I have had a starting issue for the past year, hard starting last fall, used some good fuel conditioner towed 14k lbs for 500 miles and after the truck would start all the time.

This past month hard starting again, swiched over to SHELL diesel with good conditioner and now it's starting a little better.

Should I have to use a conditioner all the time? Is our fuel so dirty it clogs the injectors? or do I have other issues?

 

Are these 'cold start', 'warm start' or anytime start issues? If it is cold start issues, you may want to check your battery voltage with a real metre after the grid heaters warm up and as you turn the engine over to attempt to start the truck. If the voltage drops below a certain point (8V?, 10V?, don't remember) the engine will turn over but the computer won't have enough voltage to tell the injectors to do their thing.

If that is the issue, change your batteries.

 

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cascar:

IMO, there are SO MANY issues with the curent diesel fuel that I will not run my two (2) Dodge CTD Pickups without additives! You are going to get a "wide range" of opinions on this subject, but all I can tell you is that since the ULSD came out back in the fall, I have been using additives and have NOT had one problem with my trucks! For the cost of the additive, I don't see how you can go wrong really. But,.....some guys don't see it that way and that is their choice.

FWIW, I run the "Stanadyne ULSD Performance Formula" in both of my trucks.

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John_P