'04 Ram Diesel with 995K miles! BUT.........

I follow 'Hoovies Garage' on YouTube, and today he bought an '04 Ram 2500 4X4 Diesel with (supposedly) just shy of 1 MILLION miles on the engine. Says the Carfax backs up the claim.

BUT, in the video, he points out the factory computer that shows MPG is VERY optimistic. It showed 30 MPG average at his first fill up when in actuality it was getting 18 MPG.

My question is, could the odometer be reading 'optimistic' like the MPG is? Just curious.

Aftermarket computer controlled power adders feed fuel outside the factory computer range so it's never accounted for via the onboard fuel economy (lie-o-meter) gauge.

I had an '06 and the overhead was never accurate. It would say 20 when in actuality it was 14. I believe these used software to generate a presumed number much like the oil pressure gauge.

Funny, my '01 was reasonably close until I added the TST powermax and later edge w/ attitude.

Here's my suspicion of how the factory calculates fuel economy. I_think_due to emission requirements they have FULL BSFC numbers at all throttle positions? And the computer calculates your mileage from these tables?

FWIW, 40+ years ago I had a Zemco driving computer on my '80 Mirada. It used a fuel flow sensor you added in the fuel line, the computer allowed you to "calibrate" it with your hand calculated numbers. I'd calibrate it every fillup, it was pretty consistently two MPG off plus or minus. Back then it seemed really cool to watch the instant fuel economy numbers.

total junk

One would have to wonder how much R&R was done on the rest of the truck at even half that mileage.

Definitely a little bit of "Washington's Axe" going on--clearly a lot of things have been reworked and replaced. But still impressive for any vehicle to make it that far--especially in as good shape as it appears to be for its age.

Gee, 1 Million miles ?!?!?! . . . guess I have LONG LONG LONG way to go with my 02 Cummins . . .only have 80k miles on it now !! Have owned since new . . .

FWIW, 40+ years ago I had a Zemco driving computer on my '80 Mirada. It used a fuel flow sensor you added in the fuel line, the computer allowed you to "calibrate" it with your hand calculated numbers. I'd calibrate it every fillup, it was pretty consistently two MPG off plus or minus. Back then it seemed really cool to watch the instant fuel economy numbers

Back in '83 my 16 yr old self wanted one of these soooooo bad, but my part time minimum wage job wouldn't allow it.

Back to the truck.......

The truck is in incredible shape for the mileage, but I seriously have my doubts that 'just' maintenance has kept it looking/working so good.

My old '01 was pretty accurate on the MPG calculator also. I checked it many times.

My 04 CTD Dually which is currently down for some fuel related issues. Has 209,000 on it. Mine say average 17.8 in town/freeway driving.

My '04 with 24 valve has 310,000. ALWAYS some little electrical problem going on with it though. Has not stranded me anywhere - but annoying, and keeps me from using it for long trips.

I've known of a few high miler Cummins powered Dodge trucks.
Our company equipment repair guy had a '93 with over 700,000 on it before he parked it the last time. The entire truck was dented, scratched, dirty and just worn out. The engine was still running but not well.
Another one was a 2006 that had almost 600,000 when the company closed the doors and sold off all the assets.
If I could bring myself to tolerate the smell, I would have bought a diesel truck long ago.

My '92 is over a quarter of the way there at 311,000. It's had a rear main seal and 2 valve adjustments. The VE pump was resealed, not rebuilt and I just recently pulled the front cover off to check and secure the killer dowel pin. Not because there was a problem, but just for piece of mind. It was firmly nestled in it's bore though. It doesn't leak or use oil but I do think the VE pump is getting a little worn.

I suppose its possible one of those rare vehicles where everything was assembled perfectly, and had an owner that really took care of it rides around for lots and lots of miles.

Back in the early 70s I worked at a gas station and one of the customers had a 68 Chevy Impala. The guy was an on the road salesman and that Impala saw a lot of road miles every day. Somewhere around 1975, the old Impala met its death with somewhere near 350,000 miles. It had a 327 and still had the factory installed timing chain. The car was involved in a minor accident, but it was pretty rough by then, so that was its end.
We also had a customer with a 64 Chrysler New Yorker that went past 250,000 miles, it was also very wore out when the guy traded it in on a new Chrysler.

My experience with high mileage vehicles that were still original is that everything gets wore out. If this truck actually has close to a million miles on it, there have been a lot of things "maintained" over the years. The term "regular maintenance" has a lot of variation built into it. To some people, regular maintenance means you replace things as they wear out, but to other people it means you change the fluids on a regular interval. On this truck, I suspect things were replaced as they wore out, and that included nearly everything on the truck at some point as the miles kept adding up. Gene

to OP, I saw this question pop up in the comments too.

Basic common sense thinking; which is more likely, Having the odometer which is a pretty strong legal matter be off a lot OR the MPG on the OH console be inaccurate?
Sure, speedos tend to be off a bit (often optimistic compared to calibrated ones), but it would be pretty stupid for the mfgr to have the vehicle rack up miles faster than 5-10% over.
OE and aftermarket leasing, rental companies, insurance and book values would all be keeping a close eye on such things.

I had a '92 CC 5.2 Dakota with 450,000 on it when I sold it, still running and driving. Diff was never opened, engine had intake and head gaskets, a radiator, 3 or 4 fuel pumps and a couple trans rebuilds. Not bad for a lemon buyback vehicle.

04 Would be a common rail, without lots of injector changing over the years it would never make a million miles! My 04 and 05 both had injector problems in the 260K range, worse injectors ever designed...

I ❤️ my 97 12 valve

Taller or shorter tires then OEM could alter both mileage and the computer's mpg numbers. I suspect the truck has seen lots of different tires with that many miles....
What happens after the truck left the Dodge dealership the first time is beyond Dodge's control. Dodge can only base warranty on the mileage the computer says the truck has. The computer has no idea what size the tires are.

All newer vehicles have at least a rear wheel antilock brake system along with a speed sensor. The computer compensates for tire height and gear ratio changes.

Trucks like the OP use the wheel speed sensors and ABS module for the speedo operation IIRC.

There was another post on Moparts in the general forum about a Ram diesel owner with very high odo mileage, but he had gone through 4 transmissions.

I also remember an article about a Volvo owner with one million legitimate miles, but with 2 engine rebuilds and more than 2 trans rebuilds.
The body style of his old Volvo was a copy of the Chrysler Airflow.

A lot of Cummins I6 diesels went into school buses. There was a guy in NC that made a business of buying used Ram V10s and swapping in Cummins I-6 engines from school buses. I wonder what school bus hold the record for unrebuilt mileage on a Cummins I6?

Mercedes 240D taxis racked up vast mileage.

Anyone ever transplant the drivetrain from a 240D into a Dakota or S10 ?

Here's part 2. Truck has had the transmission replaced three times, the front driveshaft replaced, and the AC compressor replaced. Currently the truck needs a PS pump, timing chain cover gasket and oil pan gasket.

Sorry to go sideways a bit here but I saw the video and am curious what he paid for something like that, probably never know but at least now he has a tow vehicle again. That one episode were he borrowed his neighbors TRX was entertaining. I follow him on Instagram and ask from time to time when we will see this: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1970-plymouth-superbird-21/ but so far no response, wondering if the deal somehow fell through. Buyer was "HooviesGarage"

I've had to replace the ECM in my truck twice. Both times they asked for the VIN, mileage, etc... Neither time did they require me to show proof so I guess could have told them anything, but that ain't me.

The ECM does not change the miles on the dash, that is stored in the cluster, if you tell them the wrong number it will get a code for the miles not agreeing.

I have checked MPG vs the readout on a lot of vehicles and have seen some that are pretty dang close and some that you would swear there was a mixup of kilometers and miles going on somewhere.

As for how the readouts are figured I assume it is done by knowing how much the injector flows, how long the pulse width is and how man of those pulses per mile have happened but I have never been able to find any info about how they are working.

The video was posted today of the superbird. Thanks for showing the BAT listing, interesting to see it has an R VIN. Guess it is a rebody at that price.
https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...oovies-garage-superbird.html#Post2994904

I agree. The injectors in mine were changed at around 250,000 and the trans was rebuilt around that same time. I only use this truck "when I need a truck" - so it gets less than a couple thousand miles a year now. You can hear the cab corners rusting while it sits inside my barn if you listen closely!

The Volvo P1800 you're referring to has over 3 million miles on it and belonged to Irv Gordon. I was lucky enough to work with Irv to get his car to Carlisle a couple of times for our Import show. Sadly, Irv passed away about two years ago. His car is now in the possession of Volvo Car USA, LLC and they were kind enough to bring it back to Carlisle this past May in honor of Irv.

I first featured Irv's Volvo in 2007 and when I offered to put it in the building for the weekend, I remember him politely declining. He said he needed to drive it as much as possible during the show to keep adding to the mileage. It was over 2 million at that time. And YES, the engine and most of the car have been rebuilt multiple times but it's still the official Guinness world record holder.

Irv was a cool guy. You can Google for more info but here's a quick article I found:

https://www.motor1.com/news/529418/gordon-volvo-p1800-close-look/

Ed

Reminds me of George Washington's axe or the Ship of Theseus.