I just bought an 07 2500 mega-cab. Super clean body, interior and runs great. It has 185,xxx miles. Tranny rebuilt 10k miles ago. Front suspension replaced 90k miles ago- a little loose,not to bad. I know front suspension and transmissions are weak areas. I bought edge gauges to monitor the system. I gave $20k for it and it was always garage kept and previous owner had about 100 pages of service records. I know I will have maintenence. What should I expect and any advice?
I tow 2,000 miles a year and it won't be every day vehicle.
How many miles do gen 3s get?
I hope some diesel mechanics chime in.

I'm hitting 200,000 miles on my 2005. Changed the water pump and replaced wheel bearings and control arms.

Not sure if its an issue on yours, but the governor pressure and shift solenoids on mine have crapped out twice. Not a terribly difficult fix and I take the opportunity to adjust the bands. There are some very good tutorials on youtube. Also, its always a good idea to change transmission fluid fairly often on these. Otherwise, I've had no problems.

Now, I will say that if you don't do a lot of towing, any fuel savings you have from driving the diesel will be offset by your maintenance costs if you drive a lot. Everything for this truck is just more expensive and, god help you if you every have an injector or injection pump failure, because you are talking serious money with either one of those.

personally, I'm looking to sell mine and get a gas-powered truck.

Thanks orange,
I hear you on the $$$ but going over mountain passes at high elevations with 10,000lb load sucks with gas motors.

Mine is an 03 Quad Cab 3500 Daully. Just turned over 254,000 the other day. New trans at about 175K front end has been done...several sets of tires.
Injectors on mine are crap...still stock and have had 2 replaced and it still won't start without being plugged in below 60 degrees. Lift pump has been replaced once. I need to look at what the aftermarket has available to replace the lift pump and filter housing as I think the lift pump is going bad again.
Doesn't matter what it is but every trip to the dealer is North of 800.00. F-em It'll never go back...
Still love the truck just hate the crooks at the dealership...

Just turned 105K on mine. I have only had to replace a water pump. Any front issues were thwarted by recall notices.

Good point.

BTW, I've never done it, but I have been told that you'll be money WAY ahead of you get yourself one of these:

http://www.dieselfuelfilterkits.com/03_12_cummins_fuel_filter_kit.html

It will save your lift pump and possibly your injector pump. Much better than the standard filter.

Do you really want to hear my stories since I blew up TWO 5.9 Cummins and lunched over a dozen transmissions from NV4500's to G56's to the crappy 48RE? Of course quite a few of the issues were lack of maintenance on my part, and of my employer, but having said that, I miss not having one as my daily driver. I still have a 93 12 valve but rarely use it. I drive a 2015 2500 Hemi and tow quite frequently with it, and at 56K miles have not had a single issue, and have no problems going up major hills towing 11K lbs! I can't even really complain about the gas mileage towing, but empty it is definitely down compared to a Cummins but I expected that.

Rhino-
Thanks for chiming in, I have read your posts in the past. How many miles did your 5.9s have before they blew-up? Did the turbo fail and overheat the motor?
Was it you, that did the Alison conversion?

Both the 04 and 05 were around 165K miles, both injector issues. The 04 had an injector go wide open and hydraulic the engine kicking out a rod. The 05 had an injector go dead burning a hole in a piston. On the 04 I had replaced 4 of the 6 injectors, should have done all 6. The 05 was bought to replace the 99 that had the 7th NV4500 crap out in Memphis, TN so I bought a local truck to continue on with the transport at that time. Made it to Chicago and checked everything out with the truck but apparently the fuel filters were never changed and I missed that fact. The next transport it went into limp mode near Dalhart, TX and I managed to get to a Dodge dealer where they told me about the fuel filters. I made it to Payson, AZ before the injector died and had to have it towed to Phoenix from there. I should have done the Alison conversion on my 04 as I would probably be still driving that truck. I had almost $6K into rebuilding the 48RE and the issues after having it rebuilt. If I would have just done the Alison conversion to begin with I would have had around $5K in it.

06. 5.9. 48re.

I bought it at 80k miles and it's got 160 now.

So far, I've rebuilt the front end--new ball joints, u-joints, wheel bearings, control arms; the whole power steering system replaced--newer upgraded pump, steering box, hydro boost brake booster, added a steering brace and upgraded to the newer steering linkage. Replaced trans with a built unit--clutches, valve body, billet input shaft, billet converter. Added fuel filtration to 2 micron, single driveshaft to replace the 2-piece unit and eliminated the carrier bearing, and added a smarty jr tuner.

All said and done, about $10k in work. Most of it done myself. I didn't do the trans build. I paid a shop local to me who specializes in 48re--firepunk diesel in plain city Ohio.

98% daily driver; but I do tow and take it deep into the woods off road for firewood collection.

If I can keep the body from rusting away, I plan on this being the last truck I ever buy.

Is the new steering linkage worth it?

My '92 is like the Energizer bunny, it's just keeps going and going.

Everything I've read says it's got better geometry. I had a recall notice for something on the steering, I think it was driver side tie rod end. But I could see it was already replaced. Passenger side was goofy and loose. My steering felt loose and wandered around; so I figured I'd spend a little more and upgrade it all at the same time. Turns out I had a moog wheel bearing go bad after 90 days so that was replaced a second time under warranty.

Steering was better but still felt a tad off. About a week and a half later (in the middle of yellowstone) my power steering pump or box started leaking badly. I managed to make it home, driving across the country dumping a quart of ATF into the steering system every hour and a half of driving. Replaced the box, pump and brake booster for good measure. Added the steering brace at the same time (truck is also on 35" mud tires that weigh about 80 lbs each).

During this round of maintenance I learned that I couldn't get the combination of parts I needed. I damaged the pulley pulling it off the pump to replace the pump. Can't get an original pulley because dodge did a design change after production and specified a larger pump. The larger pump runs a different pulley. All you can buy is the newer pulley, forcing you to buy the newer pump. New pump, pulley and reservoir are available from dodge for $700+. I bought a remaned pump from rock auto, a new pulley, and a reservoir from amazon, for a total of about $400.

Once all of that was installed, the truck steering was nice and tight. But I couldn't really tell you if it was the updated linkage, new box, steering brace, or everything combined.

I've own four cummins. 91.5 and 92 will run forever. They are just noisy and you have to deal with a 72 designed body. My 05 had a couple of weak injectors at 105k so I replaced them all and added a fast pump/filter system on it. I added a dealer approved power adder module on it at 50,000 and I think that hurt my injectors. It went out at about 90k so I pulled it off. With old injectors and the stock filter and lift pump, you are living on borrowed time. When injectors go out they flood the motor with fuel and do what they Rhino described. You have the same injectors on the 07. If it were mine I would put all NEW Bosch injectors and the fast fuel/filter system on it now before it craps out. My 2012 only has 23,000 miles on it with no problems. It has the most power and runs the best.

I owned a 12-valve Cummins and liked it, simply because it was simple, efficient, and dependable.

I've also owned delivery trucks with common-rail systems and have experienced numerous engine failures related to stuck injectors. I refuse to buy any more common-rail diesels. For my business fleet I've swapped over to small GMC box trucks with 4.8 gas engines. I retired a GMC with the original gas engine in January at 496K miles, and another turned over 400K miles last week.

If I were buying a new pickup I wouldn't consider a diesel with all of the DPF or DEF garbage on it. I owned two 2008 Dodge Sprinter delivery trucks with that crap on it and they were constantly in the shop. And that whole "Regen" crap is for the birds.

I'm in the market for another 1-ton pickup truck right now, but it will either be mechanically-injected 12-valve or Hemi powered. No more computerized diesels for me.

The previous owner did the power steering pump upgrade already. He paid over $1000 for the part and the dealer to install.

On the injectors, your suggestion is to replace all with new bosch, should the common rail be replaced to? I know the injectors can take out pistons and the common rail. Will the common rail take anything out if it fails?

I bought an Edge monitor system that monitors the fuel rail pressure, exhaust temperature, transmission temp and turbo boost.

Thanks

Early 2004 HO 305hp/555tq 4x4 auto trans quadcab here.

174k miles currently on it, owned it for 10 years now, got it with 90k miles.

Used for a daily driver for the last 8 years, now drive it a much less but still enjoy it.
I don't tow a lot or super heavy but when I do the truck shows it's worth.

Truck has been awesome and has never left me stranded, all service work was preventative.
Has always started, even in sub zero weather, never needed plugged in.
I had a remote start installed back when I bought the truck and always let it warm up before driving it, in warm or cold weather.

Front leveling springs, Bilstein shocks, running 315/70-17 BFG AT's, never had death wobble.
Never had a tuner installed or other performance mods.

I've done general maintenance over the years always replaced filters on a regular basis, batteries, couple water pumps, idler pulleys and serp belt
replaced tranny fluid and solenoids and diff fluid a few times.

New ball joints, front axle U-joints(no zerks), front driveshaft replaced with new one and installed all new front steering parts with the recall kit.

Tranny still works good, still has the factory fuel pump mounted on the fuel filter housing, haven't touched the injectors yet but will get them checked out next year and probably replaced with new injectors.

Installed a new 4"turbo back stainless exhaust system last summer because the factory stainless exhaust rusted where it was welded together.

AC still works great, I've recharged it a coupled times in the last 10 years and it seems to hold a charge good. My HVAC controls seem to work good, they do get a little funky at times when selecting from vents to defrost but seem to eventually work right.

I've been very happy with my truck and if I can keep the rust gremlins away I hope to keep it a few more years even though the wifegod is not fond of the old stinky truck and wants me to get a new one.

Good looking truck Killerb

Filtration is key for engine and injector life. Keep a good paper style air filter installed, especially if you drive in dusty conditions regularly. The cotton/ gauze style just let too much trash in IMHO. I can't tell you how many 5.9 common rails I've had come in with a cylinder down due to broken piston rings. Everyone is quick to blame the failure on a bad injector but actually is due to bad air filtration. The rings are tapered, and as they wear, they loosen in the lands and eventually beak due to "fluttering" on the piston. As for the injectors. They will eventually need to be replaced. That's just the cold, hard truth. And with the mileage your truck currently has it's probably going to be sooner than later. That doesn't mean you can't take steps to improve their lifespan. I recommend a good quality afftermarket 2 micron fuel filter/ water separator setup. The factory filter is simply not adequate.

Now, let's talk about the front end. You can buy the most expensive name brand parts you can find and they are still going to wear out prematurely. Tie rods and front axle outer u-joints especially. Ball joints do wear out too but most people don't know how to check them correctly. The first thing they do is jack the front end up and stick a pry bar under the tire and pry upward. They feel and see up and down movement and say it needs ball joints. WRONG! They are designed to have a certain amount of movement up and down. Moog has even started adding labels to their ball joints to indicate this is normal. With the ball joints, Lateral movement is what you are looking for, rather than vertical when checking for wear.

The 48re trans will require more attention to kickdown band adjustment than earlier models. They wear out after time and will eventually ruin the front drum once the friction material is gone. If the adjuster bolt is level with the top of the jamb nut after being properly adjusted, it's time for a new band. Governor pressure solenoids also fail time to time causing improper shifting and taking off in the wrong gear. Aftermarket GM style solenoids are available to help with this condition. I work on these trucks everyday and this some of the stuff I see that are common issues with them. Hope this helps.

I'm from a Class 8 Truck Family. I've owned 2-a 2001 and a 2002 with Edge 60hp, the Parents had a 1990 12-valve. All were brand-new.

Now have a couple of 2001 360 Rams, a '98 318 5-speed, a /6 and 318 First Gens with 833od's in them: Don't miss any of those diesels one bit.

I'm not saying owning a Cummins is a bad idea, but don't buy one for fuel mileage, to save money, or to use as a daily driver: you will be disappointed, pay a small fortune, and eventually run into big-dollar repair bills. Diesel mechanics is an art of its' own and most of us can't do it ourselves.

Buy one if you are, as we say in the trucking industry, loaded both ways.