Sounds like Daimler-Chrysler is starting the process of transitioning from Cummins to Mercedes Benz diesels... by making the Cummins basically worthless after the short D/C warranty because NObody can work on them.

D/C also shot themselves in the foot in the RV market by basically disclaiming any warranty responsibility if you haul a truck camper on ANY 2005 up 3500 Quad cab longbed. Ford goes out and considerably raises their GVWR, so their SRW 350 can carry more than Dodge's dually.

What is up with D/C???

 

I'm starting to think they are a little TOO proud of their trucks What a shame. I'm a Diehard Mopar dude, so I guess this means, as always, I'm sticking with the older stuff. (pre 'puter)

 

I'll bet they don't transition over to the MB diesel, it will be an option. They have done market research and know they will nearly put themselves out of business if they drop the Cummins.

 

You can bet they wouldn't get my business if they dropped Cummins...

 

Hey guys,

Lets think about it for a moment.... I bought a Cummins in a Dodge so that I would have dependability... I can say (knock on wood) I have had no problems with the Cummins. I think we are all worrying about something that we may never use! How many of us have had to use the Engine warranty? The Cummins name and quality is all I need to know about what I'm driving. Some of the FURD guys I know have had great warranty right up until the point they get sick of having their trucks in the shop more than on the road. Remember warranty is something I don't want to use, nice to have when major problems but who can trust the mechanics that DC produce anyway? Buy wise!

 

I quit caring about warranty a long time ago, Cummins has just always been where I took my truck for anything I couldn't fix and now they have taken that away. The Cummins was the only reason I bought this truck in the first place. I have done my best through the years to get rid of all the Dodge parts I can. Wasn't hard to do either, I have already wore most of them out and needed replaced anyway.

 

Roger that!!! My thoughts exactly!

I love my CTD but have had less than stellar service out of the trucks wrapped around them. It never ceases to amaze me how far DC will go to alienate their customers. Gonna give some real tought to my next purchase and it will likely not be my favorite, (a CTD Dodge)!

 

I talked to one of the parts guys at Southern Plains Cummins yesterday and he told me that the whole issue was that if Cummins worked on the truck, it voided the DC warranty. That being said, they're still glad to work on the light duty trucks once warranty is no longer an issue.

 

How would it void the warrenty? Wouldn't they have to contact DC for them to know your truck has been worked on...I just don't see how they would know you had work done.

 

If I am not sadly mistaken, the common rail engine is Dodge only. The common rail Cummins for commercial use is completely different. Also the ECM on the Dodges has always been Dodge. The Cummins ECM has 100 pins where the Dodge only has the one cable with 50 pins.

They may be having problems with the Cummins training not covering the common rail Dodge.

 

HID, anywhere on what those xtra 50 pins are for? I think it has been mentioned but wonder if it would be worth it to eliminate Dodge form the engine control, not just so Cummins can work on them though.

 

I finally got my answer from the big dogs at Cummins on this issue.

I've discussed your message with our Service Manager there, Dennis Dewerff, and I have asked him to call you. The issues concerning working on Cummins engines in Dodge trucks are a bit complicated but I'll try to give you a bit of an outline.
Chrysler purchases their Cummins Engines without warranty. They rely on their dealer network to provide warranty service and Chrysler assumes warranty liability for the product. In fact, even though we are "Cummins", Chrysler will not allow us to perform warranty repairs on these engines unless we are hired to do so by an authorized Dodge dealer. In addition, should there be a "beyond warranty" issue or technical problem we do not have access to any factory support to assist in those situations. This can cause some very hard feeling with customers. From a support standpoint these engines are a Chrysler product even though they are branded Cummins.
Early on the engines used by Dodge were identical or almost identical to the engines that were being used in numerous other applications. Therefore we were able to use our technical support documentation when working on Dodge / Cummins engines. As time has passed, more and more customization has been done with the engines to meet the needs and requests of Dodge customers. We are now at a point where our technical support documentation may not be accurate when used with a Dodge / Cummins engine. This is especially true in the area of engine controls and electronics. In fact, Dodge has created their own software interface to work with the engine and their controls. Since about 2002 we can no longer communicate with the engine computer without purchasing the proprietary Dodge software interface which cost about $6000 per location. That makes it difficult to support a business case for working on Dodge / Cummins engines. However, I am currently revi
With that all being said, it does seem that we may have some internal mis-communication. Our position is that we have to be selective about what work we accept because of the limitations on our support capability. We do not want to mislead customers if we are incapable of affecting an efficient repair. That may have been interpreted as a "ban" on Dodge / Cummins work. As your engine is one of the older models we may be able to perform work on it. To that end, you should expect a call from Dennis Dewerff to discuss specifics.
We appreciate your concern and I hope this reply was helpful in addressing your questions.

Sincerely,
Steve Watkins
Vice President, Cummins Mid-States Power

 

That's what I figured.

Older trucks, no problem, but 3rd gen onward and upward will be iffy.

It says from 2002 on, but I'm sure he meant 2003 and was a victim of the 3rd gen confusion, being 1500's were 3rd gen in 2002, but 2500's and 3500's were 2nd gen.


phox

 

You mean the switchover to common rail systems?...just curious, the only diag equipment I need for my truck is a good manual and a DVOM

 

I may be somewhat mistaken, but I was told that the common rail engine that is in the Dodge is a Dodge only engine. The Cummins commercial engines have the gear train in the rear of the engine. In other words, starting with the 2003 common rail engine, it is no longer the same as a Cummins mid sized engine.

It would be a conversion to put the full Cummins in the Dodge... I was told it would not fit. There are no transmission adaptors for it. It is strictly an SAE bell housing engine.

That being the case, it would take a seperate training to service the Dodge engine.