Cracked Fuel Rail?
 

I have a 2012 Ram 2500 that has around 103K miles on it. As a disclaimer, I bought the truck used a couple years back with around 68K miles on it and it's my first diesel pickup, so I'm still getting familiar with the differences in the motors. Anyways...

I smelled fuel maybe 5-6 months after I got it and didn't really think much of it. Figured "eh, it's a diesel, sometimes they just smell." Well during an oil change last year the tech mentioned that I was leaking "oil" and they should do some work to find the location. I honestly forgot about it until the past 6 months the diesel smell had gotten really bad and I'd notice small puddles under the truck and oil streaks when it rained. Traced the leak up the fuel lines to the fuel rail which sure enough had a very slow leak. I took the truck in and had them put dye in the system and found that it was leaking from a crack just below the second injector port. All said and done it ran me a little over $2,500 to replace the rail and all the injector tubes.

Here's my question. When I bought the truck, the dealer mentioned that the injectors had recently been replaced. I find it an awful coincidence that the fuel rail developed a crack in the body soon after the Dodge tech's had replaced the injectors. What are the odds that I had a faulty fuel rail or something after 70K miles versus the techs over-torqued something and caused this issue? I'd like to know because if I can prove that this was caused by them, I'll go after them for the repair cost. $2,500 ain't pocket change.

Thanks for the help!

I am not familiar with your year of engine, so am just going to make some general statements.

Fist of all, I question the techies putting a dye in the system. What sort of dye and where did they insert it? Did they add some sort of dye to the fuel? Do those guys really know what they are doing on a diesel engine?

If you go to the Genos Garage site they sell complete fuel rails for $369. Why is it necessary to replace injector 'tubes' when replacing a fuel rail? Please clarify what those techies consider to be an injector tube.

Not sure about your particular engine, but many are prone to injector lines cracking, particularly #4. Wanna bet that the only problem on your engine is a cracked line?

Let us know the final outcome of this.

They put the dye into the fuel to find exactly where it was leaking. It was leaking from a crack in the fuel rail itself, not one of the injector lines. Like I said, the injectors had been replaced somewhere in the 50-60K mile range and I'm wondering if the crack in the fuel rail was something that was caused during the replacement.

Yeah pretty much this part right here:
https://www.genosgarage.com/product/...onents-Gaskets

They explained to me that when replacing the fuel rail (fuel manifold as Dodge calls it) that the associated supply lines need to also be replaced to avoid any additional leaks. Apparently when they stamp "DODGE" on the side the price goes up by a factor of a lot. Oh well, such is life. Problem is solved and I didn't have to do anything with it. I also didn't have the time to shop around for different shops as I'm in the process of moving.