My wife and I were driving back home to southern NH from western PA towing a bumper-pull 2 horse trailer - estimated load about 5,000 to 7,000 lbs. We have a 2003 GMC 2500HD (with dmax & allison) with about 27,000 miles on it. It's basically dead and she's stuck in Buffalo, NY trying to get it fixed while I'm at home dealing with renovations and our small horse farm.

My wife said it felt funny shortly after we left (less power, low mileage), but I didn't notice anything really obvious - it's her truck and I don't drive it much. The check engine light came on, but it was 7:30pm on Saturday, so there was not much we could do but keep going.

When pulling out of a toll booth in Buffalo, we got up to about 50, then it basically lost all power and couldn't go faster than about 15mph or so. We got it into the breakdown lane, shut it off for a few minutes and restarted it and it seemed OK. However, shortly thereafter it did it again - when we were in the middle of a 5 lane merge! Luckily she was able to cut it over to the side, and we limped it off the exit and into a parking lot.

It's now been at Jim Ball Pontiac/GMC since then, and they've been giving us stories from "We can't bump our scheduled customers because you got towed in" to "Maybe it's a transmission issue" to "We don't know, maybe it's the injectors" to "Here's some codes from the computer:

- Fuel Rail Failure
- Failure During Enrichment
- Lost contact with transmission
- Lost contact with transmission"

(my wife didn't get the numeric codes)

Now they are having trouble reproducing any problem with it. My wife can hear that there's something wrong with it, but "it doesn't sound right" doesn't help them find the problem. Does anyone have any ideas of what it might be or what I should suggest they look at? Suggestions of a better diesel tech in the Buffalo area? She's already got GMC involved, they're going to pay for my flight home and for the hotel room she's stuck in.

Thanks,
-Matt

Where is the truck at in Buffalo? I know of a few dealers who I would recommend. My truck went in tonight for 8 new injectors.

mcross- Sorry, missed the Jim Ball mention. I know a guy there and I will give him a call to see if he can help. Secondly, my truck is at a small dealership in Albion, NY which is about 45 minutes from JB. I know the will get right on it if you can get it there. -Chuck

Hey Chuck,

Thanks! If this dealership keeps screwing around on us, we may check out that dealership, assuming they'll honor the warranty. We don't want to move it in case we just end up in the back of their queue, but if they are better and can get to it quickly it would work out. What's the name/# of the dealership in Albion and who do you deal with there? Let me know if you get through to the guy you know at JB and if he can help at all.

The tow truck guy we dealt with was great - Cookie at Rusiniak's did a great job of towing the whole rig and drove us to a few hotels until we found one that wasn't booked.

I already put a call in to a salesman I know at Jim Ball. I had to leave a message and I'm waiting to hear back from him. I have bought a few trucks there including my current ride. The problem with service is that they are pretty large and you can be lost in the numbers. I have been getting my service work done at Daniels of Albion. They on the other hand are tiny. They seem to care more about making the customer happy. As I mentioned before, I bought this truck elsewhere yet they are the most willing to work with me. I have called with a problem and had the truck in a half an hour later to have it looked at. I'll PM you some names and numbers that may also help to get you moving again.

Update:

As of 9pm, I heard from her that they replaced a faulty control module (do they mean the ECM/main engine computer? I'm not familiar with all the TLA's of this truck...) Anyways, the service manager is taking it home tonight to test it; hopefully it's all set and she'll be heading home tomorrow.

Here's hoping it's really fixed!

Let us know what they replaced as it sounds like you had two possible issues going on.


Perhaps a fuel rail pressure sensor and ? The lost communication with tranny is odd possible NSBU ?








Mac http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Confused.gif

Well, it turns out that the story has changed again - they didn't actually replace anything. When we were leaving PA, the rig was stuck in some mud and a friend of ours hooked up a tow strap and dragged it out. The dealer is saying they can't find anything wrong, they've driven it for 90 miles testing it. Their current theory is that when we got it out of the mud, we dislodged some particles in the fuel filter and it clogged something up, but by letting it sit for a few days they have settled out.

She's gonna hook the trailer back up and drive it home, we'll see how it goes...

How old is the fuel filter?

I'm trying to find that out now. We've taken it in at the recommended service intervals, and I called the dealer that should have done it to confirm when it was done, but their computer system is down and he can't look up the service history. I know it was supposed to be done at 18k, but it may have been done later.

The fuel filter dirt dislodging story is bogus in my opinion.

How bad did the truck get stuck in the mud? Was there a lot of water invloved? The NSBU switch on the side of the trans is very suseptable to moisture failure and could give you some of those codes and symtoms. And the fact that the problems occured after the mud event.Edited by: hoot

I got a call back from the dealer, and apparently the fuel filter has never been replaced. Which I don't understand because we've taken it in for service when the manual says and said 'do the xxx mile service', several of which were expensive. But we never checked against the manual to see if they did everything they were supposed to. Grr.

Yeah, the fuel filter story sounded fishy to me, too.

The truck was not badly stuck - once we hooked the trailer up, the trailer slid sideways when we pulled it and the truck started slipping. We hooked a friend's suburban up to the front of our truck to help pull the trailer up the hill (so it wouldn't hit anything) and get the truck to better ground - no big deal.

It did sit in a field in some heavy rains for a few days before we left. I'll have to do some searches on this site to learn about the NSBU switch.

On my '01 I had 23,000 on it and it did the same thing. Pulling 6 horses thru New Mexico to Denver. I would blead the fuel filter, it would fire up and go afew miles and shut back down to some saftey mode and creep along. Got home, not pushing very hard, replaced filter and it ran great! For me, it was a simple fix.


Good Luck!

Is the truck still in the buffalo area???
I live in Albion and tho i didnt buy mu truck from Daniels, the previous owner bought it there and seemed pleased w/there work. Ive been there a few times w/ a buds trucks, and the Service Man. seemed pretty helpful. Got a nice, open shop to...Theres another small dealer back west(like 8-10miles) in Medina, Hartway Motors. Its family owned, and where i got mine, im good friends w/the family, so i may be a bit bias, but i feel they do very good work, and have got a very good diesel mechanic to boot.
If youd be interested in there contact info let me know, and ill send it to you ASAP.
Damn, didnt catch it the first read through, your truck is GMC, Hartways are only Chevy... Sorry about that....Keep us updated, be nice to know local dealers to support and whic to not...Edited by: Polarbear

I believe mcross and his wife are back on the road after a computer was swapped out on the truck. The last PM he sent me sounded as though the dealer had fixed the truck. Hartway only has Chevy's so they wouldn't be able to help with his GMC. I am very familiar with Daniels and had recommended them if he didn't get any success at Jim Ball. JB is a good dealership but is too large IMHO so a customer gets lost in the shuffle with the service dept. Besides, as you mentioned, Carl the service manager at Daniels is a good guy to work with.

More updates:

It turns out there was a miscommunication between JB and my wife, they did not actually change anything. They test drove the truck for a while and could not find anything wrong. So she drove it home on Wednesday (about 8 hrs) and the check engine light came on again but it otherwise was fine. She's at our local dealer (Talarico in Milford, NH) this morning to get them to pull the codes and see if they can figure out what happened.

...and my wife just called. Talarico figured it out in about 15 minutes. We need new injectors http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Cry.gif The good news is that they had a set come in two days ago because they'd ordered some for another customer, but found another source before they came in. They've set us up with a rental car and should get the truck back to us next week.