Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any one having trouble with their diesel pickup

I've been trying to locate a good diesel motor to put in my CJ-7 one of these days, but so far haven't been able to find one of the right size or price. All of the choices are pricey. Heck a longblock is close to $5000 for a 7.3L or a 6.2L.

According the the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975, no aftermatket part can void the warranty unless the dealership proves the aftermarket part caused the failure. However, you and I can rarely enforce that. If a dealership doesn't want to do a warranty repair becasue you have an aftermarket part, they'll likely win. I'm sure they could be defeated in court, but the cost of winning would likely be more than the cost of the repair.

The best dealerships I have seen have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. If you remove the aftermarket part and don't mention it, they won't ask about it even though they can probably tell you had one on.

Then it's a matter of personal integrity. While my truck was under warranty, I never asked the dealership to fix anything that would have been affected by my aftermarket add-ons. Of course, I rarely had to take the truck in--I think it went in twice. one of those times I did ask a dealership to help me diagnose a fuel smell, and I was honest about my secondary fuel filter. Turns out the problem was I just have an excellent sense of smell and most diesel trucks will ocassionally have a raw diesel fuel smell to them--for those of us with good smellers. I was concerned about the regulator, but that was 50,000 miles ago.

However, I didn't even ask when I replaced my front wheel bearings. Even though they are THE known weak point on a Chev HD suspension (second only to Ford in that regard, and with the Dodge redesign, Dodge probably isn't any better), I was running larger than stock tires and wheels so what I did exacerbated the problem.

I've talked to a lot of service managers and watched a lot of isses over at "The Diesel Place." In general, it seems dealers will try (probably successfully) to disavow:

- Suspension and steering issues if you have a lift kit and/or larger tires/wheels.

- GM did have a policy (may still have it) that and driveline issues wouldn't be worked on until the truck came in with the stock sized tires

- Engine related issues if you have a chip. If you have just reprogrammed the ECM, realize they will reflash the ECM and you'll lose your program.

- Larger exhausts seem okay for anything that isn't exhaust related. I'm not sure what they'd do about a turbo failure if you are running an aftermarket exhaust.

- Gauges seem okay

- A second fuel tank seems okay

Once again, each dealership seems to have it's own rules. If the factory service rep is there, the dealerships get very tight on what they will allow.

Thanks Blaine. I've been debating an exhaust system to try and boost mileage, and possibly a chip, but I figured for the money I spent on them, I could buy a boatload of diesel fuel.

I just can't justify putting money into my truck when I have more rifles to buy

I got my tuner from the dealership when i bought the truck. I asked the service manager the same thing and he took me out to his truck (also 05 f350 PSD) and he had the same programmer.

He said it is his opinion that unless i continually run it all the way turned up and drive it like a drag car i would never hurt it and the he nor the dealership could in good conciense disavow any warranty claim seeing as how they allowed their parts department to sell the item. He also referenced the Moss Ferguson act and said if it came from Ford they pretty much couldnt disavow the claim. I bought it and like mine alot.

My dad's 02 duramax was six weeks out of warranty when one of the injectors went bad, GM wouldn't budge, and they want us to bail them out!

A few years back, I saw two letters at the local Ford/Dodge dealer. One was from Ford, the other from Chrysler. Both stated that ANY mods such as chips, tuners, etc. would instantly void the warranty on the respective vehicle. No exceptions were listed either. The offending vehicles VIN was to be put into the Ford Oasis system, or Chrysler equivalent of it, and no dealer was to perform any warranty work on the vehicle unless the dealer wanted to pay for the repairs themselves. It seems that the repairs were getting too costly to be eaten by the companies.

The M-M Warranty Act does not cover any of this. The performance enhancing items exceed the limits of the vehicle design parameters and cause failures, some of them catastrophic. If you want to play, you have to pay.

Actually, I'll take the Superduty with a Cummins engine and Allison tranny (just give me the King Ranch package with a brake controller, the 24v 5.9 Cummins, and the Allison with the manual shift option).