Post 2001 Duramax's

[Wanderer]

So, back in the used truck market I am... I've settled on the fact that I want a Chev 2500 with a Duramax but don't know if there have been any patterns on what years to stay away from or if there were any years where improvements came out that I should strongly consider.

Most of the trucks in my price range are from 2002 to 2008.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

Edit-2001 was the first year they were made...

[atvlaska]

...1st off never buy the 1st year anything..imo......i still drive my 73' chevy from my school days...that being said i have a "excab durmax-6.6t 2004" 75,000 miles and just over 8000 hours (yes that's thousand) my '04 has the same motor as the 05-early 06' one ... 2500hd getting 15.3 or so mpg 34 gallon tank on it ......oil change every 3000 miles ..no matter what oil/brand it gets. 1st gear is like a tank. strong on the "real" hills. my .02

[atvlaska]

http://avcams.faa.gov/wxdata/111-39299.jpg i live on the far rite hill in this pic ... 38 miles to town up and down these hills 1600 ft ...up and down......

[Wanderer]

Nice country up there - I love it and have often thought I should be a transplant too.

I did just a bit of reading today and found the first couple years had fuel injectors that cracked or corroded. GM put a 7 year warranty on them for replacments. It would cost 2-3 thousand to replace them on your own from what I recall. So if I consider one prior to 2004 I should see if the injectors have been replaced. Have you had any issues with your injectors or starting your truck on cold Nenana winter days?

Still more digging to do...

[LMITOUT]

2001 thru 2004.5 had the LB7 engine with the fuel injectors in the head. A lot more labor intensive if you need to have one replaced.

2004.5 thru 2005 had the LLY engine and it had the injectors outside of the head. I think this was the first year with the VVT (Variable Vane Turbo).

2006-2007.5 had the LBZ engine and the 6-spd Allison. The previous years had a 5-speed Allison.

As you can expect, there were power jumps throughout the years with these different versions.

Other than the injectors in the early years there weren't many recurring issues with these engines or transmissions like Ford had with their Powerstroke. Nothing that would make a person say "stay away from the Duramax's made in 20xx".

I had a 2003 Duramax and now I have a 2006. No problems with either other than the fact that diesel is $4.44 now.

[atvlaska]

i come in here...no trouble...so far.."2004.5 thru 2005 had the LLY engine and it had the injectors outside of the head." i plug it in and use anti-gel.......only trouble folks in these parts have had ...are with putting a heater on the trans pan....the "pc" in the trans would get "mixed up"...cause the tourk converter holds so much fulid that the trans would not work rite "minus 50" in the converter and 10+ deg fuild from the pan ...don't mix!

[Wanderer]

Thank to both of you for the tips.

Limit - I appreciate the way you broke it out, it lets me know what I really want.

[LMITOUT]

BTW, if you're looking at one of those tweener years where there was an engine change like 2004 or 2007, you can tell what Duramax you're getting by looking at the 8th digit in the VIN.

LB7=1

LLY=2

LBZ=D

LMM=6

Also, there was a body style change in 2007, so if it is an "old" style body it'll be the LBZ. If it is the "new" style it's the LMM code Duramax. It still wouldn't hurt to check the VIN to make sure, although with the LMM came the regeneration "feature" and particulate filter in the exhaust system so that would be a dead giveaway that it is a LMM equipped 2007+.

[bassNspear]

i bought a 2007.5 and its a LMM.. Love it. The LBY is a great motor as well. Durmax is awesome truck. you will love it

[lugnut]

my old boss has an 2001 with over 300,000 an 2003 with over 200,000 and a couple of 1 ton duallies with over 200,000 the biggest thing i have seen on any of them is injectors, and wheel bearings and watch out for transfer cases leaking and self destructing.the 01 has went thuogh a ton of injectors but just wont die his goal is 500,000 and im sure it will make it.

[Wanderer]

I looked at and test drove a 2007.5 with the LMM engine. Nice, solid truck. Long bed to boot which is what I really want. Problem is that it's an LS and doesn't have as many options/adds as I'd like and according to the owner and the fuel mileage calculator on the truck, it's getting about 13.3 mpg. Is that about right for straight stock? I know guys are adding tuners to pick up the mileage but I thought it would bemore around 16-18 mpg avg.

The hour meter reads just under 3000 hrs.

The only other thing I noticed was an oily area on a duct/hose at the top rear of the engine on the driver's side. I'm not familiar with these yet but I'm wondering if that's a tip off to a problem. Wondering if that was from a turbo and if the residue was fuel. It wasn't spilled oil. The current owner of the truck doesn't know anything more about deisel engines than I do and has it serviced when it needs it. Unfortunately I've only seen the truck in the dark and much of my inspection was done by flashlight with some yard light.

I was ready to walk from this truck since it's priced at book or just a little below and I have to get new skins on the rims, running boards or bars and I'd like a topper. Maybe another $4000 or so. Problem is, it has the bones of what I want. Having a tough time deciding. We already haggled on price so I can't just go lower.

Just wondering if you guys wanna add some more input...

[LMITOUT]

13.3 seems a little low, but how has it been used? Is he pulling with it everyday? How many miles? You mentioned the hrs so you can use that to get an idea of the average MPH. Some guys idle their diesels a lot and that would obviously affect the mpg reading. How often does he reset the calculated MPG reading?

[Sifty]

I have a 2001 and love the truck.

We have had it for seven years and after you get use to the deisel thing you will have a hard time going back.

It is really nice to never have to worry about what you have to tow or what you may have to tow.

BTW our 2001 gets 17.8 mpg all the time loaded or not.

Sifty

[Wanderer]

Thanks guys,

The truck was bought for hauling a skid steer but it hasn't been used for the purpose very much so the guy wants to downside to a 1500. The truck originally came from California (I asked if there were any additional emmissions equipment but he didn't know). He bought it from a dealer in WI a little over a year ago.

It's been a bit of family truck since the owner is part of a family business and apparently the mother has made several short in town trips with it (reason for low mpg). The truck has 80,000 miles on it and has burned just over 6,000 gallons of fuel according to the dash. Calculations support the average mileage.

[Wanderer]

Sifty, Limit, any one else who cares to share,

What does your dash readout tell you for avg MPG? Sifty, I know you posted 17.8 but was that by your calcs or what the dash actually says?

I'm getting some funky numbers from a 2006 I'm looking at like 4000 hrs, 1900 gallons used, 17.1 mpg for 123,000 miles. I'm thinking you can reset the gallons used?

Just looking for consistency because if you're all in that 17 mpg avg I'm done looking at the 2007.

Thanks.

[LMITOUT]

The MPG and gallons used can be reset at any time. I reset them at every fill.

I just did a trip to ND doing 75-80 mph and was very close to 20mpg (not pulling anything, just a pile of hunting gear in the box). Of course this was all highway miles and bumping around town it's probably in that 15/16 mpg range. I have oversized tires so that doesn't help either, although I've opened up the exhaust and run a tuner so it probably all cancels out in the end. The tuner corrects the speedometer/odometer for the larger tires but it throws the mpg reading off (depending on what level of tune I'm running) so I hand calculate every tank. I would say that with my use I average around 16-17 mpg. It'll go down in the winter due to more idling and cruddy winter fuel, but overall I think I'm close to that 16-17 mpg mark...and I have a tuner and like to use it on occasion, so factor that in as well.

LB7's will get a better average mpg than the newer Duramax's. My 2003 did better than my 06 and I've heard likewise from others who run LB7's. They are almost 10 years old now, so finding one with lower miles could be tough.

BTW, the truck from California probably has the same emission equipment as other states...I believe in '06 they started putting EGR's and catalytic converters on all Duramax's. Prior to that I think only California trucks had catalytic converters. I'd be wondering about a block heater, though...

I'd love to sell you my truck (it just turned over 50k yesterday) but I'm going to hold onto it for a bit yet. It is a LS shortbox but is mostly loaded other than leather.

[Wanderer]

So it looks like the design that required the updated injectors was the most fuel efficient, eh?

We were going to do a loop today to look at 3 trucks but it would have taken pretty much the whole day to complete so I stayed home and worked on other projects. One of the trucks would be a re-visit of the 2007 to reset the avg mpg and take a long ride to see how it fared. The other two were short boxes. My wife and I decided for now we're holding out for a long bed. It's tough though, that 2006 short bed is becoming a better deal by the day. 2 price drops in a week and below book; almost $10,000 less than the 2007. He wants to move it.

[sparkyaber]

Wanderer- don't know if you remember but I met you up on Rush for a clean up a few years back. I still have my LB 7 2003 duramax crew with the long box. I have a pretty extensive list of things that have gone wrong with it. Best thing I can say it has been real good to me the last few years. (Got all the bugs worked out finally?). I have about 140,000 miles on it to my recollection. Things that have been done to the truck: Transfer case pump rub, caught early, put in the aftermarket fix, I patched it still not leaking. Knock on wood. Leaking transmission, there were two common causes for this, fixed them both while I had the tranny out. DDM (driver door module) 3 times. All injectors have been replaced. Lots of wheel bearings and break parts, mostly rotors rusting from the inside out. Ball joints replaced. Power window motor replaced. Rear Axle seals. Blower motor resistor at the worst possible time (middle of a super cold, snowy, road trip in the middle of the night). I think that is about all of the bad. Many of the above may be considered normal maintenance, but some of those were pretty darn expensive fixes. The tranny was the big one, with the injectors covered by warranty. My wife's 2001 sequoia had many more miles on it while needing none of the same maintenance issues. I guess it is not apples to apples, just something I noticed.

Now for the good. Like I stated above, the last few years have only been the brake stuff, and the ball joints again I consider these maintenance issues. Other good things, wonderful mileage- we took a trip to Door county took our time, drove the speed limit, and got 22 miles to the gallon. I got over 700 miles on that tank of fuel. Never saw that again, but I can average about 17-18 even 19 under normal driving, dropping to 15-16 when I put my foot into it. This drops to about 14-15 pulling my reata. By comparison, my wifes new sequoia (5.7L) gets about 15 normal driving and about 13-14 pulling the boat. Guess I am saying darn good mileage for such a big machine. Plenty of power. This thing will pull a house, and being an LB7 it is the shortest on HP compared the newer models. I can't imagine needing more. Another thing I like, is the crew cab with the long box and topper. Haul anything I need, anytime, anywhere. 4 big guys, all our gear, and pull the boat. I will never own anything besides a crew cab with a long box again. My personal opinion is that the chevy ride is second to none. It is as close to a car as a heavy duty truck can get. Other things of note, my truck loves Rotella T oil. The diesel oil my mechanic used to carry caused this thing to smoke like crazy from the breather tube(I think this is what you were talking about in an early thread). He switched to a semi synthetic and it was better, only smoking right about time it was due for an oil change. Still not as good as the Rotella. The factory mirrors are a joke. I have carried on since I bought this thing 8 years ago that they were useless when towing anything. I still have not bought the aftermarket super duty style, but it is on the list.

Hope this helps a little.

[Wanderer]

Hey Abe,

You bet I remember; that was a good day. I remember you're truck too but I guess I didn't realize it was Duramax. Sorry to hear you've had that many problems with it!

All the good things you listed are exactly the reasons I want one. When I read the list of things you replaced I'm suprised you stuck with it that long. I read some of the ads from people listing all the parts that have been replaced on a 120,000 mile or less truck and wonder if its a good thing or bad thing. My half ton with 210,000 hasn't had all that much done to it. Couple fuel pumps, AC compressor, couple alternators and that's about it.

The 2500 HD Duramax used market isn't really hopping. There hasn't been a steady supply of new ones on the market and most stay for sale for a while. Decent long beds are even harder to come by.

Anything 2004 or older will need to have proof the injectors have been replaced no matter how many miles it has.

Thanks for the input and I hope you're truck is treating you better and stays that way until you change it out. I'm anxious to get one these bad boys soon so it's hard to be patient for the right one to come along.

[sparkyaber]

Tracy- that has just been my luck with all vehicles. It is kinda funny, if a guy types in duramax problems into any search engine, find the most common ones, I have had them all. Two friends have duramaxes, both have had very few problems. One electrical problem with a wiring harness under the hood rubbing on metal and shorting out (Cheap to fix hard to find), the other had, if I remember correctly, a shifting problem, or limp mode, that could have been expensive, but was also a simple fix. Also, it is paid for, so some problems are still cheaper than a payment on a newer truck. I hope to get about 5 more years from the truck. After that I will probably take a hard look at the fords. The ones that are new now will be in my price range. I am scared of the two prievious diesel motors that they have put on the market. 6.0 and 6.4?

As for the 8' bed, keep looking, they are not very common, but they are out there. If that is what you want, wait, one will come up.

Good Luck.

[hawkeye43]

I have an 02 ext-cab with 450,120 miles. redid the injectors under warrenty, tran-rub thought, 1 starter, 2 alt, 2 water pumps and 3 sets of driver door hinges. We still use it alot in the spring and fall for field work, going to run it till it dies for good. It been a good truck. The 09 has 113000 miles in 36 months and have had no problems with it at all, knock on wood. They put way too much power in them trucks, we pull 15000 lb trailers and get 14 to 15 mpg, 21 mpg empty.

[Wanderer]

Yes, the dream is still alive...

I finally bought one!

Man, it's been tough for this picky shopper. Through all this time I've changed some of my criteria and I hope it'll be for the better. No leather, no long bed. Two things I thought I would absolutely stick with! But she's nice anyway and turnkey. https://picasaweb.google.com/merrittmeyer/2006DuramaxForSale

The question I have now is: This truck has stock exhaust and no programmer for towing/mileage improvements. Is it worth the money to invest in these two items? Many people have done one or the other or both to their Duramax's. If any of you have done these mods, what did you gain and about how much does it cost?

Thanks!!!

[delcecchi]

That brings up something I have wondered about....

How can these exhaust and chip guys do so much better than the factory engineers? Do they compromise durability? Emissions? Misrepresentation?

Just wondering.

[Scott K]

Mostly emissions, and durability if you use the extra power. Like I have told many people, the chip doesnt break anything, your foot does!

[leech~~]

Yes, the dream is still alive...

I finally bought one!

Man, it's been tough for this picky shopper. Through all this time I've changed some of my criteria and I hope it'll be for the better. No leather, no long bed. Two things I thought I would absolutely stick with! But she's nice anyway and turnkey. https://picasaweb.google.com/merrittmeyer/2006DuramaxForSale

The question I have now is: This truck has stock exhaust and no programmer for towing/mileage improvements. Is it worth the money to invest in these two items? Many people have done one or the other or both to their Duramax's. If any of you have done these mods, what did you gain and about how much does it cost?

Thanks!!!

Well at least you got the crew cab, to carry extra crew!