Anyone with good reports of an EcoDiesel?

[Spiderman112358]

I am not blind and I can read quite well! I am well aware of the ecodiesels potential shortfalls. I am not even arguing any of the points you make... I was just pointing out that Spiderman112358's post had no information in it and was wondering how that was a "gooood illustration" ?

Seems to me Gearhead's tale in post #35 was a "gooood illustration" of some of the EcoD's woes.

Ok, so you want specifics. At 93K miles while at Lake Powell, Utah, my truck went into “limp mode” requiring a $1,100 tow to Grand Junction, CO. It took 2 days and $3,000 to get the truck running so I could get back to MI.

3 weeks later the check engine light came on and again the truck went into limp mode. I took the truck to my Ram dealership in Petoskey,MI where it was supposedly fixed 3 times. Each time I left the dealership the truck went into limp mode and the check engine light came on again.

Finally the dealership got in touch with the engineers at FCA and a complete engineering review was undertaken. The truck sat at the dealership for 8 months as the engineers couldn’t find and fix the problem.

In the end all the parts from the gas tank to the engine, including high pressure pump, fuel rail, fuel injectors, fuel sensors, and a whole lot more.

Total parts and labor over $12,000. It was all covered by the Ecodiesel extended warranty. I even asked FCA that instead of doing all this work, make me an offer for my current truck and I’ll buy a new Hemi 1500. No go.
Then after getting my truck back and I was driving back to Lansing, MI, a warning came on (in less than 100 miles) that the truck would not restart in 200 miles.

I immediately drove to my dealership in Lansing where I bought the truck. Turns out now I needed a new catalytic converter and O2 sensor. Also covered under the extended warranty. Another $4,000 parts and labor. It also sat at the 2nd dealership for over a month waiting for the catalytic converter and of course the sensor delay due to the chip shortage.

Remember the extended warranty only covered the “top” half of the engine and the catalytic converter. The weaker part of the engine; crank, pistons, timing, etc is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!

All in all FCA Spent over $25,000 in warranty work for a truck at that time was only worth $18,000 trade in. FCA has been putting band aides on the Ecodiesel from the beginning. Why do you think FCA quit making that design which was flawed from the beginning?

So feel free to to buy an Ecodiesel and when it explodes in your wallet don’t say you weren’t warned.

I hope that’s enough details to influence your decision!

 

[TC Diesel]

Spiderman1, I will never spar words with you.....thanks for the details....

 

[FO876]

Does a count exist of how many ED's were made and how many were as problematic as Spider's???
I mean if it were as bad as his, we wouldn't have so many with over 150+K miles....no?

I can't lie, I'm paranoid about owning mine now....so I started looking at used F150's with their Ecoboost....then I learned those weren't exactly reliable until after 2017...... So whos TF makes a solid truck with a solid motor??? LOL!

 

[Spiderman112358]

BTW I traded in my 2014 Ecodiesel 1500 because I couldn’t bring myself to sell that piece of s**t to some unsuspecting buyer. I was told by more than one to get rid of it before it has major lower end failure. Also, the extended warranty issued to 2014 owners didn’t cover any other year Ram Ecodiesel trucks if I’m not mistaken. It was a bad design from the start and the problems were still in abundance even through the Gen3 versions. So all of those buyers were stuck with paying for the repairs.

 

[TC Diesel]

Does a count exist of how many ED's were made and how many were as problematic as Spider's???
I mean if it were as bad as his, we wouldn't have so many with over 150+K miles....no?

I can't lie, I'm paranoid about owning mine now....so I started looking at used F150's with their Ecoboost....then I learned those weren't exactly reliable until after 2017...... So whos TF makes a solid truck with a solid motor??? LOL!

Early on 2014-16 2000-to 2200 Eco's per month production rate, So Most Powerplant makers would stop production at 1 Per 1000, Fiat just continue production at the likely hood of owner's failures at rate 200 times more likely than the most MFG, heck some makers are 1 per 2000 Rotating mass failure.

 

[1shadowsabre]

Spiderman1, I will never spar words with you.....thanks for the details....

yep, no kidding! sounds like an absolute horror story of an ownership experience! So what truck did you end up with to replace it with?
Did you buy it new?

 

[TC Diesel]

1shadow You may be asking spiderman11, this is what I did.

1Shadow, being partnered FCA, it was another Ram, although My 2015 VM 3.0 never left me stranded it did require New Plenum and EGR at around 46K miles June 2019. Same time the AEM was done and returned to Dealership. It was replaced with 2019 Ram 1500 5.7L Limited (June 2019). The 2019 will be traded in as soon as the Hurricane motor is available with some fair pricing, Otherwise I will keep the 2019.

DSL around here is dropping $4.70/4.90. Gas is $3.15/3.35

Likely the Hurricane motor will end VM 3.0 in NA, its already ended in much of the world already

You need to run at least 100k miles a year to break even in 3 Years with just normal maintenance with NO additional cost of Ram's 3.0VM powerplant (Current cost). Owning VM 3.0 with all the additional risk just does not Pencil at this time. You don't make up the residual costs at selling VM 3.0 like the big Pickup DSL's get.

I will mention this again..... the VM 3.0 seems to due OK in 90%+ HWY use, DD use just sucks up your wallet.

1shadow , I keep telling myself to run the VIN on my 2015 maintenance history , but every time I'm at the dealership I'm just busy.

 

[Spiderman112358]

yep, no kidding! sounds like an absolute horror story of an ownership experience! So what truck did you end up with to replace it with?
Did you buy it new?

I bought another Ram 1500 because other than the motor problems I absolutely loved it. I got a 2022 new. I had to go to Cleveland, OH to find it due to lack of inventory available. Also I like the air suspension to hook up my boat and the superior ride quality. I got the 5.7L Hemi. They’ve been making that engine forever so all the bugs (I hope) have all been worked out. Mine was pretty loaded due to the air suspension being only available on the Limited edition or higher. And I didn’t want to order a build because if I had another failure, especially if it’s the lower end that’s not covered, I’d have pay out of pocket for an $18,000 truck that would have to be fixed before I could get rid of it.

I was informed that lower end failures would NOT be repaired, the engine would have to be replaced! Cost: approximately $15,000. I’m not so stupid to want to pay for a repair that’s almost what the truck is worth so I can get rid of it.

I may be an outlier with my problems with my truck, but I don’t think so. Maybe I had more problems than others. I was told that if you have a Diesel engine you really need to put a lot of miles on it so it will perform without problems. Since I only put about 12K miles a year on it I’m not surprised I had a lot of problems. I really only used my truck to pull my boat when I went on fishing trips out west.

Also, I calculated the lower gas mileage with the gas engine with the higher diesel fuel and DEF was about a wash. A diesel truck is not to be used as a grocery getter. The engine needs to be continuously run for long periods of time to COMPLETELY warm up the engine so the particulate filter to clean and run properly.

Having said all this, I originally bought the diesel for the torque to pull my boat. But the Hemi has nearly the same torque as the diesel. Although I’ll get lower gas mileage with the gas engine I’ll sleep a lot better knowing I won’t get stranded. Remember, almost all Ram dealerships have only 1 diesel mechanic. I can take my gas engine and get immediate repair without having to find a Ram dealership to get back on the road. Most diesel mechanics are backed up for 2 weeks before they can even look at your vehicle. They also have problems with the Jeeps they sold with the same motor.