I just got off the phone with Dodge, Cummins, and Jacobs Exhaust Brake. No one will say for sure what is happening. These are Quotes from them. " I can't tell you because of legal reasons. There will be a statement coming out in a couple of days." - "If you have not had any problems with your brake don't worry if there was a problem it would have happen already." - "The worst that could happen is a fire, but I don't want to scare you, you will be fine." They all say "It's not our problem talk to the other guy." When all is said and done and reading between the lines it looks like someone had a problem and everyone got scared and pulled the plug on the exhaust brake until they can make sure if it was an install mistake or manufacture error. Like I said reading between the lines it sounds like someone installed it wrong and bingo!! stuff hit the fan. If anyone hears anything please post it. Jack

 

Great. I guess I'll wait for mine to catch fire!

 

I don't know how the exhaust brake can cause a fire except through a exhaust leak causing a fire - ~60 PSI back pressure at max RPM.

Was the brake a dealer installed option? Need more details to understand the root cause of the fire. I've got 28K on my '03, 16K 5er towing and no brake issues.

 

Only way I can see off top of my head would be a hot run up a grade, loaded, then e-brake too soon, uverheat things. maybe components too close to combustables? Saw an engine fire thread where the heat melted off the turbo oiling lines, causing an oil leak on the manifold. Maybe something like that.

 

I installed the Jacobs on my 99 about 140k miles ago and it has worked flawlessly to this point. I have over 150k now and still have the original brakes all around. I use it loaded or unloaded.

 

I have had a pac-brake on my truck for about 40k works great use it all the time , may never have to replace pads on my brakes.