Power Stroke Diesel any problems yet??

79937 Views 51 Replies 29 Participants Last post by greg, Jun 10, 2020

Makulo

Discussion Starter · Jan 24, 2015

Do any body had any issue with Transit Diesel ?

1 - 20 of 52 Posts

orton

· #2 · Jan 24, 2015

Makulo said:
Do any body had any issue with Transit Diesel ?

Just do the basic arithmetic. Will the diesel save you money? Include fuel cost/gallon, fuel mileage, DEF fluid, fuel filter changes, higher initial purchase price, more oil at oil changes. Normally a diesel may last twice as long as a gas engine but costs twice as much to replace so that is not a reason for a diesel.

With all current clean diesels, there is a lot of additional software and hardware to meet the emission requirements. Much more than a gas engine so more potential failures. To name a few: DEF system, DPF system, fuel filter, swirl valves?, egr with soot, glow plugs etc. If your use is in cold climates that is also more of a problem with diesels compared to gas.

The diesel can be a fine choice if your use fits its application. For most at the current fuel prices, the diesel may not be a good choice. That can change.

Makulo

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 24, 2015

i'm asking if any diesel 3.2 owners had any problems with this van , because i do , im not asking about money saving its not the point.

cutndry

· #4 · Jan 24, 2015

What kind of problems have you had?

PeterR

· #5 · Jan 24, 2015

cutndry said:
What kind of problems have you had?

See his post here:

http://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/91753-post30.html

Whitedog

· #6 · Jan 24, 2015

We have put on almost 6000 miles so far this month and it has been nothing but gold. What kind of driving do you do? Diesels like the open road, especially ones with a DPF.

rabbitdiesel1

· #7 · Jan 24, 2015

Diesels have had there share of emission problems in recent yrs. To be fair there is a thread on this forum titled ecoboost problems. Some complaints on the ecoboost are less than expected mpg which gives you no return on the 1800$ extra cost of the engine. Spark plug changes every 100,000 mi. will cost more than def refills. The ecoboost isn't offered in the chassis cab which to me questions its durability. Ford is gouging there diesel customers with a very high option price. You could get a sprinter diesel for approx. same price or maybe less than a transit diesel. Sprinter has pretty much over come the emission problems ( they paid there dues). I'd assume a high mileage ecoboost would not resell well. Diesels have excellent resale values which can justify the premium price. If I bought a transit, I'd keep it simple and get the 3.7 or the diesel (if the price was right) but I'm not a speed freak.

Gianz

· #8 · Jan 24, 2015

Mine has only 750 miles, no issues so far !

Makulo

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 24, 2015

sensor goes out ,( i dont know which one ) manual regeneration and.. exaust heater broken ,after 2500 miles driving on highways 80% is sitting at the dealer for 3weeks now because they cant get the parts .

orton

· #10 · Jan 24, 2015

rabbitdiesel1 said:
Diesels have had there share of emission problems in recent yrs. To be fair there is a thread on this forum titled ecoboost problems. Some complaints on the ecoboost are less than expected mpg which gives you no return on the 1800$ extra cost of the engine. Spark plug changes every 100,000 mi. will cost more than def refills. The ecoboost isn't offered in the chassis cab which to me questions its durability. Ford is gouging there diesel customers with a very high option price. You could get a sprinter diesel for approx. same price or maybe less than a transit diesel. Sprinter has pretty much over come the emission problems ( they paid there dues). I'd assume a high mileage ecoboost would not resell well. Diesels have excellent resale values which can justify the premium price. If I bought a transit, I'd keep it simple and get the 3.7 or the diesel (if the price was right) but I'm not a speed freak.

There is more to life than mpg. From reading the Sprinter-Source it seems that Sprinter owners are still paying their dues on new Sprinters. Maybe it is normal to have problems with modern clean burning diesels no matter who makes them.
I agree that the safest choice is the 3.7, but it sure is fun to go fast in a big ugly tin box. Unfortunately at my age the resale value is not very important since my kids will have to deal with disposing of my assets and anything they get on the sale of the Transit will be gravy. Now I just have to keep them from taking away my driver's license for a few more years.

Reactions: 5

bobojay

· #11 · Jan 24, 2015

rabbitdiesel, you need to go on the Roadtrek forums and read about all the 2014 Sprinters that Roadtrek bought where the new owners didn't make it 2000 miles before the vans had to go in for sensor work and DPF regens. What's bad about it is to do this work, they had to drop the RT tanks and several dealers involved wouldn't do it because of this.

Seems MB made some late changes to 2014 software, still had 2013, and didn't let the dealers know. At least that's what these folks are saying is the reason for the screw up.

MB as all diesel vehicles nowadays, is still having issues....

Reactions: 4

Whitedog

· #12 · Jan 24, 2015

orton said:
There is more to life than mpg.

Yes, but what does sex and beer have to do with this?

Seriously though its about priorities. If your priorities put MPG down on the list, is fine. But consider that for every 1MPG change in our van equals $3000 per year in fuel, priorities are different for different people. One of my customers has a bunch of Isuzu COE trucks for landscaping and they are all gassers. For the kind of driving they do, it makes sense for them. It doesn't make sense for you. It does make sense for us sine its on the highway 99% of the time.

If we can get the longevity out of this that we have out of our Duramaxes, we will be going strong at 700,000 miles. That gasser probably won't still be running with that many miles.

rabbitdiesel1

· #13 · Jan 24, 2015

bobojay said:
rabbitdiesel, you need to go on the Roadtrek forums and read about all the 2014 Sprinters that Roadtrek bought where the new owners didn't make it 2000 miles before the vans had to go in for sensor work and DPF regens. What's bad about it is to do this work, they had to drop the RT tanks and several dealers involved wouldn't do it because of this.

Seems MB made some late changes to 2014 software, still had 2013, and didn't let the dealers know. At least that's what these folks are saying is the reason for the screw up.

MB as all diesel vehicles nowadays, is still having issues....

Robert, Sprinters do have there issues which I've noticed you like to point out to people. I've also noticed you like to down play problems that people are having with the Promaster and Transits. I've owned two ford vans, my first was a 1985 that I liked until it caught fire and burned. I later found out, ford had over ten million vehicles on the road with this potential problem. My second ford van was a 1991, in 100,000 mi the tranny went out, the rear end went out, the vacuum pump went out , and the AC went out. That was my second and LAST ford van.

Reactions: 1

orton

· #14 · Jan 24, 2015

Whitedog said:
Yes, but what does sex and beer have to do with this?

Seriously though its about priorities. If your priorities put MPG down on the list, is fine. But consider that for every 1MPG change in our van equals $3000 per year in fuel, priorities are different for different people. One of my customers has a bunch of Isuzu COE trucks for landscaping and they are all gassers. For the kind of driving they do, it makes sense for them. It doesn't make sense for you. It does make sense for us sine its on the highway 99% of the time.

If we can get the longevity out of this that we have out of our Duramaxes, we will be going strong at 700,000 miles. That gasser probably won't still be running with that many miles.

I would also buy the diesel for your application. Primarily highway driving to keep the emission stuff happy and you put a lot of miles on per year. Then you take my application of more city driving and maybe 10,000 miles/year. Gas makes more sense for my application. What I am trying to say is a person should look at how they will use the vehicle and choose the best solution. If I was a expediter I also would buy a diesel.

Reactions: 1

onetwo

· #15 · Jan 24, 2015

We picked up a Sprinter diesel 6 months ago, and now ordered a Transit gas EcoV6.

Both vehicles will be used for similar purposes.

Will be fun to compare the two.

So far no problems with the Sprinter, and it runs great!

bbird

· #16 · Jan 24, 2015

It most likely be at least a year or so till we can get any real answers to this question

, once someone hits the 100,000 miles mark then we will know. Guys that are chiming in with less than 5,000 miles is really erelavint

, my lawn more has that many miles

Longboard

· #17 · Jan 24, 2015

onetwo said:
We picked up a Sprinter diesel 6 months ago, and now ordered a Transit gas EcoV6.

Both vehicles will be used for similar purposes.

Will be fun to compare the two.

So far no problems with the Sprinter, and it runs great!

4 cyl w/7 speed or V6 w/old trans?

Whitedog

· #18 · Jan 24, 2015

bbird said:
It most likely be at least a year or so till we can get any real answers to this question, once someone hits the 100,000 miles mark then we will know. Guys that are chiming in with less than 5,000 miles is really erelavint, my lawn more has that many miles

I don't think that early failures are irrelevant. If they happen a lot and early, it will point to a weakness. One data point here and there is irrelevant but if people keep adding their data of failures we can see a trend.

And yes,we are expecting over 100,000 miles per year. I will certainly keep updating as problems arise.

bobojay

· #19 · Jan 24, 2015

rabbitdiesel1 said:
Robert, Sprinters do have there issues which I've noticed you like to point out to people. I've also noticed you like to down play problems that people are having with the Promaster and Transits. I've owned two ford vans, my first was a 1985 that I liked until it caught fire and burned. I later found out, ford had over ten million vehicles on the road with this potential problem. My second ford van was a 1991, in 100,000 mi the tranny went out, the rear end went out, the vacuum pump went out , and the AC went out. That was my second and LAST ford van.

What issues am I downplaying with ProMasters and Transits?

The Sprinter is a great vehicle as far as I'm concerned, if you want to pay out the nose for repairs, like having dealers that can't work on them, or having any at all nearby. Both of my available dealers within 200 miles consider them sidelines.
Love the way it drives, and I know the engines are bulletproof, but the 5 spd transmissions with the V6 have a shifting algorithm that just plain doesn't work.
Both of the Sprinters I've had have had multiple issues with alignment, wheel balance issues, terrible body alignments on the '13 van, only one door would close without slamming, had to take it to a body shop to get those items fixed under warranty, hard, cheap interior fitments, an archaic dash/HVAC design, multiple issues with the HVAC even working. there's more but I'll stop there.

The Transit is far from perfect, as is any other vehicle on the road. No diesel engine nowadays from anybody is going to be trouble free as far as drivability issues over the long term. When I drove the 5 Transits that I sampled, it was a back to back with our Sprinter. Out of the Sprinter, into the Transit. It just felt "right" to me when sitting in the cockpit. the seats weren't quite as wide as the Sprinter and the space between the seat and doghouse is less but that's minor stuff. It has a modern dash/switchgear layout, unlike the Sprinter. The driving position felt more comfortable to me. The shifter is in a perfect spot for me, as are the rest of the controls. The transmission worked perfect with both the engines I drove, 3.2 & 3.5. And the doors and slider all closed the way they should. The slider especially worked well compared to our misaligned, no further adjustment available, and overly heavy Sprinter one.
And no these were not "specially" prepared vans I drove. They all had over 3k miles on them of a hard life so far, were all loaded with 3500 lbs of cargo, and were generally not well taken care of......
I'll quit now.....

See less See more

Reactions: 1

VanMan

· #20 · Jan 24, 2015

For paying the extra money to get the 3.5L ecoboost, you get the American version of " FAHRVERNUGEN" in german it means "driving enjoyment" .

Reactions: 1

1 - 20 of 52 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.