Not complaining, venting

[Wire_Man]

2008 Discovery 40X 350hp Cummins
Check engine light come on when on a long grade/hill and go back off after topping the grade. Could not find anything wrong, did not affect the way it ran but leaving on a lone 3week trip so I thought I’d take it to a Cummins dealer and have it checked out. They plugged into it and said fault for actuator on top of the turbo, I say order the part and I’ll bring it back to be replaced. Drop it off a week later on a Monday and to my surprise they call Wednesday and say they found the turbo needed replaced. :E , $6900.00 I say if it needs it I don’t have a choice. They call the following Monday and say it needs more parts, turbo cooler, egr needs cleaned out and the intake is warped. ( Now I’m like WTF) this ( to me) was a perfectly good running coach and now it needs $10,000.00 worth of repairs :E What choice do I have????? So I am going on a 3 week trip I need it.
I go up this morning and pick it up and I’m driving it home and I’m like, it does seem to have more power, maybe it did need all this work, we love the coach so it was worth it right?
I park it in the driveway and start loading it for our trip and I notice antifreeze running out of it, with anger I call and tell them I just got home and antifreeze is running out of it! They tell me they’ll send someone to my house. 2 hours later a guy shows up and yes, you guessed it, the water pump is leaking out the weep hole:R
Sorry for the long post but I just had to unload, and yes I have to pay for the water pump and service call:(

[Wire_Man]

It sure did hurt at the time but we are on our first leg of our trip (Graceland RV Park)
, over 700 miles) and it ran great. Does seam to have more power than it had coming through the hills in Kentucky, it also ran cooler than it had.
Fern you’re a lucky man to have a connection!

[wa8yxm]

Tyler0215 wrote:
WTF I drove 18 wheelers over 3 million miles and NEVER had a turbo go bad. The last truck I drove from new to 800k had one injector replace, that's all the unscheduled repairs done to the engine. Are new ones getting worse?

I have only driven an 18 Wheeler once. but My brother did it for like 30 years OTR and yes. He blew a Turbo.

However not all bad news. His boss leased the tractors (Trailers too).

The fun side of that.... Had a Trooper (Yup. I dispatched state police including "Diesel Smokies" (Motor carrier division).

Back to I had had a trooper who was moving Well she called up JAR Tran for a truck.. Sold out that day (She and her husband had made arrangements to have same day off) So I told her I'd see what I could do Called my Brother.. he called his Ryder Contact who called us back.

Got her a better truck (Bigger Air Ride A/C and Radio) for less money.. She was impressed.. Oh the JAR in JARtran.. John A Ryder. Founder of Ryder.

He told me he could have gotten an even better price with more lead time. But hey. She was happy as it was.

[rgatijnet1]

Tyler0215 wrote:
WTF I drove 18 wheelers over 3 million miles and NEVER had a turbo go bad. The last truck I drove from new to 800k had one injector replace, that's all the unscheduled repairs done to the engine. Are new ones getting worse?

I would assume that you drove your trucks REGULARLY and did not leave them parked for an extended period of time between trips.
Most mechanical items will last longer when used. I'll bet that you also never had any tires rot away before they were worn away.

[turbojimmy]

chuckftboy wrote:
That's called the shotgun approach. If you throw enough parts at it, something will fix it.

Yep and at the owner's expense. Shameful.

[naturist]

Agree it’s better to repair it before you leave on a trip, and that a ten year old rig probably does have worn out parts in need of replacement. Still, painful, sorry you had these issues.

To answer a question someone else asked, yes, turbos are getting less reliable. Happens with everything. Between the manufacturing drive to continually make “cost improvements,” ie, cut costs and the continual adding on of features and varied bells and whistles, things devolve. Turbos used to be very simple devices, just a pair of spinning wheels and a couple bearings, very tight specs, but simple. Not much to go bad. Now they’re having movable vanes to control output instead of a separate wastegate, and while that has improved control, it has also made the turbo have around 20 times the number of moving parts.

[ferndaleflyer]

Sure glad my friend owns a truck shop that specializes in Cummins. Has more work than he can do for some reason!

[wa8yxm]

Contact the department of motor vehicles.. Vehicle repair shops are regulated by the state.. IF they are in fact "Running up the bill" then it's a bit like aircraft.. (The joke is when the weight of the paperwork exceeds the weight of the air frame it will fly) In this case when the weight of the letters of complaint exceed the weight of the investigator. it'll get investigated.

I know of dealers (Ford in this case) who have been padlocked by the state.
(One of the reasons I'm not a ford fan).

Also contact Cummins

It is possible they may want to look into their representative dealer. Their investigators are "lighter" re the joke above.

[Tyler0215]

WTF I drove 18 wheelers over 3 million miles and NEVER had a turbo go bad. The last truck I drove from new to 800k had one injector replace, that's all the unscheduled repairs done to the engine. Are new ones getting worse?

[Big_Katuna]

I concur. Same for Freightliner. $130/hr labor plus full retail for parts.

[dons2346]

chuckftboy wrote:
That's called the shotgun approach. If you throw enough parts at it, something will fix it.

One reason I have lost all appreciation for Cummins. I'd rather go to an independent garage than Cummins

[journey_indiana]

Been there, done that. Back in june we had a CEL on our 2004, 5.9/300hp and went to Cummins. They said turbo was stuck? It was the actuator. I said we are leaving for Seattle in 1 week, replace it. They called back the next day, exhaust manifold warped, replace it. We called them the Friday before we were supposed to leave on Sunday. Everything done, $5300+ w/Cummins club discount. It was the 4th turbo replacement in 98,000 miles. Cummins said, sorry, it's too old for consideration/help on the repairs. And so it goes.
Good Luck,
Journey Indiana

[SidecarFlip]

Glad I do my own work. That is all bolt on stuff.

[old_guy]

well I must say you can't afford to trade it in now

[Wire_Man]

bigred1cav wrote:
Were you using cruise control. Stop and use RPM's on upgrades.

?