Operational problems with new diesel pickups

DEF trucks are great. They are reliable and get great fuel mileage. One concern is that they need to be worked, or else they attempt to go into regen (common with any DPF diesel). When we go to Florida, after a week of low speed commuter driving my truck gets cranky and wants to regen. If I don't get out on the highway, it will attempt to regen itself by heating up. That is an absolute waste of fuel, so be careful with that.

I've heard of carbon buildup on turbo vanes, but the Cummins has a variable vane turbo so it isn't supposed to be nearly as susceptible to it. I'm at 60K trouble free miles on my 2015. I really like it for the power as well as the exhaust brake which is incredible!

The new diesels are incredible. I haven’t experienced much in the way of DEF issues but the longest I’ve kept a def equipped truck was 100k miles. There’s no way I would trade my 2021 F350 for a pre DEF truck.

Just don't put DEF in your fuel tank.

Friends Dad was on a road trip and his buddy did that with a chevy colarado (small diesel)...it was a $14k repair.

I don't think you'll have any issues with DEF on new trucks.
I don't consider your 2009 a pre emission truck although it is pre DEF.
I think the DEF trucks perform better than the 09 emissions era trucks.
DEF trucks deliver decent performance while also delivering better MPG's than the 09 era trucks.

We have a 2019 GMC Duramax Denali DRW with 40+K miles on the Isuzu designed engine....Absolutely trouble free miles... I DO NOT let the engine idle for any length of time, I turn off & on as needed.... NO codes, NO issues.... And the power going up hills & the exhaust brake for coming down hills is the best!!!! It’s the LP5 engine with the 6 speed Allison; I hear that the new 10 speed is smoother than glass....

DEF has actually allowed manufacturers the to ability to boost power and performance of newer diesel engines with little regard to emissions from the engine. They can now tune the engines to maximum power and performance and then the emissions are taken care of downstream of the engine with the DEF systems (spraying urea into the exhaust system to reduce nox) and diesel particulate filters (to trap unburned particles in the exhaust stream).

My 2012, bought new, has never had any issue with the DEF system and only a failed high exhaust temp sensor that was replaced under warranty. Problems are sometimes mentioned here. But considering the hundreds of thousands of DEF trucks having been sold, it seems those complaints are relatively few. Problem is that if a few mention a problem, then it seems to take on a new life and becomes a wide spread problem.

Deleting the emissions systems are done by some. But in some (many?) states it is illegal. In Texas you cannot legally sell or trade a vehicle with a modified emissions system under possible penalty of $25,000 fine. And from what I understand, a dealer cannot legally take one under trade.

Travel glampers wrote:


Also, has anyone experienced problems with the air bags in a 2009 Silverado? Just got a recall notice on ours. Replacement air bags are not available.

Thanks.

The Silverado recall is just another chapter in the Takata recall. Over the last several years, millions of vehicles have been recalled to replace the inflator mechanism. I owned a 2005 Ram 3500 that initially was recalled only for the driver side inflator. About a year later the passenger side inflator was added to the recall. In both cases it took months before the local dealer had inflators available to perform the replacement.

DEF equipped trucks IMO are a **** shoot. Some have no problems, others have problems. Thanks to tree huggers is why we have DEF trucks. Being you have a truck that getting a lil long in the tooth (11-12 years old now), the new trucks do have many things going for them: more power to compensate for the DEF, higher GVW's, better creature comforts, better/stiffer frames. DEF repairs can be costly after warranty expires.

I'm on my 2nd DEF truck and yes it does have an ongoing issue w/ part of the DEF system, yet it somehow doesn't seem to affect it. Pretty much Ford's answer to solving it is to just keep clearing/updating the computer. Really??? Anyways, most folks now are towing w/ DEF trucks and don't really hear a whole lot of neg problems. Again, not saying there are not any, just don't hear a lot of complaining.

So if you have the means to and want to, then get a new DRW DEF truck but check into how long the factory warranty is on the DEF system so as to wether or not you wish to consider an extended warranty for this side of things. Have heard many folks will delete things as well once factory warranty expires and trucks run a whole lot better.

In my family of 6 we have only had one airbag deployed and it wasn't needed. Airbags are not high on my priority list. I may use one today but so far avoiding accidents has been a very successful strategy for me. I prefer to have airbags but they are pretty low on my priority list.

You generally don't live to tell about the airbag problems.