Duramax help needed for a friend..

[Cray Paper]

I talked my mentor / closest friends out of buying a Ford 6.0Hno back in 2006 and he wound up buying an early 06 loaded CC LB LBZ 4x4 instead after driving my Duramax truck. He had a big fifth wheeler and towed all over the west coast for a couple of years while his kids were in HS softball.

Fast forward to last weekend, his truck has less than 68K miles on it and the last timed it towed anything was 6 years ago. He has a company truck for daily driving, a 69 Nova SS, SRT Challenger and a Harley so the truck has just been sitting except for his wife driving it once a week to and from work. His wife couldn't get it to start Tuesday. He went home and tried, he said everything is normal until he cranks it over. The starter tries to do it's thing but doesn't have the oomph to turn the engine over. He tried recharging the battery's, jumping it etc and no change. He put in a new starter relay in the fuse panel and no change.

While trying to crank the lights do not dim. He crawled around under the truck and all the cabling "feels fine".

Since it tries to crank I think he has a bad cable / ground some where, anyone else have some advise on what to check? He is getting ready to retire and was planning on keeping the truck but this seems to have really soured him on it, and NO, it inst for sale yet, he has been constantly hounded by people to sell it for several years.

 

[Gramps]

one or two batteries

 

[monkeyswrench]

Starter itself, or low voltage out of the column switch. Jump the starter, if it spins the motor, it's upstream. If a ground is bad, test it by running a jumper cable from the neg. battery to the starter mounting bolt. It'll be something simple...

 

[NicPaus]

How old are the batteries? No aftermarket alarm?

If he decides to sell be sure to post here first.

 

[King295]

Did he have the battery(ies) tested? My guess would be it is the battery. If I recall correctly I had the same issue with my 07 LBZ.

 

[Cray Paper]

He said he put 7 year Interstate battery's in a couple of years ago. He checked the voltage on them and they were at 12.7 each. I asked him if he checked the voltage while cranking and he had not. I also asked him to try jumper cables from the battery's to the engine block and starter. He took today off the check in to it. I dont think he would sell the truck, but who knows for sure. It's a nice frigging truck, totally stock, perfect body, paint and interior and ran fantastic the last time I drove it a couple of years ago.

He will be putting his 32' Cougar Bunkhouse fifth wheel trailer up for sale soon, great trailer for kids with two bedrooms in the back to toss all there crap in.

 

[24 Sleekenforcer]

Replace the battery's , one is bad . Don't see starters on Dmax's fail .

 

[Hullbilly]

Bad batteries wreak total havoc. I’d start there and report back.

 

[Cray Paper]

Just checked in with my friend, he had it towed to a shop this morning and they had it running within an hour. Corrosion on the main wiring harness plug going in to the fuse / relay tray in the engine compartment. The mechanic pulled the main plug, sprayed cleaner on it and plugged it back in and that was that. I told him some people might be interested in it, he said it will be for sale when he dies.

This is the stuff that happens to these trucks when not ridden hard and put up wet. My 03 is starting to suffer the same type of things, I rarely drive it and it only has 150K. When I stopped towing regularly it started smoking and now seems to need injectors. It always ran better after towing heavy, even with failing injectors.

 

[adam909]

that 06 duramax is by far the best diesel made.. No smog and runs forever.. I would still have mine if it didn't get stolen.. It had over 250k miles and still pulled a 39' weekend warrior with no issues.. Glad you got it fixed..

 

[4Waters]

that 06 duramax is by far the best diesel made.. No smog and runs forever.. I would still have mine if it didn't get stolen.. It had over 250k miles and still pulled a 39' weekend warrior with no issues.. Glad you got it fixed..

What do you mean no smog, I have to smog my 01 7.3 that has absolutely no smog equipment whatsoever on it.

 

[NicPaus]

What do you mean no smog, I have to smog my 01 7.3 that has absolutely no smog equipment whatsoever on it.

No DEF or regen. Last year was the LBZ. Still needs a smog check every other year in CA unless you register it to your place in Parker Dam CA.

 

[Motoxxxloak]

What do you mean no smog, I have to smog my 01 7.3 that has absolutely no smog equipment whatsoever on it.

I think he meant pre DPF. I had an 07 LBZ. Needed injectors and I could feel the tranny starting to slip. Picked up a 17 F250 instead of fixing it and tend to find myself regretting it from time to time

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[Flying_Lavey]

Just checked in with my friend, he had it towed to a shop this morning and they had it running within an hour. Corrosion on the main wiring harness plug going in to the fuse / relay tray in the engine compartment. The mechanic pulled the main plug, sprayed cleaner on it and plugged it back in and that was that. I told him some people might be interested in it, he said it will be for sale when he dies.

This is the stuff that happens to these trucks when not ridden hard and put up wet. My 03 is starting to suffer the same type of things, I rarely drive it and it only has 150K. When I stopped towing regularly it started smoking and now seems to need injectors. It always ran better after towing heavy, even with failing injectors.

A buddy of mine is a Diesel tech and had been for about 15 years. My uncle bought his first diesel and asked my buddy what was the 1 best thing he could do to keep his truck running well and reliably. He said "put your fucking foot into it at least once everytime you drive it." The purpose is to get the exhaust and turbo hot to reduce the corrosion which he said is the number one cause of failures in modern diesels.

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[02HoWaRd26]

I think he meant pre DPF. I had an 07 LBZ. Needed injectors and I could feel the tranny starting to slip. Picked up a 17 F250 instead of fixing it and tend to find myself regretting it from time to time

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Right even the interior on my 04’ was nicer quieter and no rattles than my new duramax.