Diesel Engine Dies While Driving?

Tiny
ROSE2933
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God help me I’m afraid to drive my truck. No one can figure out what is wrong with it and I can’t afford to play an expensive game of guess the defective part. I’ve searched the net until my fingers are bloody and you are my last hope. I really need the answer by the end of the weekend so, if you hear me and know, please write back soon I have to pull my fifth wheel across country with this truck for work and I just can’t do it. The mere thought sends me into fits of shaking.

I own a 1996 Silverado 2500 turbo diesel, two-wheel drive automatic 225,000 miles. As much as I’ve come to fear driving it, I love it. I bought it used with all the money I had in my bank account so I could haul my fifth wheel to my new job after my nephew destroyed my last truck leaving me high and dry. I tell you that truck ran like a top all the way from the dealer in Houston back to San Antonio. I was ridin’ high. I took it to the diesel mechanic to have it checked out. He looked it over, checked the computer, said it showed no present faults and the history was clear. He thought I got lucky and blessed it.

A few days later I was driving it in to have the hitch installed when out of the blue it gave a slight hiccup. A few miles later the check engine light came on. The truck died going down a hill a few miles after that. God help me I thought I’d lost my brakes; I didn’t know what had happened. I got it to start again... Went a mile died... Waited 15 minutes... It finally started. Well, I thought it might be one of those older diesels that just didn’t like having less that half a tank of fuel, (that’s what the gauge read), so I bought some additive and filled her up (gauge was right).

The check engine light was still on so I stopped at an Auto Zone to have the computer read. It showed no present faults and the history was clean. We tried again... Same thing... Third time we got an error code.

Tried to change the fuel filter; it was filthy. The new filter was really hard to get on. On the third day it started to leak. The diesel mechanic charged $85.00 to replace it... His poured fuel out on the third day. The dealership put in another $85.00 fuel filter... Verdict after market parts and, “yes ma’am now she should run just fine”.

I’ve ran three 1/2 tanks of fuel down trying to figure out what the common link is. The problem seems to occur more frequently in stop and go traffic and upon acceleration and deceleration. It doesn’t seem to be getting any worse. I’ve replaced the pump on the rail, and the gas cap. It usually will start after a few minutes, but then doesn’t want to run and keeps dieing.

A few other things: Sometimes the check engine light comes on. Usually after fueling and sometimes right before it dies and sometimes just for fun. It seems to happen more often after it is warm, so I only use it to drive short distances. Also it will be purring along beautifully at 65-70 and give a hiccup or a series of hiccups for no reason then keep running. I let some one else drive it and they said it actually died on them at that speed, but I suspect they are one of those drivers who feathers their accelerator pedal so that may be extraneous information. The air filter is good. No damage to exhaust system. No leaks... Really great truck, other than this problem.

I do not think this is a problem with the fuel pump or injectors because it is not getting worse, if anything it is happening a little less

Well, I think I’ve beat this horse to death, and all of my friends who are mechanics, now cross the street when they see me coming, so please anyone... HELP!
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Thursday, September 20th, 2007 AT 10:46 AM

13 Replies

Tiny
FISHERMAN
  • MECHANIC
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Hello Rose!

I have a friend who has a Truck like yours and we have a Big problem trying to figure it out the solution
But.
After a lot of trouble we find out to be two problems.
One of them was the oil pressure switch (its controlling the pump) we replace that and the fuel solenoid (its square and small and its located on the fuel injection pump) locks like gets hot and quits working

Good luck!

Wait for more suggestions from the experts!
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Thursday, September 20th, 2007 AT 11:48 AM
Tiny
2CARPRO JACK
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What codes did you get out of the PCM? If the check engine light is on, then there is a code to be pulled that may help in the diagnosis
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Friday, September 21st, 2007 AT 8:11 AM
Tiny
ROSE2933
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Even with the light still on, the computer indicated there was no problem and had never been one. I've had it read twice and both times it showed the same thing. I have no codes for you to work with. But, I'm still interested in any ideas you might have. I'm thinking of getting a used computer off a wrecked truck (if I can figure out were it is located) pulling mine, putting the other one on driving it waiting for the light to come on and seeing if I can get a code reading that way.

What do you think of that idea?

Do you think it could be the computer causing the problem? Would I need to reset the computer off the wreck before I could use it first?
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Friday, September 21st, 2007 AT 10:29 AM
Tiny
2CARPRO JACK
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If a scanner wont communicate, it could very well be the PCM. Used one might not need to have anything done to it to use it.
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Friday, September 21st, 2007 AT 5:25 PM
Tiny
ROSE2933
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Thanks for returning my posts. I took a drive over to my mechanic’s shop today to ask him what he thought about getting that new (used) computer for the truck. I had to explain to him why I took it to another shop to be looked over when I first got it, which was embarrassing since I really like him and bring my cars there. But, I honestly thought that diesels needed diesel mechanics so I found a shop that specialized in trucks.

Anyway, he has a diesel mechanic (little did I know) and he asked me not to put the new (used) computer in until he has a shot at reading it. He asked what the two scanners looked like that were used on the car (you could hold them in the palm of your hand). He said those cost about $400.00. His scanner is much more sophisticated and will probably pick up something. His unit runs around $10,000.00. So on Monday a.M. I’m going to swing by with my truck and see if he can get anything. If not, he thinks it could be a cam sensor or something else I didn’t understand. I don’t mind paying for a repair. I just don’t want to pay for a bunch of wrong repairs before I get to the right one. I wish someone could tell me they knew for sure what was wrong with my truck.

My greatest fear is that the guy who my truck before me had the same problem and couldn’t figure it out and that is why he traded it in. If he couldn’t find the problem how will I? But, then again, the place to start was with the fuel filter and it hadn’t been changed in at least a year by the looks of it.

What do you think?
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Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 AT 12:28 AM
Tiny
2CARPRO JACK
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Better test equipment never hurts. He might be able to watch all the sensors with his scanner to try to pinpoint the problem.
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Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 AT 8:01 AM
Tiny
ROSE2933
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His equipment was able to get some readings, but actually started to erase them as he was watching. He tried for most of a day to run tests to diagnosis the problem and was unsuccessful. His suggestion was that I drive the truck, keep breaking down, until it finally died completely so we could find the problem, because I was going to go broke looking for it and changing needless parts.

Personally I don’t know if I can handle the fear. I would not feel right about trading this truck in and foisting this problem onto some other unsuspecting person. I am fresh out of funds so I couldn’t afford a more expensive truck anyway. As they say in poker, when I bought the thing, I “went all in” and didn’t count on expensive repairs.

Can you help?
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Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 AT 10:18 AM
Tiny
2CARPRO JACK
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If they couldnt find a problem with the truck in their shop, Im not too sure what I could help you with. See above post by "Fisherman", there is a couple things for you to look at.
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Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 AT 7:38 AM
Tiny
DENNYP
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Sounds like good old injection pump failure. As for no trouble codes, that just doesnt sound right.
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Saturday, September 29th, 2007 AT 3:58 PM
Tiny
MELO
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Im a Gm Master Tech. Most problems we incountered with the 6.5 is that the fuel injection pump usually the problem. Need to check for metal shavings in the fuel housing and clean it very well If there is any. If there is metal shavings most likly cause is injection pump. Also sometimes when driving it dies and you have to wait to start. Could be the black box on the side of the injection pump called injection pump module. There is a resitor inline to the terminals that needs to be swapped out. Really need to post the codes. Computer is behind the glove box. If not storing codes very well may be injection pump module.
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Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 AT 10:37 AM
Tiny
ROSE2933
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Thank you for responding. The only thing we could find at all in the history was two old items. PI216D Fuel solenoid reserve time too short and PO236B Turbo boost sensor/performance out of range. Both had been reset by the computer and showed that they were no longer current problems. The best guess is that whatever is going on is an intermittent problem which causes the truck to die. After a period of time or when the truck cools off or what ever, the computer resets the problem, the truck starts and runs again until the sensor (?) Tells the truck it is out of range again causing the truck to die again. Whatever is happening is not happening long enough for the computer to record the event.

Does that help?

Another mechanic suggested replacing the regulator assembly on top of the injector pump which I did yesterday so I still don’t know the outcome there. But I do know you don’t want to drop it in the engine, cause you’ll never get it out and it is next to impossible to buy one.
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Thursday, October 4th, 2007 AT 11:31 AM
Tiny
DENNYP
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WITH THOSE CODES, YOU NEED AN INJECTION PUMP.
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Thursday, October 4th, 2007 AT 1:25 PM
Tiny
ROSE2933
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Thank you for replying. Two diagnostics showed no current codes past or present. Better test equipment only showed these two codes while driving at 65 miles per hour and a concurrent reset by the computer. This was probably the hiccup I wrote about. The problem with the truck dieing while driving did not show up at all in the diagnostic. The info I gave you came from two mechanics who, sadly spent all of one day trying to solve this mystery with the best test equipment available.

They told me not to spend any money replacing anything until I have a definitive answer and, at this point, test equipment will not give it to me. This is why I have been trying to use this forum.

What I had failed to tell them or you was this.

When I swapped out the fuel filters three times (because the after market fuel filters did not fit properly) three different mechanics found grey flakes in the filters. Each one thought some one had poured paint in the tank because they were mad at the previous owner. Can any of you guess what caused the grey flakes?

I tried to explain at the beginning of this post that the injector and the fuel pump were not the problem because, if you notice on all the diesel forum repair posts it is basically the only answer most people get and I knew this was something weird. This truck runs too good for it to be one of the major pumps and the problem is not getting progressively worse.

I'll give you all a chance to guess what the grey flakes are that may be causing the problem or to come up with some other answers, then I'll post the answer. I know I love a good trivia question and this one was a doozie, but it made sense once I thought about what the most common problem with diesel fuel was.

So folks do you think this could be the problem? If you do, I’ll be putting in a new gas tank this week unless you have a better way of flushing the tank.
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Friday, October 5th, 2007 AT 11:40 AM

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