Diesel Engine Emissions....Problems?

Are there any memebers that own/work on/manage diesel trucks?

I am trying to see if anyone else has had reliability problems with their trucks due to these emission controls systems like me?

I have 33K GVW trucks with 285 Cummins motors and not a month - heck a week - goes by where we do not have a breakdown stemming from an EGR Cooler, EGR Valve, regeneration failure, DPF Filter, or VGT.

It's to the point is almost criminal. I can't be the only one.

This has been a major problem begining in 2003 when they started with emission controls in diesels.I hate to be the one to tell you this but if you have one of the "problem" engines you are pretty much screwed unless someone fixes by mistake.I can tell horror stories all day about egr related issues and the truth is nobody knows how to fix them.You can have two identical trucks built on the same day one will run with no problems at all other one will live in shop just throwing same parts at it over and over.Friend of mine had 07 Volvo with Cummins it put him out of business.Regen's are the same one works perfect one needs 10k in repairs in first year again nobody can tell you why.Make sure you are running the correct fuel filter sometime fuel flow can be restricted enough to keep EGT just under what is required to trigger regen but not to feel in performance.Tell that to a tech and he will give you that look over his glasses like you have no clue but truth be told he has no clue either.The technology is more than the Techs can keep up with.If you have to buy a newer truck make sure you get an ECM readout or run vin thru Rig Dig to assure that good deal is not a truck that put some owner in the poor house.I will stick with my pre emission Detroit and stay out of California.

Hollow out all the stuff and buy egr delete kits ;). I don't know anything about those ;).

Kristof wrote: The first problem is when one does short distances... Bad, bad, bad for diesels with EGR and DPF...

Bad for any diesel Kristof. Back in the 80's I drove my VW 14 miles a day.The engine made it to a little over a 100k but that was ok the body didn't last either. I would rather live closer to work than have to own a diesel. The best time driving to work was when I had my 5.0 Mustang,that car used alot more fuel than the VW but when I sold it after 7 years I got 4000 less than what I paid for it. The VW went straight to the junk yard

We've had a lot of trouble with a Peterbilt 2,000 gallon tank truck, it would go into regen often, then go into limp mode, we finally had a ton of work done on warranty, then a bunch more that we had to pay for. It seems to be OK now.

We had the same issues...tons of warranty work then once the warranty runs out its on our nickel and time. The dealer points to Daimler...Daimler points to Cummins, Cummins points to parts problems, shotty work or that we are doing something wrong. After throwing parts at the trucks we get a few good months then whole process repeats.


The time frame from 2007-2009 produced trucks with a lot of DPF problems. Since there are few lemon laws for commercial vehicles, owners are left in the wind. The newer trucks with the next gen set ups on them seem to work fairly well.