Duramax Issue

[jamjrks]

For those of you who are considering which tow vehicle to purchase, I wanted to share my recent experience with my 2008 Silverado 3500 HD Duramax. I bought this vehicle new in 2008 with the idea that it would provide me long, dependable service if maintained properly for at least 200,000 miles. I have maintained this truck in strict accordance with the GM recommended service intervals. In July when my wife retired, we began our life as "fulltimers". With 115,000 miles on my Silverado, I thought it was well broke in for our planned two year journey across the USA. Well, only 1000 miles into our journey while driving west on I-90 in Montana, my Silverado suddenly lost power and the DIC indicated the engine was under reduced power. Using my OBD II scanner, a code P 0087 was indicated. I took the vehicle to the GM dealer in Missoula, MT who told me that all their diagnostic tests indicated no problem. They indicated that is was possibly an injector problem, no if it occurred again to simply erase the OBD II code and keep on "trucking" until the problem became more pronouned. So, we continued on our journey until the engine lost power 8 times during a 150 mile trip from Boise to Arco, MT. This time I took the Silverado to the GM dealer in Idaho Falls where it was determined that 7 of the 8 injectors were failing. With over 115,000 miles on it, the Silverado was out of warranty so I had to bear the ($7,000) expense of replacing the seven bad injectors. I thought it highly irregular for seven injectors to all of a sudden go bad, so I contacted GM Customer Assistance requesting that GM assist in the cost of this repair. GM's marketing and advertising touts the durability and long life of the Silverado truck, so I thought maybe they would stand behind their claims and help with the this extraordinary repair cost. GM declined to share in this cost because the Silverado was out of warranty. They acknowledged that an injector failure of this magnitude was irregular, but since the truck was out of warranty, it was my problem. So, if you are considering the purchase of a GM product as your tow vehicle, this may be representative of how durable the truck really is and how GM will not stand behind their claims of durability and long life of their trucks. Use this info to weigh your tow vehicle options carefully. Send me a PM if you want more info on this issue.

[ScottG]

BertP wrote:
I had a 2005 3500 CC DA DRW. Somewhere around 60K miles, it blew both head gaskets. I am now on my second Dodge.

Bert

Dang, it doesn't sound like you've had much better luck with your Dodges! Your hard on trucks 😉

[jerem0621]

These kind of posts keep me buying gassers. Gas is cheap. There is nothing cheap about a diesel...well, except for Cummins fuel filters. Lol

OP...I sure am sorry for your troubles with this truck. Did you happen to get a second opinion on this before you had all 7 injectors replaced? Or was it one of those deals like I experienced at a Mr. transmission. My cars tranny was slipping and I took it in to Mr. transmission. Asked me if they could keep it overnight for diagnostic...when I came back the 700r4 was in pieces all Over the shop and they told me it needed a full rebuild.

What did I do? I couldn't drive it home obviously so my 18 year old self had the transmission repaired at $1750.00.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[BertP]

I had a 2005 3500 CC DA DRW. Somewhere around 60K miles, it blew both head gaskets. I am now on my second Dodge.

Bert

[jamjrks]

At the time of the failure, the fuel filter had been replaced about 5000 miles previously. I changed the fuel filter every 15K miles, always with an OEM filter from a GM dealer. After the first failure, I changed the fuel filter again, but the problem continued. This first happened on July 26, about 60 miles after refueling (41 gallons) at a Pilot/Flying J in Columbus, MT. So, would bad fuel have an impact that quickly? Probably no way I could substantiate bad fuel at this point. Thanks for the feedback.

[Wingnusa]

dfm wrote:
If you search the Duramax forum or the the Deisel Place forum there are pages and pages of threads about the P087 code and the possible
causes for this code. Not always injectors!!

X2!! I had the code and found a slight fuel leak in my aux fuel tank. No problems since it got fixed. I have 135k and religiously change my fuel filter with a quality filter. Check on dieselplace.com

[gat75]

* I have a 2009 D/A 2500 GMC with 60,000 miles. I pull a 34' full-profile Blue-Ridge 5W. We completed a 8000+ mile trip through 15 states last October with no issues. The year before, we drove from south Tx to Wash DC, again with no problems.

* However, I feel your pain. I had a 2001 F-250 that I bought new. The tranny came out of this truck 3 times in the 100,000 mile span that I owned it. The heaviest 5W this truck ever pulled was a 27.5 prowler.

* After paying over 4500.00 out of pocket, I told DW that this truck don't deserve a spot in my driveway. However, I know folks that have owned these trucks & never had a moments problem.

* It's just plain disgusting when the OEM will not stand behind their product, (especially when I probably would have had better luck buying a gasser to pull that trailer with).

* Off course the dealers try to con you into buying the X-warranty, better hope you don't need to use it. Then you get to see them try every trick in the book to keep from fixing your truck.

[kennethwooster]

My experience of diesels over many years is a good fuel additive. I know many think it is snake oil but I've watched the results over about 30 or 40 years. Those running the additive have less injector and pump problems. I much prefer Stanodyne. A good additive will add lubrication, help with water, and add to the Cetane rating. Even Ford had come back and said we should now use it. All the changes the EPA put on the fuel industry, they had to take out the lubricant that was there for years. The fuel can use help.

[DUO_CORE]

Same thing happened to me towing through the mountains with the heavy 5'er. I installed the Airdog 165 lift pump with fuel filter and water separator and no more issue. I have a 2006.

[ScottG]

Lowsuv wrote:
Has anybody got a correlation between injector failure and the number of miles towing ?
Or is there a correlation regarding water in the fuel ?
Has anyone determined a correlation to towing very heavy RV's versus a lighter RV ?
My 2002 duramax has not had injector failure yet .
I have only had one issue with water in the fuel about 8 years ago .
I tow a relatively light weight TT or a lightweight boat .
Any input is welcomed .

Actually engines that work for a living and spend hours on end droning down the highway with heavy loads tend to last longer and have fewer issues with injectors.

[dfm]

If you search the Duramax forum or the the Deisel Place forum there are pages and pages of threads about the P087 code and the possible
causes for this code. Not always injectors!!

[Lowsuv]

Has anybody got a correlation between injector failure and the number of miles towing ?
Or is there a correlation regarding water in the fuel ?
Has anyone determined a correlation to towing very heavy RV's versus a lighter RV ?
My 2002 duramax has not had injector failure yet .
I have only had one issue with water in the fuel about 8 years ago .
I tow a relatively light weight TT or a lightweight boat .
Any input is welcomed .

[ScottG]

Mtn.Mike wrote:
I have a 2004 LB7 which always had injector problems. I have put in 3 full sets but I paid $3500 for each set which included labor.
I thought that the newer ones were far easier to replace and I really question why the charge was so high?

Mike

Hopefully for that price they were new and not rebuilt - because rebuilt injectors have a bad history.

[Mtn_Mike1]

I have a 2004 LB7 which always had injector problems. I have put in 3 full sets but I paid $3500 for each set which included labor.
I thought that the newer ones were far easier to replace and I really question why the charge was so high?

Mike

[glazier]

I feel for you on that expense, bad deal and very costly. Do you keep fuel receipts, I would say you got some bad fuel. Still don't make it easier to swallow that expense, I hope you get many trouble free miles from here on out. Best of luck

[ScottG]

Sorry to hear of your bad luck.
I agree that having 7 fail at once is suspicious. Mechanics are far too quick to just replace everything sometimes.
This is a stretch but if you can find evidence of bad fuel or vandalism then your Comp. Ins. will cover the damage.
FWIW, you may want to check into some better filtration. Glacier Performance makes some very nice kits and both your DM and my Cummins need better filtering (per Bosch) than the truck comes with.