What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Who has a Duramax pickup?

sled_dog

sled_dog

1 ton status
Joined
Sep 3, 2002
Posts
16,867
Reaction score
3
Location
Austin, TX
My dad is thinking about getting rid of his 02 F250(yay) for a brand new 2500HD with a Duramax. Hes tired of getting sub 10 mpg, and not having anything(power wise) to show for it. Besides overall he doesn't like the truck, been through brakes and goes through back tires pretty quickly. And its cursed since I fed it up back when he first got it. So anyone own a Duramax equipped rigged? Happy with it? Mileage? He didn't get a Diesel back when he bought the F250 cause he was worried about the weight and the added price. Now he kicks himself. A homeowner for a place hes doing an addition on gave him some coupon thing where you get employee prices on vehicles, but its only from like the 10th-13th so he has to decide quick.
 
There's a thread in the diesel forum.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
The new d-max's seem to be working good. Brakes last 80k miles or so, way longer than they shouldn and they work awesome. The new LLY engines run better and have more power and seem to have less problems too.
 
I have an '03. Extremely happy with it. My best mileage was 19.8 mpg. Average is 17ish. Towing 9k I get 13-14.

I wear my back tires fast, but I have an Edge module and a heavy right foot.

Dad has an '02 and got 45k out of his factory tires. Same mileage and very happy with his.

John
 
01'-03' duramax's have some problems. THe main thing is they have internal injectors inside the vlave covers. THey are having problems with them cracking and leaking filling the crank case with diesel. From what I remember it costs a couple of thousand bucks for new injectors. The 04' models now come equipped with external injectors.
 
good to know, I think he'd buy an 04 if anything. Unless they had some leftover model sitting aorund, in which cause I will try and talk him out of it. I remember something about Head Gaskets on the older ones. Way I figure it, doubt theres much problem wise with the new ones, all been worked out by now.
 
I want one too, probly get it in July/Aug time frame. Gonna go for a crew cab 4x4 too, good to know about the 04 model /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
Makes me wana do more research
like this 04
243767S.JPG

YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADURAMAX
 
don't like the look of the Chevy's myself. Probably try and sway him to a GMC unless he likes it. I miss the look of the like 01 02 2500HDs. He'll probably get an extended cab longbed. Thats what he has now with his F250.
 
I kinda like the GMC too, now that I have looked at a few picks..here is the front shot
1_31.jpg

not very good pick /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif
 
You are talking out of your ass. You have any first hand experience? /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

Some and I stress some, trucks have had problems. GM took care of any problems by extending the warranty on the injectors on 01 and 02 trucks to 7 years/200k miles. And its retroactive to people that already paid to have them replaced.

The bad injectors comes from poor fuel quality.

And not all 04's came with the new LLY diesel as you said in a blanket statement. 04's can be had with either motor, The LLY (new) or LB7 (old).

But thanks for your first hand insight.. /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

I dont mean to pick on you too much, but get the facts before you speak. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

John
 
[ QUOTE ]
You are talking out of your ass. You have any first hand experience? /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif


[/ QUOTE ] No I don't have a duramax myself but a very good friend of mine has an 01' with the problem I stated above. I am a commercial diesel mechanic and deal with a company called Bell Turbo on a regular basis with M11, N14, 60 series Detroit turbos and have gotten to know the owner quite well. We have discussed about the new duramax diesels and 5.9 cummins because he is a dealer for the Edge chip and other bolt on stuff. He has had 17 of his duramax owned customers have problems with the internal injectors. All of which were covered under warranty but one guy had the same problem reacur 7 times. There is a reason why GM extended the warranty. /forums/images/graemlins/deal.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Some and I stress some, trucks have had problems. GM took care of any problems by extending the warranty on the injectors on 01 and 02 trucks to 7 years/200k miles. And its retroactive to people that already paid to have them replaced.


[/ QUOTE ] Good!!
[ QUOTE ]
And not all 04's came with the new LLY diesel as you said in a blanket statement. 04's can be had with either motor, The LLY (new) or LB7 (old).


[/ QUOTE ] True, but most 04' models have the new LLY motor and most importantly when buying a new one you can make sure your vehicle gets one.

Better rethink that "talking out of one's ass" thing. /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
 
John's right, the injector problem is pretty uncommon. I have an '02 that got the 200k warranty. I'm not sweating it a bit. From what I've read, seems the cost of doing injectors is coming down now due to other options in the market. For a while there only OEM was an option. I've got a SWB 4x4 Crew DMax/Allison and I absolutely love it. I got a trooper shaking a finger at me over memorial day week end, going up a grade with the truggy and full gear, in the passing lane, in OD, truck running like it's on flat ground, passing cars and trucks in the slow lane without loads and couldn't hold speed. 'Course that little box on the dash might have something to do with that... /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif But even before the box, my truck would pass most loaded trucks and many vehicles on the grades, it just wouldn't do it in OD... And anyone who caused me to loose speed screwed me till I got over the top, but now I can get the speed back. Just gotta watch EGTs...

2500hd.jpg


[Edit] BTW, this should probably be in the tow rig forum. It's not really 4x4 related. But then this is the open garage with public visibility, so I decided to leave it and let Steve make the call...
 
I was a bit out of line with the comment. People (blanket statement here) /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif try to talk up a subject without knowing a damn thing about it at all, whatever it may be.

You were just painting a pretty dismal picture on the whole. There are a couple other choices out there for diesels, unfortunately the Cummins is wrapped in an ugly dodge. And Ford, well, no comment. I will say Ford had lots more problems with the new 6.0L compared to the Duramax. To the point of buybacks.

And 17 problems you describe with injectors sounds a little high to me for one shop, but I can believe it. But also, even at 17, thats 17 out of how many trucks made..

I just want to make sure all the details were given out, not just the ones you want us to know.

As far as my comment above, please accept my apology. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
 
Wow, 17? Out of how many total? I'm a member on some of the Duramax sites and I can't imagine the number being that high. On sites like those you always get things skewed to the negative. Reported problems are "big issues" that stick in your mind, the hundreds uppon hundreds of members with no problems are not nearly as obvious without looking at it carefully. In any case, I would guess (look out, number coming out of my...er.. well.. you get it... ) far less than 1 in 200 have an injector problem in under 100k. And with that I've read about the OEM fuel filters and US fuel quality combined with the Boche HPCR system, I'm surprised it's not worse. Of course, that's info from these sites I mentioned, so I take it with a grain of salt.

Oh, I forgot to mention my one and only complaint with this truck. The fuel capacity is a **JOKE**. /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif What numb nuts bean counter decided to put a 26 gallon fuel tank in a truck? I can't imagine what it's like with the 8.1s and other gassers. I bet they have around 100 mile usable range! /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif I get around 17-18 mpg average empty, better if I can keep my foot out of it and stay below 70 mph, yeah... that's gonna happen... I am lookin at an after market tank that holds around 65 gallons (~55 usable due to excessive length) or a 90 gallon aux in bed. But with a short bed, I'm loath to loose any bed space...
 
[ QUOTE ]

And 17 problems you describe with injectors sounds a little high to me for one shop, but I can believe it. But also, even at 17, thats 17 out of how many trucks made..



[/ QUOTE ] I started thinking about that after I posted and he has probably sold products to 50-100 Dmax owners, maybe more or less. /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif So probably it is a fairly small percentage in total. I just heard the bad part about it. I am going to buy either a 6.0 ford SD or a duramax chevy but am going to only look at 04's with the LLY motors simply because I don't want to even worry about it and also the Allison was supposedly worked on for 04' and got the bugs out of that, but I never really heard much about probs with the allison unless the motor was making tons of power with aftermarket components. /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
 
I tested one the other day and I've got tell ya, if it will top out at about 130-140, I'd want one for a patrol vehicle in a heartbeat.

It got up to 90 a hell of a lot faster than my patrol car, and the road I was on is really rough in the Crown Vic, but the truck rode really smooth and wasn't harsh.

I want one /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
 
Stock, they have a 95mph speed limiter in the ECM. But the Predator and some other "programmers" can remove the speed limiter. A lot of the drag racers are removing the limiter because they top out at about 3/4 track and 95 top hurts their time, IN A 7500 LB 4x4 CREW CAB TRUCK! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif And some of these guys are towing their "race cars" to the track using the DMax they also race. And the cars are only a couple seconds faster than the DMax that towed them to the race...

Of course the fastest right now are the bombed Cummins, but the Cummins cost more to get it up there than the DMax which generally just needs a chip (or two /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif), air filter, and exhaust to hit 500+ rwhp and 900+ ft/lb torque.
 
I personally work at a cehvy dealer and have done injectors on multiple duramax's. Out of the many many many trucks they have sold we actually have very few come in with problems. The most ive seen one truck have injectors replaced is twice, this is on a construction truck that had 100k miles on it. If I were to buy one i wouldnt worry about it, they are very good trucks.
 
I've owned two F350 PSDs and now drive on 04 Chevy LLY Dually CC 4x4. I thought the Fords drove smoother stock, but many disagree with me. The Chevy stock rear suspension really nailed my back over train tracks and bumps. But, the Chevy front susp is much smoother than the F350s.
Since we are all truck guys here, you know the suspension can be modified though. On all the trucks, I've added velvet rides and RS9000s. On the Chevy I also removed a couple leaves and added air-bags . They all rode really nicely after the mods.

As far as motors go, I chose the Duramax/Allison this time due to the technology improvements over both the 6.0 PSD and the LB7 Duramax. After all, now you can have automatic grade braking, fast glow plugs, variable vane turbo, new injectors that resist ball seat erosion, injectors that are replaceable without removing the valve covers, 32 bit ECM, and a stronger (IMHO ) transmission among other things.

Plus the GM trucks have XM, Bose, real fold down crew cab seats, and a very comfy interior with plenty of storage.

Just my .02
/forums/images/graemlins/usaflag.gif /forums/images/graemlins/usaflag.gif /forums/images/graemlins/usaflag.gif
jeff
 
Now if Chevy would just fix that horrendous front... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif If you can’t tell, that angry Chinaman front cap has not grown on me…
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom