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Halmfamily's avatar
Halmfamily
Explorer
Jun 06, 2018

Had a no start on my '08 GMC Duramax LMM today.

We arrived at the campground on Saturday and parked my truck on a hillside next to the FW do my wife could park the Durango for easy use. This morning I went to start the Duramax to pull the portable poop tank to the dump station and all the truck would do is turnover with no start.
Checked the Scan Gauge II and no codes. Popped the hood and manually pumped the fuel filter, still no start. Put truck in neutral and rolled it back down the hill and then went inside the FW to break the news to the wife the truck won't start. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, my 18 year old son jumps in the truck and it fires right up and he heads off to the dump station. I walk out of the FW and my truck is gone, WTH. First thought did I not put the truck in park and now it's sitting in the lake. Panic sets in and I see my son coming back with the truck, whew, but 15 minutes ago it would not start. My son said it started up after a few seconds of turning over. So, my only guess is that the fuel intake is at the front of the tank and parking on the hill left the intake out of the fuel and the filter drained back to the tank. Once I reprimed the fuel filter and got the truck level all was good. I had 12 gallons in the main tank and 27 in the auxiliary tank.
My question is this normal? Should my fuel filter have drained back to the tank? Just don't want this to happen again.
Tow Vehicles
  • TugCE's avatar
    TugCE
    Explorer
    Jun 06, 2018
    For the first time a month or so back my 05 would crank but not start. Tank was over 1/2 of good fuel. Well, after I check the fuel filter %, I found it was down to almost 0. Once I replaced the filter and primed the filter it would still not start. I called a buddy who is a mobile service tech and he told me to find the bleed valve on the fuel rail and bleed it while cranking. Once I did this is crank right up. The valve on the fuel rail looks like a A/C Charge valve and if might be a good idea for everyone with a Durmax to locate it just in case they need to bleed the rail.
  • S_Davis's avatar
    S_Davis
    Explorer
    Jun 06, 2018
    I would also look at the fuel filter head, same happened on my 09 and the primer seal was bad.
  • Turtle_n_Peeps's avatar
    Turtle_n_Peeps
    Explorer
    Jun 06, 2018
    Paul Clancy wrote:
    Lift pump.


    There is no lift pump on an 08 Dmax.

    My LBZ did the same thing last year. No codes or anything. The only CEL was a bad glow plug but it was on for months before the CNS. I checked for filter pressure and it was fine. No air or anything.

    About 3 hours later it started and has ran perfect ever since. Oh and the hours reset for some weird reason. Really weird.
  • byronlj's avatar
    byronlj
    Explorer
    Jun 06, 2018
    A friends truck did the same for a couple of months. The primer pump at the fuel filter was losing prime. There is a rebuild kit for it or the whole assembly for just a little more that includes a new filter. He bought the assembly which fixed his problem.
  • Artum_Snowbird's avatar
    Artum_Snowbird
    Explorer
    Jun 06, 2018
    Not sure if your Duramax has a glow plug relay or not, but I replaced mine in my 7.3 twice. Both times it would turn over quite some time, then might start eventually.

    On mine I popped the lid off and found 12 volts on the main feed and no volts on the other side. Relay shot. Should have 12 volts on both sides when warming up the glow plugs to start.
  • ScottG's avatar
    ScottG
    Nomad
    Jun 06, 2018
    Certainly not normal. It doesn't matter how you park it, it should never do that.
    I suspect there's a hard code stored that your SG can't access.

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