There is 15 of these rigs in a different department than I work for, then another 21n other departments
I was just talking Thursday (yesterday) to who is effectively the service writer for the fleet about these the other day. He was a mech for years but now is desk jockey, and knows his stuff better than most dealership mechanics. I’ve known him for probably 15 years. He was saying how I quit bringing in the little f150 so much- only been in there once for repair in the last year. I laughed and told him that is now a “spare truck” until they hire replacements for my last position and I have been in a different truck for over a year now. That lil ford with only 30,000 miles on still breaks down about every 8,000 miles. Haha.
Anyways I said “looks like you guys are now going with the 3.0 dmax for lil trucks.”
He said: Well, we were. Almost everything will be gas moving foreword and this engine is one of the reasons why. And before you ask Will, it isn’t the oil belt. The coolant system issues on these 3.0 are the huge problems. It isn’t that the truck really gets too hot. There is an advanced cooling control system that sends coolant different places as needed and several temp sensors around to tell it what needs coolant more. He said it is part of why the engine is so fuel efficient. But the system controlling it all has sensor issues and programming issue hiccups.
He said so far of the 3 dozen, 5 of them have been down for over two weeks in dealerships trying to resolve the cooling issues and all of it happens before first 5,000 miles. In fact 3 was before 1,000 miles. Be is convinced, along with the lead tech at the dealership (a guy we both know) that is is either programming or the ecm itself. The hang up is, it doesn’t happen once and down the truck until fixed. It happens on a Monday morning, then in 5 minutes run time goes away. Comes back Thursday, Then Tuesday, etc. and often restarting the engine basically eliminates the issue, but the CEL is still on with code limiting power. So as soon as cleared it is gone and they can’t reproduce it. So it becomes multiple trips to the dealership before it gets resolved.
On the high mileage side of it, He is in contact with a different gas station company than the ones I worked for. They use lil pickups for delivering pay out to gambling winnings. The stores don’t keep the cash on hand because or robbery potential, so you win say $700 in the machine and the clerk calls main office for the cash delivery. They have trucks do the $ delivery as well as other store to store transactions. (The ones I worked for did same thing). So they have a few 3.0 that are over 100,000 already. They said their mechanics figured a work around that isn’t detectable and they get full power regardless of code. Then on the ones that get engine damage- new engine under warranty. But the other issue they see powertrain wise is transmissions having issues around 85,000 mile mark in a few. He said it’s a fairly quick deal, but trans has to come out for it. So what they are doing is when the trans is out- new oil belt.
The thing I don’t get about the belt for the oil pump is- there is two chains right in front of it. So the excuse of noise from a chain and belt is quiet- ?? I get a chain tensioner adding depth. But I can’t imagine they couldn’t have done it better IF LONG TERM MILEAGE was a desire. That leads me to one conclusion- it is designed to have people desire truck replacement by that time as fear.
Now, the rear of engine belt replacement sounds bad, but really isn’t. It is an 8 hour job. No worse than timing belt on any regular car. So $100 an hour means $800 labor plus parts will push it to $1500. So it is gonna impact resale value a little. My son recently bought a used car. He was looking at the BMW m3- same engine in different models from 2011-2016. Everything is really great in that car except 1 problem- timing chain is only good for 80k miles and is over $5,000 replacement. So value of those cars is equal to a brick in the lake. After going back to dealership and couple regular shops I used to sell tools to, and getting the real deal from mechanics I knew from then- my son drives a Toyota now. DIY is a mightmare. So how bad is DIY on the 3.0? We will have to wait and see.
As to the rest of the truck- the ac is much better than older gm. Seems the improvements in the late 2000 years are still in place. But all the regular GM stuff that gives fits is all same in the new lil trucks. Dash cracks, window regulator issues, fuel and air filters plug up crazy fast, slow speed transmission knock and bangs, and brake rotor overheating fuel pump life issues are all common place. But much of that is trade one problem for another. Toyota rotors are junk, transmission bang, too small fuel filters, etc. And the competition that dont have those issue have different ones. Dodge transmission, electrical; Ford transmission, electrical...
So We are NEVER going to see these problems all go away in diesel or gas engines. What we will see and is already the number 2 complaint on average across the board is electrical complaints regardless of power propulsion unit. 20 years from now, that will be 90% of the complaints. I reserving 5% for tire and noise complaints, 1% for error in polls and the last 4%? House fires from diy and hack electricians that don’t get the charging station done right in the garage at home.
@BoostN
Enjoy the new ride. You know to do the research and find a way out if ya hit a lemon, otherwise just run it and relax.
I love the color. I still think a huge brushgaurd or something to hide the bumper/grille/fender interface would help. Honeybadger or trail ready type bumper. But then again a lift and some mudder tires..... haha
Oil pump less critical because you can get to the side of the road under power and it may run warm doing so. Not said engine expended. Valve crash from chain failure means instant engine stoppage scrap metal so camshaft turning is more critical.
