Puke

This afternooon my dealer called and said my 24V diesel was ready to pick up with a new lift pump in it...running and starting like a dream.

I let my guys go early, (except for one, to take me to pick it up), and went and picked it up. Took it home. Parked in front so I could move my older truck out of it's parking place. Went back in front to get the truck and WHAMMOOO!!! It wouldn't start. Period. What A nice present the dealer gave me!!!

When I took it in, it would start, but for a long time I could tell something isn't right about the starting and running (if under load). Now it won't start at all.

I'm starting to think they are incompetent. I believe they did NOT fix the problem AT ALL, but found my pump that wasn't up to snuff and replaced it...

What remedy do I have?????? I sent it straight back to the dealer on a tow truck.

DO YOU PEOPLE BYPASS THE DODGE DEALERS AND FIND A CUMMINS SHOP OR SOMETHING???????? There have got to be some competent people somewhere.

1) When I first took it in, they called me back the next day and said they were replacing the lift pump because it was bad.
2) after they replaced the lift pump they could not get it started and the service manager called me and told me that it would run if the line was from a 5 gallon of diesel, but not if it was hooked up to my tank....
3) Therefore she said there was a restriction somewhere and they would have to charge me a couple hundred bucks to drop the tank and clean out the inlet or whatever. I told her on NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that I wanted a sample of whatever was blocking it.
4) she called and said that he cleaned it but that the "whatever it was" just fell apart to the touch so he could't give me any. NOW IT STARTED SOUNDING FISHY TO ME. HOWEVER, she said it now ran and started fine. I made the (poor) assumption that they had a vacuum guage to find out the pump was sucking nothing rather than air...before they dropped the fuel tank, but I overestimated their competence...I think.
5) go get the truck, bring it home, and it doesn't start20 minutes later.

I would bet 5 to one odds that when she told me it was repaired, she only meant that it would start, and not that it would behave correctly while starting.
My opinion is that the pump could be sucking air rather than nothing. But I don't know if that is common...or even possible. I work on high pressure pumps (not for diesel apps, though) and sucking air is always something you check for,...before you start thinking it's some big other problem.)

Hope you liked my silly*** story. (edited by Moderator)

What do I do, it's still got 30,000 miles on the warranty, but my time involed is starting to really irritate me. I could bet 5 to one that they'll give it back to me the same "hard start" way I took it and, and they'll say that's normal for it. but I know way too many people with 24V diesels and they start up IMMIEDIATE, and that's how mine should be.

phox_mulder

Well, if your lift pump was indeed bad, and had been for a while, the lack of fuel could have killed your injection pump (VP44).
Only way to really tell is to put it on a test stand, if you Dealer isn't that Diesel savvy to begin with, chances are they don't have a test stand.

It could be something totally different, bad lines either to or from the tank, between the lift and injection pump.
Fuel lines with miniscule cracks will suck air letting the pump lose it prime.

Wondering if they checked the fuel filter, and if they found this same "broke apart to the touch" material in it as well?

You could always try another Dealer, tell them what happened at the last dealer, the lift pump being replaced and such, and hope for the best.

You could pleasantly request that the Dealer have it sent to the local Cummins shop, as they obviously have more experience, and will have all the proper test equipment.

What year truck?
Where are you located,
Maybe some friendly users can reccomend a good Dealer to try?


phox

Puke

thanx for the interest.<br>It is a 1998 1/2, the warranty runs out July 30.<br>I paid them $140 extra to change my fuel filter at the same time so they couldn't blame me for anything. He didn't mention any garbage in the old fuel filter.<br>My dealer is Glendale dodge.<br>I'm in L.A.(actually Burbank, CA), so competence in diesel is a bit of a stretch here. (My little brother has a degree in diesel mechanics, but he's 2 states away and seems to think if it's not caterpillar or something, it's not worth fixing.)<br>The next closest dodge dealer is in Van Nuys.<br>I actually can stand this dealer better than the other 2 dealers I know, but that could be fast changing.<br>I thought, as a last resort, I would just send it straight back to them 3 or 4 times in a row and then find an attorney and invoke the california lemon law (at least that is one thing california did right), make dodge buy my truck back. What a waste of time for a perfectly good truck. I really don't like that idea, but I'm getting too old and cranky to deal with all the b!llsh?t that comes my way. I'm sure they have just as hard time finding competent people as I do, so at some level, I will put up with some of their s?#t.<br>The mechanic did mention that when they were working on it, some crap could have made it's way to the injection pump and screwed it up. but he would have to check it out.

Shovelhead

The injection pump is cooled by the excess fuel pumped forward from the tank by the Transfer/Lift pump.
The injection pump CAN pull enough fuel on it's own to keep the Cummins running, however, if the lift pump was DOA for awhile then the Injection Pump wasn't getting enough fuel to run and stay cool at the same time.
It's VERY possible the injection pump has given up and croaked. [undecided]