Does anyone know of any bulletins out on the 07 Dodges with the 5.9 Cummins melting the no.1 piston? I have an 07 crewcab dually with 1,364 miles on it and a melted no.1 piston and sent the rings into the turbo. It took out the block, injectors, turbo, and the injection pump. The dealership is saying contaminated fuel, so it isn't covered under warranty. I called the department of weights and measures as soon as the dealership said bad fuel. The DWM tested the fuel the very next day and the results were that the fuel passed their test. I just have a hard time believing that water in the fuel would melt the piston. My water in fuel light never came on, the truck just started to get a miss in it, so I got to the closest dealership I could as soon as I could. Any info you could give me would greatly be appriciated.
By the way total cost to fix my truck was $21,748.17 Half the cost of the truck. If it was the fuel the only thing that is going to save me is that I got a receipt. Without the receipt I would have been up the creek without a paddle. Moral of the story: ALWAYS GET A FUEL RECEIPT.

 

So DC is now going to honor the warranty(for sure)and replace the engine on their nickle?

 

DC customer service at it's finest. Makes ya think twice about buying a new truck don't it?
how do they figure water in fuel? Wouldn't it have to be straight water, what a load of poop.

 

DC didn't cover any of the costbecause they said there was nothing machanically wrong with the motor. For now my insurance paid the bill, but this will probably end up in litigation in court against either the fuel station or DC. I herd through the grapevines that DC had a problem on the common rail engines, that they had a problem with the no.1 piston overheating and melting. Just figured I would put this post on here to see if anyone else has herd the same thing, or has had a simmilar problem. I have 2 7.3Powerstrokes and never had a lick of problems with them. I just didn't want one of the 6.0 Powerstrokes because Ford has had problems with them. After all of this, this was the first Dodge I have bought and probably will be the last. We will have to see how this motor holds out.

 

Moved to appropriate forum.

Bad fuel cannot cause a meltdown. Not unless something got through the filter (not likely, but possible) and lodged in the injector causing it to be stuck open and dump way more fuel in that cylinder. Water in the fuel will not cause it to meltdown either. A little water will go though fine. A lot of water will cause the engine to run like poo poo. A large amount of water and the engine would barely run, if at all. The WIF light would have come on if this was the case.

Sounds like DC is feeding you a line. There is definitely something wrong with that engine. It should not have failed with only 1,300 miles on it. Sounds like either a foreign object lodged in the injector (not likely) or that an injector failed.

 

did you have any warnign signs or symptoms before this catasrophic event happened? i too have an 07 5.9, no problems yet...knock on wood, and i also have crossed over from an 01 ford 7.3.....very good motor....much, MUCH stronger than the new truck i just bought...and i also did not want to get a 6.0 or even a new 6.4 with all the problems ford has been having.....all in all glad i made the switch, and no looking back but now you got me scared!!!

good luck!
darren

 

NOthing mechanically wrong? They don't think that a melted engine is improper?

The line the dealership is feeding is pure unadulterated BS-- plain and simple. Try another dealer.

If #1 melted it's most likely an injector that hung open. Even if you had bad fuel, the factory FF should eliminated that type of particle that would cause the problem.

No matter how it's sliced, I see this as a ticket that DC bought.

Don't give up-- make those idiots pay and fight the dealer. Arm yourself with knowledge, logic, and humility, and try to reason with the dealer before you get too confrontational.

Easier said than done, I know. If it were MY truck they they were dancing out of a 21K warranty bill, I can gurantee I'd have something to repent for later.

jh

 

I'd like to see a pic of the piston remains.If it grenaded to the ringlands,I would have to think it was a bad piston.Fuel,&/or water would NOT cause a piston failure of that magnitude without setting off the WIF sensor,Or a bad rattle,etc. to give it away.If the injecter had stuck open,It would have been smokeing white pretty bad.The only other thing I can thik of may be something blocking the intake port for that cyl.(Verry unlikley).Keep us posted on the litigations.

 

gotta ask....even with your low miles, was your truck modded at all?
i know people who literally installl stuff even before they drive off the lot!!!!
it happens!!!!

 

Sometimes I wish this site could have a list of dealers to avoid I think Cattledogzip found #1
This has to be a factory defect, It happens to the best of them the fact it went at 1300 miles doesn't surprise me (If they don't blow right away, they last forever). I ran a brand new JD 8100 and the engine blew up at 14 hours.
They should be giving you a new truck!!!!

 

Did the squealership save a big sample of the fuel and have some of it tested? That's the only way their case could hold any water, pun intended! Heck, even then, the fuel filter / WIF sensor should have stopped it.

 

On top of everything else, #6 is the hot cylinder anyway! Duh.

1300 miles and contaminated fuel? This "fuel"ish excuse has gotten way out of hand. If bad fuel was the actual cause of all the problems that DC dealers claim it to be, wouldn't we be seeing trucks dropping off the highway on a daily basis? Three trucks on the side of the road for every one that is still running?

Now even though the fuel tested OK, DC says that it is not bad fuel and that it isn't their problem because the motor is mechanically fine. I guess they determined that from digging through the wreckage of the motor, eh? CSI, anyone?

 

Give us an update when you get a chance.

 

I feel contaminated fuel is the standard answer when when the tech and service dept have no answer for the failure and know most wont challenge by taking fuel samples ect

 

yep... they got nothing better to blame it on other than "bad fuel"... I got a better idea, lets blame it on IGNORANCE at the dealership level.
Cattledog, was the piston pulled loose from the rod? was there damage to the top of the piston like something had hit it? Or did it look like the top of the piston had erroded?...
Water in the fuel wouldn't have melted a piston. I would ask that the injector be tested and the old engine be given to you for an independent failure analysis. There are people out there smarter than the local automobile dealership that can tell you EXACTLY what happened to the engine.