Looking at a Hellcat
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live4theking
Old Man with a Hat
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That's a new interpretation for me.
azblackhemi
Old Man with a Hat
Stay far away from the ECO Diesel. Besides the emission controversy apparently a lot of them are blowing up at about 20k miles.
72Fury
Senior Member
A salesman at a dealership told me that they would not sell one unless forced, and even then they would warn the customer. According to him, the warranty claims were hideous.
live4theking
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Yikes, I hope that doesn't hold true for my boss' truck. He'll be hotter than a hornet in a hail storm if it pops.
Carmine
Old Man with a Hat
We never lay hands on one where I work, (it's an Italian engine) so I can't say much about the VM Diesel... but I will say that I wouldn't buy an Italian-made spoon if I were looking to eat anything heavier than chicken broth.
azblackhemi
Old Man with a Hat
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
Yes I have read.a lot of those on the internet. The 20k on a '15 is a dead giveaway that the vehicle is being used improperly and that that person should have bought a hybrid for their 6 mile commute if they wanted good fuel mileage.
Most everything you see is warranty work for emissions (which are problematic) on a short trip vehicle. Turbo problems, again on a short trip, fire up and go, stop and shut off. Basically a lot of issues brought on by people buying a vehicle that requires a different skill set and lifestyle, all they saw was mileage figure in the window.
Same thing with the air suspension on my wife's 2011. Although I think it could have been better/different, reading the internet I should have just threw gas and a match on it. It took me a couple of days (learning the system) a thirty pack of beer for my HVAC friend and some cobbled up A/C fittings and hoses to recharge the nitrogen tank, replace the Maxi fuse/coaxing the air compressor back to life, and some soapy water in a spray bottle to check for leaks, none found. All of this would have been a easy $2-3000 at a dealer. Turns out it was only high pressure nitrogen escaping over a 1.5 year period and a compressor that had never come on during that time not wanting to start working. So I guess every 8-12 months I need to buy my friend a 30 pack of beer and spend some time with him on a Sunday afternoon, glad I did not go the gasoline and match route.
Fact is people are morons and when they make a bad choice they want to blame someone else. My Peterbilt is a cool old truck, it does not make a good jump in and go to the grocery store vehicle.
Got proof that ones that are driven 20, 30, 40 miles each way to work are blowing up at 20k I would be happy to check it out. Most of what I see has that grain of salt in it.
Bottom line is these are the people that SHOULD be in a Prius.
They should be warning customers, see my above comment about morons.
It is a Italian diesel, developed with GM originally for European use in Cadillac CTS to compete with BMW, Mercedes diesel sedans. When Fiat was really looking at Chrysler the deal went away, draw your own conclusion.
I talked to a guy at Carlisle about one in a pu and he could not have been happier, I think he had over 40k on it, it had not been sitting still for sure.
On another note the Cummins V8 diesel they were developing for 1/2 ton Rams, nixed when Fiat took over ended up in Nissan Titans and seems to be a good combo from the raving reviews from 2 different owners I talked to.
azblackhemi
Old Man with a Hat
Well I'm certainly not going to get in a huge argument over something I don't even have a stake in but if I did own one I would expect it to tow my boat on weekends but also take the kids to the bus stop and go to the grocery store in it. My 04 Cummins 5.9 does all I ask of it without a complaint. The reason I don't own a Eco diesel or even a new 6.7 with all the DEF and emission issues is I can't be assured of the same.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
The filter and cow piss have ruined any future for diesel engines in North America (thanks Dick and George, go figure 2 oil men took all the fuel mileage out of a diesel engine). Increased maintenance, poor technician diagnostic ability, unreliable emission control devices should make anyone run from '08 up diesels.
Amazing to me is that the same basic problems gasoline engines had with EGR valves in 73-74 are the same problems modern diesels are having with them now. Seems no matter how hard we try, shoving dirty exhaust into a clean intake system never fixes anything and makes a drivability mess.
azblackhemi
Old Man with a Hat
My first real experience with diesel emissions nightmares was when I was still working for Phoenix Transit. The city retrofitted a bunch of Detroit diesels with catalytic convertors. They plugged up so fast in city stop and go driving that every 30 days when they came in for PM's we all jumped in one at midnight (the PM shift was midnight to 8am) and got on I-17 and put the pedal to the floor and drove them up to the Carefree Highway about 12-15 miles north and then back again. Did it do any good? doubt it but no one had any other answers.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
All these modern diesels emission problems are a mirror image of the same crap cars went through in the 70-80s. New cars have 10:1 compression, no EGR system, cats last 100,000+miles, and gone are the 9000+ vacuum switches and their problematic tubing. Once all the political grabbing and grandstanding was over the engineers got to work and solved the issues not playing whack-a-mole with law changes and wording.
Look at how VW tricked the EPA that they were the only one that figured out how to not use DEF. What if they instead of dealing with the extra problems from DEF system as everyone is doing they actually bought time to figure something better out. Once the politics goes away it will work out, by then I will be to old to care.
The bad rap the Eco-diesels are getting may work to my future advantage. I do have tools that are good at removing things.
72Fury
Senior Member
All these modern diesels emission problems are a mirror image of the same crap cars went through in the 70-80s. New cars have 10:1 compression, no EGR system, cats last 100,000+miles, and gone are the 9000+ vacuum switches and their problematic tubing. Once all the political grabbing and grandstanding was over the engineers got to work and solved the issues not playing whack-a-mole with law changes and wording.
Look at how VW tricked the EPA that they were the only one that figured out how to not use DEF. What if they instead of dealing with the extra problems from DEF system as everyone is doing they actually bought time to figure something better out. Once the politics goes away it will work out, by then I will be to old to care.
The bad rap the Eco-diesels are getting may work to my future advantage. I do have tools that are good at removing things.
I have one of the 3.0 tdi Audi's in the recall. It uses the DEF. The recall/fix that they are doing increases the DEF usage. They said it takes about an hour to change the software. They are claiming that it could hurt fuel economy up to 1 mpg, but performance would be the same. I'm a little leery of believing it through.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
This is one of the illegal cars?
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
LS it.
72Fury
Senior Member
Well, it's one that is part of the scandal.
azblackhemi
Old Man with a Hat
Well since people seem to disagree with my statement about Eco diesels blowing up here's my source. Haven't spent a whole lot of time fact checking but this is a 101 page thread on the subject. I guess anyone interested can read it and make there own decision.
Eco diesel engine failures
Eco diesel engine failures
Ok so I will jump in here as the guy selling the EcoDiesels...
Yes there have been greater than normal issues with several systems on the Ram EcoDiesel. But like 70BB says a lot of it has to do with the wrong person buying this vehicle. Most of our complaints stem from emission issues related to short trips, improper warmup, freezing DEF tanks etc. If you expect to hop into your Ecodiesel drive 5 min to wherever each morning you will have problems. If you run around at -40C with a full tank of DEF expect it to be frozen solid and the tank warmers will not thaw it out. Again wrong usage is 70% of the problem we encounter. The other 30% is its design and software.
Yes there have been greater than normal issues with several systems on the Ram EcoDiesel. But like 70BB says a lot of it has to do with the wrong person buying this vehicle. Most of our complaints stem from emission issues related to short trips, improper warmup, freezing DEF tanks etc. If you expect to hop into your Ecodiesel drive 5 min to wherever each morning you will have problems. If you run around at -40C with a full tank of DEF expect it to be frozen solid and the tank warmers will not thaw it out. Again wrong usage is 70% of the problem we encounter. The other 30% is its design and software.
So how do you keep your DEF fluid from freezing at -30?
If the DEF fluid is frozen, will the engine run?
If you run out of DEF fluid will the engine run?
This sounds like a diesel deal breaker for truck purchased to haul a big RV in summer and short trips around town in winter.
If the DEF fluid is frozen, will the engine run?
If you run out of DEF fluid will the engine run?
This sounds like a diesel deal breaker for truck purchased to haul a big RV in summer and short trips around town in winter.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
The going sentiment I believe is that something is wrong with the exhaust filters on the '14 models and FCA did not want to replace those due to cost and once the emission controls go haywire everything gets gummed up and starts banging into one another and misfiring. The oil change interval seems long, I know my recommended oil change in my truck is 15000 mile and can be easily extended out to 20000. The '08 up is recommended at 10000 due to oil taking a beating from contamination from emission controls.
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