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: New, need help on power issue!


givinrh
02-14-2010, 07:22 PM
Hello everyone, new to the forum and somewhat new to the diesel world! I got my 05 about a year ago with about 83k miles. Put the bully dog on it right away with outlook display and have never had a problem>> until now!

So I have never been real hard on this truck at all, of course would play a little every now and then getting down on it but never did all the power braking and such that my buddies would do with their's trying to smoke the tires and racing all the time. Anyway, when I bought the truck they said it had just been serviced so I wasn't worried much about anything! I just got everything to do a complete service> Amsoil, tranny filters, fuel filter, etc..

Well a couple of days ago I was heading off on a trip and after about 45 minutes out when I got onto the interstate I kicked it a little and didn't necessarily feel the power as usual, then cruising along at 70 I noticed when I mashed the gas it wasn't pulling! I let off a little and it would maintain speed but definitely didn't have any juice when I mashed it! I got no codes but pulled over to the side and shut the truck off for a minute maybe and then fired her back up and pulled back out, the truck would not rev over 2k and it would barely pull just slowly increasing speed if I was light on the pedal! So I took the first exit and pulled off into the first gas station! I did notice that when I would give it about 1/2 pedal and it was struggling and holding about 2k rpm's that a couple of times it jerked a bit like it was trying to get power and was sputtering so to speak.. Like it wanted to kick in but never did. So it led me to believe it wasn't a limp mode so to speak but a fuel issue because my impression is once it goes limp it stays limp until you cut it off and back on to reset right??

I sat there for a little bit, raised the hood and just kind of checked the main harness where my outlook plugged in then got back in the truck and fired it up in stock mode to see if maybe it made a difference with the programmer! seemed ok but I still headed home, got back on the interstate, jumped on up to about 75-80 with no problem, cruised on got back to the country roads and still no problems!
Once I got within about 15 minutes of home I went ahead and threw it back in extreme mode and got down on it (mildly> not to the floor) and it seemed to pull pretty good again! So it never failed on me again that night! NOTE: It had been very cold here for a week or two, teens at night and 30's during the day!

Anyway, got back in town today after the truck sat for 3 days and fired it up and took it for a ride and everything pulled strong again and just cruised around a bit just getting on it off and on and never missed a beat! granted it was 45 degrees now.. (fuel gel issue perhaps????)

My first thought was maybe about this injector pin that needed to be tweaked, then maybe was it a fuel issue since I'm not sure the last time the fuel filter was changed!

Sorry for the long post but wanted to give a good history of the truck and then some details of the problem! Like I said the truck has been awesome without the first problem for almost a year now! I've towed a 20' trailer through the mountains, pulled a camper a few times, just never had any power issues and always treat it right so I'm soooo hoping it's the fuel (very cold, maybe gelling) or maybe the fuel filter just needing replaced! Either way I'm gonna be replacing the fuel filter now along with all the other fluids..

Thanks in advance!

Tanc Crusher
02-14-2010, 07:46 PM
Sounds like engine limp to me. It can reset after a few key cycles. What did you use to check for codes? I would run by an autoparts store and see if they can pull the codes. If you not got any maybe you had the cigarette lighter fuse blown and may not have worked correctly. If the injectors were missing then it would code telling you more than likely #2 and #7 and do the ice pick fix on them and the others. May need to change the fuel filter or had a bad batch of fuel. Can be many things but the may have been an Allison limp since it acts like no power which may have left it stuck in 3rd gear. Some programmers cannot read the codes off the TCM.

Brian