Please read paragraph before responding.

I have a 2006 3500, @ 58k I had a short in the trailer that caused the breakers to blow in the main fuse box on my truck. The ecm light came on and when I took it to the dealer they said it had lost all it's programming. So they looked for a short, which was in the after market plug in when I had my gooseneck hitch installed. I got the short fixed, they reflashed the computer and the ecm light went out. Right before heading up to Colorodo it came back on, the service dept said run it and bring it in when I got back. I took it in and they did an upgrade flash on the computer. It went away for a few days then came back on, of course I was out on the road when it happened. I got it back to the shop, of course it was out of warranty by now. Also, you should know it's characteristics, when I fill up the truck and immediately run it, it puts out a tremendous amount of black smoke and looses power. I mean where it will barely pull a slight grade with my 38ft flatbed behind it. It will run like that for about 20 miles then it clears up and runs fine, plenty of power and little or no smoke. When I got it back to the shop they read the computer and it said that the injection pump was going bad, said it was 5000 lbs less normal op pressure. So I replace it with a new one, pressure sensor and all. The ecm lite was still on and it still smoked and has a loss of power after a fuel up. I thought maybe there was trash or a fungus in the tank, so I got the bed up, pulled the lift pump. The screen was covered with a fungus which we cleaned and I checked the tank and found very little trash and no fungus. Still, after each fill up, it goes through it's same routine, smokes like a chiminey, no power and then quits after about 20 miles.

I should ad that I now have 130k on the truck and still no solution in site. I feel certain it's either a computer problem or a sensor. BTW, I also told dodge this same thing and they said the computer was fine. I feel either the computer or a sensor is adjusting the timing so that the injectors are not firing correctly floods the cylinders with fuel and chokes the truck to death. Once the sensors feel the parameters of the truck change due to the load on the engine it readjusts itself correctly and starts to run fine.

Any suggustions, ideas or tech imput would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Guess this is tougher than I thought it might be

 

Are u using any ugrades (Smarty or similar) undetectable stuff to fool the computer for more power??? Heard some of the newer pumps dont like em, but I just read that somewhere. Dont know for sure. I hate that feeling of breakin down somewhere and no logical reason.

 

Have you tried to fill it up not competely? It could either be a bug that has something to do with the level of fluid in the tank or something that freaks the computer when you do refuel.
Did you try and fill her up and then drink a cup of coffee instead of driving?
What kind of mileage do you get?

 

These are my thoughts for what it is worth. What is your turbo boost when pouring out black smoke?
If you had lost a high pressure pump I would have thought the syptoms would have been low power when pulling heavy and needing the fuel. I can't see how fuel level could produce these symptoms. Sounds like a real terd problem. Do you leave the truck running when fueling? I would be curious to see if it did it after fueling up with the truck running. I am suprised the ecm is fueling the engine without boost to produce so much black smoke.

 

These are the things I have done so far to try a work around:

1: shut engine off when fueling.
2: run engine while fueling.
3. not fill completely, tried puting from just 10 gal to 25 gals.
4. run it at a high idle 1-1.5rpms till it clears.
5. It does it more frequently without my trailer attached. I thought it might be the angle of the tank. IE fungus/dirt. I have cleaned the liftpump, tank was clean. IE: I have checked the vents on the tank too

None of these work.

I thought maybe the injection pump is going out again, but again, when I have my trailer attached it does it primairly right after I fuel up. when I don't have my trailer attached you never know when it's going to do it. I have made a right hand turn or just driving down the road (without my trailer) and it would start pouring out black smoke and loose power. Then a few min later clear right up and run fine.

I would think that if it's mechanical it would be a constant problem but with the computers having such an intrical part in the engines performance?

I put around 2500 - 3000 a week on my truck, 90% with my 38ft gooseneck attached. Sometimes between 5000-14000 lbs on my trailer, so as you can imagine, this is big pain in the butt. Esp when your pulling a 6% grade.

Again, thanks for your suggestions and any input, ideas or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

 

Update, I was in Carlisle Pa so I took my truck into Cumberland Valley Motors, they said all my problems were because of number 3 injector working at 75% instead of 90% and that a 1100.00 injector replacement and ecm flash would fix my problem. Uh huh, 1100.00 bucks would fix my problems too.

 

sounds to me to be wiring. you said that turning corners would afect it, i can only assume you check wire and conectors inside the tank when you had it apart, conectors can be very troublesome. they can look ok but not be. fluid can change volts (duu). can also move the wires changing volt .
ok heres the werd one, beleve it or not, i fond a fuel pump that ohm'ed out ok but acted simler to what your talking about we replaced it and all was good. i always wonder if the pump would worm up and expand (loosening up) and work. when fuel was added it cooled and contract (tighten up) and not pump good. ceep in mind this eas a 450hp moter, so a little wint a long way. just i thought. good luck.

 

by the way pour fuel over long time will cuse - injecter, pump, ect.

 

Update, think we found out what the problem is. First off, let me emphisis that I have had this 06 to 5 different dealers, from Ms to Pa and Tx to UT, none of them can figure out what's wrong with it.

By accident, I was in my local trailer dealer getting parts. On the wall is a sign stating that the third party plug in for the pig tail will short out the ecm on the truck. It will run a power spike through from the trailer mod to the main breaker system on the truck. BTW, the o6 has a break system not a fuse system. Dodge issued a memo to the trailer dealers that they would not warranty any o6's the has a third party plug in and that the truck owners had to us the bumper plug in.

I have found that what it's doing is, when I fill the truck up or it gets totally cold the ecm advances the timing which chokes the truck down so it won't run at idle. I have to high idle it for 30 min then it will clear up. Once I do that it will run fine. Here is the list of parts replaced on this quest.

New injection pump, lift pump, iat sensor, put solid fuel feed line and did away with the quick disconnect. No trash in fuel tank and I change fuel filters out with every oil change. Also removed the muffler but left the res on.

As to the overall performance of the truck, I grossed out at 27,860 2 weeks ago, ran down I-75, 40, 79 & 77 from Oh to Sc, rarely had to down shift. Thats with over 160k, no oil leaks and I have found that if you have a injector acting up, type F atf clears it up nicely, WalMart 1.88 a bottle.

Now I have to get it into the dealer to confirm the ecm is failing and was even while it was under warranty. I'll never own another Dodge for the simple fact they don't have the support system to work on there product. They have a **** good truck, if there techs were half as good as the truck. I have heard there is a performance shop in Farmington NM that has a jam up group of techs that can work on the mechanic and electronic of the dodge.

 

check your fuel psi, that would be the first thing i would do...