of towing it in and any other damage when it broke and was ready to just pull the cover myself and break it so they would do the right thing.

They ended up doing the right thing and just replaced it.

Maybe a compromise would be to document the issue and noise (video, etc.). Fix it yourself, and then take the bill back into them and tell them it failed on you "thank you" and you had to have it fixed. Show them how well it runs now and the noise is gone, better, improved, once it has been fixed to prove your point.

Worse case is that you solved the issue yourself and they lose a customer because of $.

Lary Ellis (Top)

I did read your original post and my point of view is this thing is going to bite you in the butt if you don't take care of it yourself...then perhaps you can bill the Dealer as suggested.

How about taking your injectors out to have them pop tested and looked at? Maybe swap injectors between cylinders to see if the noise moves with it to verify it is an injector?

I just hate to see you lose an engine waiting on the Dealer to take care of it and then find out they won't cover it when the Ram rep comes out and they stick it on a machine that proves you had it deleted. They can tell with the proper equipment.

What ever you end up doing...I wish you the best of luck on it and I hope it is just something minor that you can fix quickly and economically

banyon

Just an idea but anyway, try to make a deal with the dealer- you will take the injector out. If it's tested and bad they fix it. If it tests good put it back in and try something else.

BigIron70

I would first cap off each injector one by one until I found the injector causing the noise. Cap the injector at the rail if the noise is gone you found the injector. You can run with a caped off injector for a short distance without doing any harm to engine. You can also kill injectors one by one electrically using a scanner. When several quarts of fuel is in the oil it is always injector issue, Some fuel in oil is normal, I always leave oil level one quart low for that reason. I have seen the crankcase full with diesel fuel a few times, they should have pulled valve cover and run the engine at idle. Make sure you change the oil first if diluted. The leaking injector will be found quickly. high pressure fuel will be spraying everywhere from the leaking injector. I did one last week must have had several gallons of fuel in the oil. Lucky it didn't do any major damage to the engine. Remember these injectors have fuel variance codes. If you change or swap to another cylinder make sure you change the programing code in the ECM. Code is different for every injector.

ramruff

Got the problem solved.........trading it in to a dodge dealer (whose service tech's said there's nothing wrong with it) on Tuesday !

They made me a sweet deal on a 2013.

Win win !