My 05 Cummins Turbo Is Toast At 20k Miles While Towing TT

Left last Saturday, April 12th from San Jose, Ca. to do a 1,900 mile trip that would take us to the Grand Canyon and then South through Arizona to I-80 West to San Diego to visit our Son and his wife, and then back home up I-5 North, and Highway 101 North to San Jose.
05 cummins ran beautiful taking us through Barstow, and then up to Williams, AZ. to the Circle Pines KOA.
After getting settled Sunday afternoon at Williams, AZ., we prepared to drive the Dodge Cummins on a nice trip on Monday through Flagstaff, AZ., and up North on Highway 89 to Sunset Crater, and Wapatki indian ruins area, and then head West on Highway 64 to the Grand Canyon, and then South from Grand Canyon village back to our Williams, AZ. KOA in the evening.
Well, as we left the Williams KOA on Tuesday morning for our tour of the area, I heard this subtle "whirring or wooing" sound from the truck as a accellerated. First thing I thought was it was a differential sound. I and the wife decided to call ahead to Diamond Dodge in Flagstaff, AZ. and see if they could take us in on short notice. They did, and we ended up renting a Chevy Malibu at the dealer's rate for warranty-work customers, to tour the area while waiting for a call from Diamond Dodge that they had found the problem and it was fixed.
We finally heard from them on Tuesday, late afternoon, and their head diesel mechanic told them that our turbocharger was starting to fail. What a shock, as we have only about 21k miles on our 05 Dodge Cummins.
Anyway, Diamond Dodge fortunately had one Turbocharger in stock for our 05 model Cummin. We had to wait most of Wednesday for the turbo charger to be installed, and also have our A.C. troubleshooted for blowing hot air during our trek across the Mojave desert of Californi too.
Turns out that a little wire that goes into the A.C. compressor and connects to the high pressure switch that controls the compressor clutch/on/off, had a bad or intermittent connection in the compressor. The wire connection is not accessible, and is sealed from the factory. The compressor was replace because of this bad wire connection.
Anyway, we are still under warranty until August 05, but I think our 7/70 Drive train warranty that ended in our year 2005 model, also would have covered the turbocharger, but not the A.C..
I asked the service people what the labor and parts would have been if we had to pay for the work, and is was well over $3,000.00.!
I have nothing but praise for the service people at Diamond Dodge in Flagstaff. They really went out of their way to get us back on the road. As a result we were not late to meet our son and daughter-in-law in San Diego, who were there for a cancer research conference. We had only Thursday and Friday (17th, 18th of April), to see them and they were flying back to Ohio on Saturday, April 19th. We hadn't seen our son and his wife for over a year.
The truck ran beautifully, and you could hear that subtle Cummins turbo whistle while we pulled our 8,000 lbs. TT along on our journey.
Also the A.C. with new compressor kept us nice and cool right through the desert, and home in San Jose, Ca..
I will be writing Diamond Dodge a letter of thanks for all they did to get us on the road, and in time to see our son.
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I heard that this loose wire connection in my year Dodge 2500 ram, cummins A.C. compressor was a common problem and their was a TSB on it.
Anyone know why my turbo charger started to fail at only a little over 20k miles? I change the oil very regularly. In fact my last oil change was Delo 400, and a Napa oil filter. The mechanic said that he's seen several turbos go bad at very low miles. Is it common?*******
I'm in the market for a triple pod, gauge for the "A" column, and will be looking for a pyrometer for the turbo, a auto tranny temp. gauge, and turbo bost gauge.
I'm fairly, mechanically adept, so could I do the installation myself.
Also, do these gauge set manufactures show you where you should drill the hole for your Turbo Pyrometer probe; pre-turbo or after turbo on the 2005 Cummins?
Also, there's so much controversy on where to place the temp probe for the Automatic tranny to get a true tranny oil temperature readout.......anyone got solid information?
Is the air tubing that goes from boost gauge easy to install on the turbo?
Some of these gauge venders say that wiring for the Auto tranny temp gauge is not included.......is it something special that I must hunt down, or is it easily available?

 

Sorry to hear of your trouble. Iam glad to see you are back on the road enjoying your Cummins. As for the gauges, its a pretty simple install. All wiring is included in the kits we use. For the transmission, to get the best reading you need to install one of our T fittings in the transmission hot line, just before the heat exchanger. This will give you the most accurate reading. Give me a call if you have any questions, we are only about 1.5 hours north of you in Sacramento!

 

I second what Diesel Nut but said about putting the trans temp sensor on the hot line. As many good transmisson shops will will agree. As far as the turbo, do you let the truck cool down before shutting it off, especially after towing? Mine takes a good 5 minutes after towing for it too cool down to a decent temp for shut down. Even daily driving I'll let it run a minute before shutting it down. Next step, get the gauges in! I'd be talking to Diesel Nut and he's not that far away from where your at.

 

Sorry to hear about the trouble. Mechanical breakdowns really suck when you're on a road trip, especially in a newer vehicle that is thought to be reliable. At least you found a good dealership with an actual diesel mechanic that could fit you in. I've seen Dodge mechanics that couldn't tell a 5.9L Cummins form a Briggs & Stratton! BTW, to put your mind at ease, the turbo would be covered under the Cummins Engine Warranty, which is 5 years / 100,000 miles.waytogo

 

Wow that sucks.
I have not had any problems with turbo at all and I have 68k on her and am running a boost fooler and fuel box with a lille programer.
I have replaced bouth frount axle U-joints and , front pinion seal twice and last week rear U-joint went.
But over all she is great.
good luck .