Amazing ripoffs

[Robyn]

An older fellow I know has a 96 GM pickup with the 6.5 diesel.

He has had his share of problems over the years with the electronics as have most of us.

He always takes his truck to a shop that is close to his home for repairs.

He has asked me on several occasions as to what to do to fix some of the issues that have plagued his truck.

I took the time to sit down and type out specific instructions with a complete list of the items needed.

DTECH PMD
Finned cooler
6 foot extension harness
#5 resistor (have no clue whats in his truck)

Now keep in mind the shop he uses has been around many many years and has worked on many GM diesel pickups and still does.

The last time he had stalling troubles is when I prepared the writup for him.

He took that writeup to the shop and explained that he wanted it done just as specified in the writeup.

The mechanic proceeded to tell this poor soul that everything I had written was pure BS and not only could it not be done, but that doing it would BURN OUT the computer and possibly cause his truck to catch fire. :eek:

Sooooooooo they soaked him several thousand $$$$ for another Injection pump from GM (new PMD too)

OK the plot thickens

The truck ran ok for about 5K miles then had another issue.

Crank sensor went bad.
They installed a new one and about two weeks later the truck starts having stalling issues again.

Sound like a failing PMD ??? YUP sure does.

Guess what. These jerks soaked him for another IP and PMD and told him that this failure was caused when the crank sensor had failed.

The sensor failure had ruined the IP and burned out the PMD :confused:

OMG, where do these idiots come from.

The bottom line is that the fellow still has an Old style PMD mounted to the IP and is no better off now than before.

He is so scared that his truck is somehow gonna catch fire or fall off into outer space or some such crap.

A simple PMD cooler and an extension harness would have cost a few hundred $$$ and the truck would most likely be running fine on the second IP that was installed. (first one went about 70K miles)

So just because its a shop and they have fancy tools and wear official looking coveralls does not mean they know squat.


Ripoff Auto repair is alive and well out there folks.

Sits shaking her head


Missy

[phantom309]

thats a sad story,. is he anywhere close to someone that might be able to help him?
Shame that he doesn't believe you, and he has no idea of your vast amount of experience and knowledge with these trucks,.
Is he internet savvy? would he read the info available?
you can lead a horse etc,..

Nick

[JetBoater]

So much for 'giving the customer what they want'.

Most local shops are more than happy to provide repairs on these 6.5 trucks... as some of them put their kids through college on repair jobs done in the 90's.
Those who are familiar with the weaknesses, know exactly where to look for the problems.

Its unfortunate that some shops DO NOT know what they are doing.

MR. 96 GM should be dealing with a shop who listens to him... not convinces him to part with some major money. He got spanked, hopefully he learned something http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/tdpforum/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Robyn]

Not sure if is is Puter savvy.

I have shown him the setup on my rig and he told such to the mechanic and that was brushed off I guess rather as matter of fact BS "Just wont work, will ruin things"

The mechanic obviously is either really into scamming folks or is an absolute moron unwilling to listen to the voice of experience.

I work closely with a big truck shop near here that does the big stuff. They call me in every so often to help with diagnostics on the 6.5's

They had one that they had sent over to the stealership and even they were befuddled.

It was a compound issue of a bad lift pump, plugged fuel filter and a bad PMD all at the same time.

As we dug into it,the Pluged filter was first to be ferreted out followed by the lift pump. The filter would not fill after the change, AHHH HAAA.

Then after the lift pump I decided to have them install an oil pressure switch JUST BECAUSE we could as a PM measure. (pump may have failed due to a bad or failing OPS)

This at least got the beast to run sometimes.

Installed a new DTECH PMD on a cooler out of the engine bay and Poof, all better.


This other fellow is just easily swayed by the creeps at that shop and seems to love tossing $$$$ around in quantity. :confused:


Hard to help those kind.

Missy

[JetBoater]

Most shops I have visited value at least one of their mechanics, who specialize in 6.5 trucks. These mechanics are 'Solid Gold' when it comes to knowledge and repairs on these vehicles.

Loosing such a person leads to a scenario like you described. They employ trained staff, but with little experience with anomalous 'quirks' found with the 6.5. They rely on computer codes and GM bulletins. Its a shame.

Keep doing your stuff Robin... the threads I have read of yours have been to the point and of great value to me.

Advice doesn't always come from experience, that's why TDP is so great! Moderators and members chime-in with all kinds of relevant experience and answers to our problems http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/tdpforum/images/icons/icon12.gif.

[jerry598]

Yep, several years ago I bought a new PMD and cooler and remote mounted it on the intake manifold (now its behind the front bumper). Later I took it to the Chevy stealership because it was throwing codes suggesting that I had a bad IP. The young shop technician was shocked to see the PMD remote mounted on the intake. He said he could not understand how the PMD could work without being attached directly to the IP.

Long story short, they replaced the ECM and one glow plug which did not help anything, and then they finally replaced the IP which was under warranty. All codes went away and the truck ran great after that with no more problems.

Its definitely nice to have the Diesel Page.

[JohnC]

Hey, the guy chose to believe the folks with their hands in his wallet! You can only do so much. After that, they need to want to be helped...

[stezloco]

a fool and his money are soon parted.....fool him once....shame on you, fool him twice...well he's just stupid (and rich)...if he'd been without funds then the advice from these pages would have been more than enough to put him on the straight and narrow.....hard to find a poor garage owner...theyre like rockin horse poo...if you do find genuine people ..stick with them....(right up until you need that second opinion of course);)

[Robyn]

That about sums it up for sure.

The guy is not a mechanic and I am too far away to really be of help.

I see him every so often when I get into that yard with the big rig.

Ahhhh well.


Happy to help where I can.

Missy

[JohnC]

Happy to help where I can.


"God, Give us the grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed, Courage
to change the things which should be changed,
And the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."

[arveetek]

This reminds me of the recent incident I had with the city's service truck where I live. No repair shop was able or willing to diagnose the stalling problem on the '97 6.5L. Only the local GM dealership was willing to look at, and they, of course, wanted to replace the whole IP to a tune of $1700.

I stepped in and installed a remote-mounted PMD, and all is well now. It's such a shame that the 6.5L especially is prone to such experiences with repair shops. For as long as the 6.2L/6.5L family has been around and is still in service, you'd think there would be many more diesel shops who were really good at working on these rigs??

Casey

[Robyn]

The problem is mainly due to the fact that far too many mechanics listen to all the BS thats out there and dont really get up to speed on reality.

There are still idiots out there that spout off with "The 6.5 is just a converted gas engine and you can tell because it has a distributor hole"

OMG these clowns have got to be brain dead. How long does it take to read about the 6.5's development by Detroit diesel. OHHHH I know, they can't read either!!

These same fools are the ones thats gonna work on your rig when you take it to the dealership. NOT

Most GM shops still wont install a remote cooler, but instead go right back to the old crap that we all know does not work.

I have even see GM techs tell people that "You MUST mount the PMD to the IP" Doing otherwise will not work.


Hmmmm I would like to know when the "will not work" kicks in :rolleyes: seems to work pretty darned good as far as I can tell.

Far too many use the excuse, "It won't work" Why? "Because"

Because is not a reason its an excuse commonly used by someone who does not have a clue.

The DS4 setup was the worst decision GM ever made with the 6.5

I would like to know just how many Millions of $$$$ that mess cost them.

Had they Kept the DB2 the issues would have been minimal.

Sadly though, the big companies never seem to learn that high tech does not always mean better.

The way we are heading, things are being engineered to a point that failure is the norm and function will be an on again off again thing.

Instead of the rare failure it will be a rare function :eek:

Just a side note
Was traveling a few years back and had an issue with the 95 Burb (GASSER 454)
was losing a distributor pickup coil and I knew the symptoms. Stopped at a GM dealer in Northern Cal. and the tech told me it was fine, just a dirty distributor cap was all.

I told him NOOOOOOOOO replace the distributor. He insisted not and took off for a road test. The thing quit DEAD about 5 miles out and they had to get it towed back.

Wanted me to pay for the tow. Haaaaaaaaa that did not happen.

They were also closing by the time they got the rig back.
I had the tow driver drop it off across the way at a private shop. The owner and I fixed the rig in the morning. He Asked Me what was wrong, told him to get a distributor, we installed it and in less than 30 minutes and the old 54 motor was purrrrrrring along fine again.

Sent an extremely rude, obnoxious and nasty letter to the dealerships manager the next day.

Sent the private shop owner a gift certificate to a local restaurant so he and his wife could have a steak on us.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGG

This is the same reason folks dont fix 6.5's right either.


Shakes head and pours more coffee.


Missy