Driving home last night from work my rig began to have problems. Was coming up to a stop light going about 30 mph and downshifting, the truck began to buck badly, billow TONS of smoke (couldn’t tell what color though), I immediately put the TST to 0/0 (I normally run on 4/4), and put the clutch in. When I did that (engaging the clutch) it died. It started back up after a few tries but the check engine light came on and I managed to get it into a parking lot. It then wouldn’t start at all for quite some time. Called the wife and had her bring me my scanner tool. While waiting for her I decided I’d check the lift pump, so I opened the fuel canister drain valve and cranked the engine…it was getting fuel as evidenced by all the fuel on the ground (plus I could also hear the pump running). So I don’t think it’s that (although it is running low pressures…last time I checked it was at about 6.5psi at idle and 4.5 psi at idle…psi measured pre filters). Got the scanner on it and the following codes came up: P0336-Crankshaft position sensor P0341-Camshaft position sensor (Bank 1 or single sensor) P0340- Camshaft position sensor (Bank 1 or single sensor) P0514-Battery temperature sensor P06060-ECM/PCM processor Tried starting it again and it started up, so figured I’d try and drive it home with the wife following me just in case. Got about 5 more miles down the road and it started doing the same thing….stumbling really bad under power (going up hills or moderate acceleration), smoking VERY bad and when I press in the clutch it would die immediately. I deemed it too dangerous and a PITA to try and drive home on the freeway so we called a flat bed tow truck. It eventually died completely while I had the truck running (so I could steer the tires) when he was putting it on the flat bed. When we got to the dealership and dropped it off the truck started up again…go figure. At this point the only things I can think that it is are either bad crankshaft or camshaft sensors, a bad PCM/ECM (god I hope not), bad TST (doubtful), possibly a bad CP3 or maybe an injector or two. But who really knows…these damn trucks are so complicated. Talked to the dealer this morning, there are two trucks ahead of me so they’ll call me in a bit when they get it on the lift and see what they can see. Any ideas on what this could be? I have got the P0336 and P0606 codes before (maybe twice in the 8 months I’ve owned the truck) but per the info on TST website just figured it was not a big deal and cleared them. I’ve done some searching and it seems like some people have good luck when the cam and crankshaft sensors are replaced and some don’t. Others have good luck when taking the TST out of the loop completely. Any advice, input or info would be greatly appreciated. At this point I’m only hoping that the work will be covered under the extended warranty I purchased when I got the truck used or under Cummins 100k mile warranty. Also hoping they don’t have a problem with any of the mods I’ve done. More to follow…..
different engine, but same symptoms and results. My crankshaft position sensor went bad. Replaced and it's run great since. It was cheap too.
Well…got my truck back last Saturday. The dealership disconnected the TST harness from the engine and they say all is well now. It’s not throwing any codes and is running perfect. So, they think the problem was coming from either the TST box or the TST harness. While they were in there I also had them do the upgrade for TSB #18-022-07, reprogram the ECU with the latest version of software and also had them recalibrate the speedo for the 35” toyo’s. Ended up costing me $240. I guess I can chalk that up to the “stupid tax” for me as I’m the one that put the TST on there. :doah: Now the only question is what to do with the TST. I think I’ll drive the truck for a while without it hooked up and see if all is well like they say. Then I’ll hook the TST harness back up and run the bypass jumper on it for a while and see if the problems come back. If they do then I think it’s a bad harness. If they don’t then I’ll hook the harness back up the TST box and see what happens. If the problems come back then it’s probably an issue with the TST box itself. If they don’t…..well hell…I don’t know what I’ll do. Funny thing is I just had the TST harness replaced to a new one back in August and had the TST box reflashed to the newest software back in August. Maybe a call to TST is in order. Another side note on this whole adventure is I now have a much better idea on what Cummins and Dodge will deem acceptable modifications. Basically I was told that a cold air intake, gauges, exhaust (even straight piped), lift, tires, additional fuel filtration would all be acceptable mods to them. However, the minute you put any kind of a box on there….that all goes out the window. Cummins has caught onto this and is VERY hip to what’s going on. They have many ways of finding out if you’ve got a box on there and I’d be VERY surprised if there are any power adders out there that could fool them. So…beware if you choose to add a power box/pressure box/programmer to your rig. The only good thing that really happened with this whole “adventure” was that I found a good diesel mechanic that I can trust. Turns out the guy working on my rig is a friend of one of my good buddies and a fellow wheeler. waytogo
Oh yeah…one more thing. Not having that TST on there makes the truck COMPLETELY different. It is SOOOOOOO much slower it’s not even funny. 5th gear simply isn’t as fun as it used to be. Hopefully I’ll be able to hook the TST back up soon because I SURE do miss the performance it gave me.
