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MO_Trout_Bum's avatar
MO_Trout_Bum
Explorer
Jun 26, 2016

Durmax LLY Losing prime

Just wanted to get some thoughts on a sporadic problem. After an uneventful 3 hour drive back from camping, we dropped off the camper at the storage lot (truck was idling about 10 minutes); put the truck in gear and it immediately died. Would turn over but not start. All that occurred to me was, it lost prime. So I loosened the bleeder and pumped a few times (no air came out). Left it sit another minute or two and primed again, and diesel came shooting out of the bleeder. Tightened it up, and the truck started right up. Drove home and put the truck in the garage until I had time to work on it. Replaced the fuel filter as a precaution (I had just replaced < 2000 miles ago in the Fall), primed it and it started right up. Noticed some sediment in the drain pan, but not sure that is unusual. Anyway, finished the job, primed as normal and truck started right up. Truck sat in garage another week, and I took it today to the storage lot to do some camper maintenance for a couple of hours. Started truck up, put it in gear and it died. Very same scenario with the bleeder as previously... truck start up and I took it to get some fresh diesel (about 15 gallons); drove it down the interstate 5 miles or so and back, ran some errands, and no problems since. Just wondering if we got some bad diesel on the trip, or sediment in the tank from truck sitting in garage for most of the winter, or ????

Any thoughts or similar experiences?
  • Look for anywhere in the fuel system that could be drawing in air. Everyone throws a rebuild kit in the filter housing as a first step because its cheap and easy, it seldom fixes the problem. I've changed more sending units than rebuilt fuel filter housings.
  • You probably need to rebuild the fuel filter housing. "O" rings and seals get old and leak air into the housing. Rebuild kits are available to do this job.
  • We have had a handful of these coming in the shop the last two weeks. Temp recently started hovering in the high 90's. Two of them needed housings, but the other three or four we just reprimed and away they went.
  • Same thing happened last Monday...started then died....no fuel coming through....priming only worked short time...Took it to Chevy dealer and fuel filter housing was bad....something with the primer ball and something else in the filter assembly...anyway...works fine now