Quote:
Originally Posted by wiredgeorge
All heavy diesel engines cause front ends to give up the ghost at about 90K miles. Ford, Chevy, Ram, makes no difference unless the truck is driven on glassy smooth roads. I just changed out the entire front end at 140K miles on my Ford clunker and it probably should have been done quite awhile earlier. Front ends, EGR issues and DEF issues on the newer diesel beasts are all just part of the joy of ownership. The chug of the international diesel overcame my common sense! ARGH  |
Had 2 GMC 3500 dually Duramax's.
The '05 had 176k when traded, never any frontend work, had original brake pads front/rear with still over a 1/4" of pad left, it didn't use DEF & never any engine issues.
The '13 when sold had 140k, never any frontend work, original brake pads looked nearly new, used a 2.5 gallon jug of DEF every 3-3.5k miles @ average of $11 a jug, 1 recall on DEF pump, turbo failed while under warranty.
Both got 8.5-11.5 mpg towing at 68 mph (1700rpm was the sweet spot on both) & 15-18 mpg average & the mileage on both was towing 50%+/- of the time a 16-16.5k 5th wheel.
Most that don't have or want a diesel always bring up the high cost of maintenance, in 10 years/over 300k on 2 trucks I can honestly say I never noticed the huge difference over any of the gassers I've owned. Nowadays with all the turbos, electronic everything on all of them, gas or diesel, the maintenance could be high on all & us shadetree mechanics are just about out of business.