99 Suburban 6.5 Diesel-any TSB's on it?

[Mikado14]

Have a '99 Suburban 2500 4WD 6.5 Diesel. The problem is the following:

Within the first 30 minutes of initial startup, it will run fine and decide to just quit. It might do this once or twice but will not do it at an idle, if you start it up after the first failure and wait, irregardless of it being 3 min or up to 10 min, it will do it again. After, at most 3 times, it will run fine.

I work in an independent shop and do this all day long but am at wit's end as to how to proceed. I have hooked this up to our SnapOn Modis and have checked fuel pressure, boost, EGR etc. Everything is within specs, at least the specs that I have on hand. Oh, and one more thing, it won't do it when I have it hooked to the Modis. When it dies, it will immediately start up, no heavy black smoke, no white smoke, no hesitation on starting, nothing, starts like normal.

I am trying to diagnose this but can't seem to find enough information in any of the reference books that we have at work or even on the internet. I don't want to start swapping out parts. I am paid at work to diagnose and I want to diagnose this but am looking for a direction.

I am at this point convinced that it is fuel related and quite possibly either the fuel temperature sensor, cam position sensor or even the ICM is thermally intermittent or it could be ground related. Whatever it is seems to be, it appears to be temperature related since once you get it up to operating temp it will continue to run fine.

Are there any GM techs or others who may be aware of any TSB's or have run across this? I have run across ICM's that would just quit in the past, but the symptoms were different, this was in '95's and one 98 that this happened to and I replaced with an upgraded Stanadyne module.

Any input would be appreciated.

[praisethelowered]

Does your shop have access to mitchell on demand or alldata shop software? If so, then you can access complete TSB's through them.If not, alldata's website allows you to scan a list of TSB's, but does not give details.With the TSB number in hand, you may be able to find it posted on the net, otherwise you can purchase it through the alldata website. God luck with your problem. I'm an autoshop teacher and often get people in with goofy problems. If I can't figure it out right away, I find that the internet and my old mitchell reference books are my best friend. With newer cars, my scanner is a huge help. But I'm going to purchase the alldata software and I think that will help immensly as well as allowing my students to have a better grasp of diagnosis and repair.

[Mikado14]

Well the Suburban got to the point that it wouldn't run for more than 30 seconds. It stranded my 79 year old mother and she had it towed to a dealer. I called the dealer and told him that I believed the Driver module was intermittent and to check. He called back, already had it APART and told me that the Module was $365!!!!!!! and another $265 in labor!!!!

Since it was apart and most of the labor was already spent in the diagnosis I told him to do it.

Geez, the shop I work at does these for 2/3 the price. I would've had it towed there but at that point, I thought (wrongly) that what the hell, it would be under $500 for that is what it would cost at our shop (this was before the above quote was given). The time and labor book has this at 2.1 hours and 1.7 for a Master Tech. At the shop rate of $71/hr, what am I being billed for?

Anyway, for those of you with a 6.5 and intermittent cutout. You may recieve a low voltage code or glow plug code. There will sometimes be no codes and there will be no STS light.

[Pamsdad]

Fear not Mikado...

Save your receipts. You will likely get reimbursed. Provided you have less than 120k on the odometer.

The dealer has replaced the FSD(Fuel Soleniod Driver) or sometimes its called a PMD(Pump Mounted Driver).

This part is known as the Achilles Heel of the 6.5 Diesel.

General Motors has extended the warranty to 11 years/120k miles on the injection pump(FSD/PMD is considered part of this). If you don't know this, most times the dealer won't tell you.


Do yourself a favor and visit www.thedieselpage.com.

There is a ton of information there. Also the info to help you get your money back.

[desertmariner]

Hi, I have a 97 suburban 4 x4 6.5. I had exactly the same problem at 150,000 I changed the pmd module and mounted it remotely with a heat sink to the driver side of the engine compartment. 10k miles later she runs like a champ. I also changed out the electric fuel pump at the same time. Good luck......... Rich

[Mikado14]

Originally Posted by Pamsdad

Fear not Mikado...

Save your receipts. You will likely get reimbursed. Provided you have less than 120k on the odometer.

The dealer has replaced the FSD(Fuel Soleniod Driver) or sometimes its called a PMD(Pump Mounted Driver).

This part is known as the Achilles Heel of the 6.5 Diesel.

General Motors has extended the warranty to 11 years/120k miles on the injection pump(FSD/PMD is considered part of this). If you don't know this, most times the dealer won't tell you.


Do yourself a favor and visit www.thedieselpage.com.

There is a ton of information there. Also the info to help you get your money back.

Thanks for the info. I've been to the link but couldn't find anything. Do you need to join to get to the info? Not a problem if it is.

[Pamsdad]

Yes. Small fee for membership.

If you plan on keeping the 6.5TD, the information available there is Priceless...

[mrrpm]

For what it's worth, my 99 Suburban had the same problem - with the same result. I didn't have to prod the dealership to honor the warranty, they offered without my asking. I'm still thinking I'll do the remote mount thing, just to be safe.

[dguiley]

That was the information I was searching for. I have a 96 K1500 with 113k on i and am having stalling problems (actually it runs fine for me but stalls on my wife a lot). I changed the fuel pump ($90) with no change. I called my mechanic and he told me that his scanner can only get 75% of the data on the motor. In fact, he has to take vehicles to the dealer for calibration after servicing/changing the injector pump. The dealer was my next call but now I know about the warranty extension so I will be sure to press for a freebie.

Daryl

[dguiley]

Dealer diagnosed my problem today as needing a whole new injection pump. He said it is under warranty and there would be no charge. No hassles. Way cool!