Complaint 1786187

Complaint Summary

POWER TRAIN

Owner Narrative

I experienced a lack of power and I noticed that the engine temperature jumped by 40F immediately. The EVIC coolant temperature jump rapidly, but I never received a low coolant warning. I pulled the truck off of I-25 Northbound just south of the WY border. I waited for the vehicle to cool and added all of the coolant I had on hand, about 1.5 gallons. I carefully limped into Cheyenne, WY, towing my 40' 5th wheel to a spot where we could stay. I contacted Cowboy Dodge to identify the problem and repair it. The technician looked at my vehicle and he indicated the EGR valve was bad and needed replaced. The repair invoice is attached for reference. We departed Cheyenne after the fix, and we only got 44 miles out of town on I-80 when the engine coolant light illuminated, and the temp started to spike again. I coasted down the pass into Laramie, WY, in an attempt to get into cell service range and to get the truck off of the road if possible. We ended up stranded on I-80 just east of the exit for 4-hours waiting on a tow vehicle that could take us back to Cheyenne, WY, with our RV in tow. The same technician at Cowboy looked at the truck again and he indicated that the EGR cooler had failed. The failure allowed coolant to leak, undetected, into the combustion chamber. This caused carbon deposits, coal-like remnants, to be deposited throughout the motor and it was especially noticeable on the heat exchanger (see attached). This issue cased $7,000+ damage to my truck and I'm still finding issues related to the failure. I've had injectors fail, the heater core needed replaced again (3d), and the truck is smoking on startup with diminished power and sputtering at speed. I've included all Ram 2021 servicing invoices. This situation could have resulted in a catastrophic runaway on the motor resulting in fire. I lucked out by watching the gages. Stellantis (FCA) should be held accountable for their modifications to the Cummins motor causing these issues.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.