Ram 1500 Eco Diesel Review

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unL33T said:
Why not just stick with an older VW if you were happy with them?
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The 2004-2006 VW "pumpe-duse" TDI engine had issues of its own. Use the wrong oil, even once, and it would eventually eat camshafts and lifters. I never had a hint of trouble with mine, because I did every single oil change and I know what went in there. But buying a used VW TDI of that generation is a crapshoot. The models before that were Mk4's ... a generation that I skipped because of general VW cheapskatedness. (Plastic power window clips, sketchy MAF sensors, etc) The Mk3's are now rare, old, and mostly rusty.

Besides, VW doesn't make a full size van, and I'd had enough of towing trailers and sleeping in a tent. (Eurovan? No.) And this means I don't need to have a car that will tow a trailer any more.
 
Bickle Racing said:
With my eco Diesel I have seen several times where it has come up with a dash warning, "Your Exhaust Filter is 80% Full, Drive at Highway speed to fix it" So I get on the Hwy and do a 15 minute jog and it's fine. But I have discovered this happens with a lot of little trips. Because of my V10 Triton I avoided the highway and learned this truck loves it. So bringing the exhaust up to temp a couple times a week with a good hwy run has resolved this. But I don't know what happens if it gets to 100%.
Also ,,being new to diesels,, I was idling it too much which helps cause this in my opinion,, I was trying to warm it up and then waiting too long to shut it down after running it.
The truck takes about two jugs of DEF fluid. Which is about $25 a jug for the RAM brand. A full DEF tank will last the 16000 oil change recommendation.
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It's good that Ram did that so that you can take corrective action before the DPF is full. I think they also tell you when a DPF regen is in process (because it's best to keep driving until it's done).

VW opted not to tell the driver what's going on with their common-rail diesels, and from what I've seen, people who do only city driving with them are gonna have a clogged-beyond-regen DPF sooner or later.
 
Bickle Racing said:
With my eco Diesel I have seen several times where it has come up with a dash warning, "Your Exhaust Filter is 80% Full, Drive at Highway speed to fix it" So I get on the Hwy and do a 15 minute jog and it's fine. But I have discovered this happens with a lot of little trips. Because of my V10 Triton I avoided the highway and learned this truck loves it. So bringing the exhaust up to temp a couple times a week with a good hwy run has resolved this. But I don't know what happens if it gets to 100%.
Also ,,being new to diesels,, I was idling it too much which helps cause this in my opinion,, I was trying to warm it up and then waiting too long to shut it down after running it.
The truck takes about two jugs of DEF fluid. Which is about $25 a jug for the RAM brand. A full DEF tank will last the 16000 oil change recommendation.
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Didn't notice that it didn't warm up at all? My 2001 TDI would actually drop in temperature if you let it idle. I've heard the BMW diesels have the same problem with short trips.
Brian P said:
The 2004-2006 VW "pumpe-duse" TDI engine had issues of its own. Use the wrong oil, even once, and it would eventually eat camshafts and lifters. I never had a hint of trouble with mine, because I did every single oil change and I know what went in there. But buying a used VW TDI of that generation is a crapshoot. The models before that were Mk4's ... a generation that I skipped because of general VW cheapskatedness. (Plastic power window clips, sketchy MAF sensors, etc) The Mk3's are now rare, old, and mostly rusty.

Besides, VW doesn't make a full size van, and I'd had enough of towing trailers and sleeping in a tent. (Eurovan? No.) And this means I don't need to have a car that will tow a trailer any more.
Click to expand...

The MK4's were my favorite style but I can't compare the reliability to any other VW as it was the only style I owned (a 2001 Jetta 2.0 gas and a 2001 Jetta TDI). I definitely had to do the MAF at least once, had window clips fail, and a slew of other issues including the timing belt skipping a tooth and needing to get a new head.
 
Bickle Racing said:
With my eco Diesel I have seen several times where it has come up with a dash warning, "Your Exhaust Filter is 80% Full, Drive at Highway speed to fix it" So I get on the Hwy and do a 15 minute jog and it's fine. But I have discovered this happens with a lot of little trips. Because of my V10 Triton I avoided the highway and learned this truck loves it. So bringing the exhaust up to temp a couple times a week with a good hwy run has resolved this. But I don't know what happens if it gets to 100%.
Also ,,being new to diesels,, I was idling it too much which helps cause this in my opinion,, I was trying to warm it up and then waiting too long to shut it down after running it.
The truck takes about two jugs of DEF fluid. Which is about $25 a jug for the RAM brand. A full DEF tank will last the 16000 oil change recommendation.
Click to expand...

The def and dpf are separate systems (to my knowledge). My dpf is ok and the regen is working properly, it ended up being part of the pump unit for the def. I haven't had the warning to keep driving to complete a regen and it's easy to detect (higher idle) but I do have a monitor to tell me when it will happen and what my soot level is.
 
Get rid of DPF, get rid of EGR and your diesel will love you and be magnitude more reliable. I run a DPF delete tune that also gets rid of EGR and swirl valve (an issue with the OM642 engine) while giving me more hp and torque and about 15% better fuel economy.
 
^ The trouble there is that you are not going to get a (legit) Drive Clean pass ... (Yes, I know that some folks may have figured out how to reprogram the ECU so that it doesn't trip fault codes and shows readiness, but they do so at their peril, the US EPA and CARB has been going after companies that sell stuff for bypassing emission controls, IIRC Edge Products got hit with a big fine a while back)
 
EGR is still a problem? That's been an issue since I had my 01 TDI.

Isn't the drive clean for diesels still just a smoke test?
 
No, the diesel test is the same as gas. OBD2 readiness test.

My vehicle passed the OBD2 test with no issues back in January.

EGR will always be a problem on diesels. Turbocharged engines tend to have a lot more crankcase pressure pushing oil vapors out. Manufacturer solution is to pipe all that oily vapor back into the intake track. This intself is not too horrendous but when mixed with exhaust gasses creates a tar like substance that coats the intake manifold. EGR valve failures are common as well.

Most of diesel issues stem from all the emission BS surrounding it and people driving them like gassers. They do not like being babied.

As far as the DriveClean test. There is no programmer hanging off to alert anyone. The programmer is used to upload the tune and thats it, from that point on its all factory ECU. I'd be more concerned if they still did visual tests.
 
Guy on my Facebook just had his 99 TDI tested and he still did the smoke test.

I guess with EGR delete and a tune you'd still fail the readiness test?
 
No, passed with no issues. It fully removes the DPF subroutines from the ECU. ECU doesnt even attempt to initialize the DPF subsystems therefore there are no "readiness not met" issues.

unL33T said:
Guy on my Facebook just had his 99 TDI tested and he still did the smoke test.

I guess with EGR delete and a tune you'd still fail the readiness test?
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You also loose warranty. For $400 I can have my truck tuned and $300 to remove the dpf. It was going to happen at 160k but it won't get there before I exchange.
 
EGR is the reason i've traded in my last 2 diesel Sprinters at 300k. The intake was plugged on both with carbon/tar build up from the EGR system. The rest of the trucks were in good condition other wise. $6800 for an intake manifold is hard to swallow.

BTW, my '15 Sprinter 2500 4 banger has been on the road since May, and in 40k is averaging 10.5l/100km. Very happy so far.
 
Brian P said:
The 2004-2006 VW "pumpe-duse" TDI engine had issues of its own. Use the wrong oil, even once, and it would eventually eat camshafts and lifters. I never had a hint of trouble with mine, because I did every single oil change and I know what went in there. But buying a used VW TDI of that generation is a crapshoot. The models before that were Mk4's ... a generation that I skipped because of general VW cheapskatedness. (Plastic power window clips, sketchy MAF sensors, etc) The Mk3's are now rare, old, and mostly rusty.

Besides, VW doesn't make a full size van, and I'd had enough of towing trailers and sleeping in a tent. (Eurovan? No.) And this means I don't need to have a car that will tow a trailer any more.
Click to expand...
If I never have to work on a mkiv tdi again it will be too soon. The new ones though. .. they get a thumbs up.
 
dricked said:
You also loose warranty. For $400 I can have my truck tuned and $300 to remove the dpf. It was going to happen at 160k but it won't get there before I exchange.
Click to expand...

With the tuner I have for my F250 I can reload the stock tune if I ever needed to take it into a shop... but its out of warranty anyhow so no matter.
 
caboose56 said:
With the tuner I have for my F250 I can reload the stock tune if I ever needed to take it into a shop... but its out of warranty anyhow so no matter.
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The newer duramax (my year on) is traceable, they know when you've tampered with it. They'll find anything to deny you.
 
Going to the local Dodge dealer tomorrow to talk about a trade in for the new Ecodiesel. I heard enough talk from the guys at work who have them they are getting fuel mileage around 7/L per 100km.
 
infernobuster said:
Going to the local Dodge dealer tomorrow to talk about a trade in for the new Ecodiesel. I heard enough talk from the guys at work who have them they are getting fuel mileage around 7/L per 100km.
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Got that beat,, 6L/100 is my best,,,just hit 19,000K and depending who you talk to I may not be broken in yet. The torque on this thing is nuts.
 
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