So my dad is in Orlando and he had bought an 05 Dodge ram 3500 with an auto when it was new. It now has 36,000 miles and for 35,000 he was getting 12.5 mpg. It now gets 9.25 mpg with or without the bullydog programmer plugged in. With the programmer, he has never seen an increase in mileage. It has been in the shop for injectors 3 times and that has never helped. The filters have been changed as well as the air filter. No Mods other than the programmer.

He says when the truck is cold, it blows out white smoke like crazy, and then when it warms up it is all black. He compares the smoke as to the superstock tracters in bowling green. The manual and the guy at the dodge dealership told him that he was letting the truck idle too much, even at stop lights, I have not ever heard of that being a problem.

Can anybody help me figure this out, with diesel costing him $600 a month to run around town, I think that it is going to kill him. What is with all that white smoke? If a bearing in the turbo was toast, would the smoke be kinda bluish? I hope its not a head gasket or something. Thanks guys. [/align]

 

How is the power on it? any noticable drop?

 

They say (I am no mechanic) that white smoke means it is starving for fuel.

 

at 9.25mpg lets hope its not starving.....unless its leaking....got me WTF

 

He hasn't said anything. When I drove it, it drove just fine.

 

Maybe the egr valve is stuck open a little. Although usually you have a powerloss with that. Bks white smoke can also mean tons of fuel (you'll know its fuel to cause it burns your eyes, nose and throat)

 

Or so all he have to do its taking a good snif of exaust and if hes all ok there nothing wrong or its because the engine not running? :P hehehe,dot worry i just awaked

thats a shame dealer cant diagnostic a truck

 

I hope we can help this guy's Dadout , I met him at home depot in Orlando the other day and he asked me what I was getting on my 05 for MPGand when he told me he was only getting 9.5 and the dealership wasn't helping.

I didn't know anything to do but to send him here, so I hope we can come up with the answer, no one should have a bad Cummins

 

Maybe find another dealer to look at it.

 

When mine was smoking white at startup it was due to a fuel injector leaking down over night. It also had poor eceonomy and more black smoke than usual once warmed up. The only way the tech could diagnose the problem was to remove the exhaust manifold, let it sit over night, and then watch the exhaust ports while someone started it in the morning. He found the cylinder that was producing the smoke and replaced that injector, problem solved for me. If yours is as bad as you say there may be more than one bad injector. BTW, DC tried to say that I didn't work the truck properly and even mentioned but didn't pursue idle time. I spoke to my service manager and he got the area DC rep involved, they had me try the Mopar fuel additive first, when that didn't help then they agreed to diagnose and replace an injector. I hope this helps.