HandymanHerb- Yeah he mentioned to me that he ran into you. I knew that he is really busy with his houses and I offered to step into here and other forums to find an answer.

I t did make me feel bad when I first found out that he had a cummins with poor fuel mileage.

 

If he gets to busy with his houses I can help him with that, now that I know better than my truck, but I'm learning everyday here.

I was thinking injector too, but not have experience or knowledgewith that problem to be any help, but I do hope we get help enough to tell the dealer so he can fix it

 

i have been around these forums for a while now. and about every 4 to 6 months there is one person that gets really bad fuel milage and i dont think i have ever heard back from any of them on what the fix was. I think it speaks well for the CTD that only very rarly do they have problems in this area but i think it is very frustrating to those who get these probelm because nobody knows how to fix them. I would definatly try to take it to Cummins directly. Out here in Arizona they are very helpfull.

 

It would not surprise me that the BD programer is what caused the whole problem it also may have screwed up more then just the injectors. With it being in the shop 3 time for injector problems have they flashed the ECM to newer code to see if that would help? I have read about problems from idleing an engine to long but they had 50% or more idle time. Did they tell him he should turn it off a every stop light? I do recall a Dodge tech telling me he has seen injector problems start to show up when the idle time goes over 35%.

 

papa smurf, your dads truck and mine must be brothers or somthing! i have the same year and i average 12 +/- in the city and about 13.5-14 on open free way. i was under the impression my truck wasnt broken in yet but its got almost 24k on it and ive had it since 12k and havent seen any diffrence. i hear of guys coming off the lot doing 18's so there has got to be somthing wrong. ive purchsed a quadzilla zxt chip thats supose to help out milege but ive only seen a gain of 1.5 on the freeway..... nothing in the city (but it sure is nice to have a little extra power). i recently just redid my exhaust to make it more free flowing and now i am at 10.5-11 mpg[:@]. i do not see black or white smoke like your dad does but mileage is comparable.

when he went into the shop for the injectors what did he have done? i have been meaning to have it checked out but i dont know how to approach the situation... who to go to and what to ask for?

 

I see the same thing mileage wise. I have about 75K on my motor and best I can do is 13 hwy/city either towing or empty and I have been tracking every tank since last August. Nothing I have done seems to help and I have even had the Dodge reflash for improved mileage with no results.

I am thinking about the Quadzilla Max Mileage but wonder if I would see any worthwile results.

Forget 18 mpg, I'd be happy with 16.

 

And I thougt 16.4 on the highway was bad for my cousins 6.7 .

So no one has figured outwhy some CTD's get such bad mileage

 

I have sen the white smoke on cold mornings with a 99 3500 ctd. that was in the mountains after sitting all weekend. once it warmed, it was fine.

I will ask my mechanic at Dodge this week and see what he says....

 

when you guys are saying u r getting 9.5 to 10 mpg I know those r exact figurings but what does your overhead console say? I know overhead consoles LIE but what does yours say?

Also black smoke is unburnt fuel (meaning your getting enough)
White smoke is raw fuel
Whitish steamy smoke is head gasket or coolant in exhaust

 

my lie-o-meter tells me 15 +/- but when i put the chip in it went up to 18 but i still had no diffrence in the city like i said. now that i am running open exhaust my lie-o-meter is around 15 all the time but hand calculated its always around or under 12. i have changed the fuel filter and air filter and gains of 1 only come for about 400-800 miles and then they go back down again..... i keep telling myself to stop calculating so i can be happier not seeing the numbers but i am in such a routine its hard not to hit the trip reset button because i think my next fill up might do better