My 98.5 cummins has been in the shop for 8 days now and each day reveals a new problem.  Took her in after a few hard starts where there seemed to be a loss of prime.  The day before the shop appointment the oil pressure gauge suddenly dropped, then went immediately back to normal.  I was a mile from home so I decided to limp her home, the oil pressure dropped to zero and then jumped back to normal as I pulled away from the intersection stop.  Acceleration seemed to keep the oil pressure in the normal range.  Anyway, I ger her to the shop who seems to start throwing parts at the problems.  They replaced the oil pressure sensor and said the injector connector pencil o-rings were leaking causing loss of prime.  After these repairs the problems continued and now they want to cut my oil filter apart and check for metal which I can understand.  I just got off the phone with them and was told that fuel is entering the crank case and the oil level is way up on the dipstick.  They are planning on pulling the valve cover tomorrow and checking to see if fuel is coming up around any injectors and draining away to the crank case.  This still does not address my oil pressure issue unless the fuel thinned motor oil is causing the erratic readings. 

 

I trust the shop and they are very well though of in town.  I would like to hear your thoughts and for any ideas you all might have.

See people, thats why this site, (mopar1973man) has to remain strong, Frogman812 could have  "Engaged the site and Mods and members by posting a thread, and done the troubleshooting, found the issue, fixed it himself and SPENT 50 BUCKS INSTEAD OF 1200.00 AND HIS TRUCK DOWN FOR ONLY 1-2 DAYS INSTEAD OF 14 DAYS.    even if he didn't do the work himself, after knowing what the issue probably was he could have called shops and compared prices to pull injectors and replace o-rings/washers. which i am sure would have saved him a fortune. 

  

​    We can't afford to take these trucks to the stealerships or even most local diesel shop rates are 100,00/per hr or getting close to it.

  Still if he'd known what he knows now, it would have made it easier on him and his wallet to say the least..Its is much more difficult to rip somebody off if they know the work there going to be doing to there tk and approx, how long its gonna take to do it.

   and note there are good shops as well as bad ones... same around here,, some shops will tackle something like this without a clue what there doing and take 5-times longer in troubleshooting and and through parts at it till it fixes itself.

Mike are you saying that if a person is ASE certified he/she don't know what they are doing? I've been ASE certified master since 1980, have my own auto repair business since 1994, I charge $100.00/hr, and I think I'd be smart enough to wait for the rain to stop before I'd go into a field to work on anything.      

NO, on the contrary, IF A PERSON IS ASE CERTIFIED DOESN'T MEAN HE OR SHE DONT KNOW WHAT THERE DOING .....BUT....JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE ASE CERTIFIED  DONT MEAN THEY DO KNOW EVERYTHING EITHER ...

  IF THERE certified in GM, Buick V6 AND V8 ENGINES They don't need to be troubleshooting power stroke diesel engines and charging them 100.00per hr and taking much more time to do it and throwing parts at it..      .IMHO 

Edited July 13, 20159 yr by rburks

 

   note there are good shops as well as bad ones... same around here,, some shops will tackle something like this without a clue what there doing and take 5-times longer in troubleshooting and and through parts at it till it fixes itself.

That's way you should take your vehicle to a shop that specializes in it. There is no way a shop can know all the in's and out's of over 20 makes. 100's of models over 20-30 years. 

Mike are you saying that if a person is ASE certified he/she don't know what they are doing? I've been ASE certified master since 1980, have my own auto repair business since 1994, I charge $100.00/hr, and I think I'd be smart enough to wait for the rain to stop before I'd go into a field to work on anything.      

 

That didn't come out right.   (Sorry...)

 

But I've seen where some people are book smart but that it. If it beyond the book they are lost. Yeah I could of waited for the rain but didn't. I got in and got busy. Call me crazy...

   a mechanic for OEM dealership or a local garage, every min. of every hour is Billed out from time THEY punch in till they clock out,,

I've seen this play out to many times.. if they got a guy who just finished a differential rebuild, an at 12;00 and your truck is sett'n there to have head gasket replaced, even though he has only experience in diff, trans, drivline,etc... they will clock him in on your truck sure as shoot'n..guaranteed.. If they don't have any where else to put him.

  I Mean somebody's going to pay that guys hours for the rest of the day,,  you think the stealership going to pay it out of there pockets,,WRONG 

Edited July 14, 20159 yr by rburks

I coulld not agree more on learning to do things yourself ( even if you have to invest in a few tools or borrow them) using the power of the internet and great forums like this we do it yourselfers can accomplish just about anything.

 

When my IP went out years ago, I think it was around 2007 0r 2008, I was affraid to tackle it and had the local dealership do it, well that cost me about 3500 bucks including a crappy in tank fuel pump they thought they had to install.( because I did not know any better) That whole set up lasted less than a year and burned up another pump. After that I started to do research and use the internet and purchased another IP and redone the whole fuel system for around 1800 bucks and its still going strong