Looking for help/advice on truck ...

[Rawze]

(05-14-2022 )StormChaser Wrote:  I have been an O/O for 2 years. I have a 2017 Kenworth T680 with an ISX 15 550hp engine. 13 speed manuel Eaton Fuller Transmission, with 3.32 rear end. I am at my wits end with this truck.

I have put over $50,000 in repairs on this truck since Thanksgiving 2021. I cannot seem to keep it out of the shop for longer than a couple of days.
...

Seems pretty obvious so far to me that your caught up in the same scenario that about 85% of most all owner operators get themselves get caught up into these days.

Going from shop to shop... wasting endless amounts of moneys due to bad decisions because you are putting too much faith in the network of over-priced, incompetent repair shops all over the place .. with no end in sight.

--- This is no way to operate a trucking business these days at all. What you have been doing so far is exactly why 85% of O/O's dig themselves into a financial hole like you have described and ultimately fail at owning a truck.

- TO begin with, a truck would not be in such dire straights if the person purchasing it had gone thru it properly the day they got it, and kept after all of its maintenance, etc.. - gotten it up to a reliable condition up front. USED TRUCKS do not usually get sold when they are still making their original owners money... and people who do not intend to keep them long term, (like truck fleets, etc.) sell them at certain intervals, purposefully neglecting them as possible, only barely doing what it takes to not void all the warranty.

I.E.> It is almost always, not until they have become a financial plague due to severe neglect that a truck gets sold to begin with.

This should have been expected up front .. like a house that you already know that the sink and shower is leaky, the floors are rotted out, the roof needs to be re-done, and all the scars of the last folks who could care less about it. This should have been expected before moving into it... but I only see time and again.. most people who buy a used truck, they have this twisted fantasy that they are always "the lucky one".. like some kind of gambling fool at the casino thinking they can beat the odds.

This is always a truck owners first mistake. They can't be bothered to look past the paint job. They always somehow get all gleeful and think they can just get into the cab and start hauling freight with it instead of taking a couple weeks off after purchase, investing a few $$$thousanbd to bring it back up to speed THEMSELVES, grabbing some wrenches, and going thru it.

- THERE IS A WHOLE H$LL OF A LOT OF MAINTENANCE THAT IS REQUIRED ON A TRUCK, FAR BEYOND CHANGING THE OIL.. that needs to be done to them on a schedule. Things that are done regularly BEFORE THEY END UP IN DIRE STRAIGHTS AND SOMEONE ENDS UP HOPPING FROM SHOP TO SHOP in desperate attempts to put out a forest fire of problems!. IT IS CALLED A MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE for a reason, and every truck has one.

THE DAY YOU PURCHASED IT.. is the same day that it should have been shut down and the ENTIRE MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE for the entire truck and all of its components gone thru and brought up to date. -- NO REPAIR SHOP IS GOING TO DO THIS!!!.. PERIOD!.

The TRUCK OWNER is responsible for this.. not a repair shop that is only going to patch thngs barely enough to get out out of their doors while ripping you off.

A person does not get $50,000 in the hole on repairs UNLESS THEY HAVE MADE A STRING OF BAD DECISIONS!.

-- SO LOOK IN THE MIRROR ON THAT ONE.. AND TAKE THIS AS YOUR WAKE-UP CALL TO STOP WASTING MONEYS ON STUFF THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN MOSTLY DOING FOR YOURSELF ALL ALONG!.

No one can help you if you continue to make these kinds of bad decisions. You seem to be looking for some non-existant magical place to take your truck to to solve all your problems.. BUT IT DOES NOT EXIST!!!.

You keep running off to every repair shop you can find, and as a truck owner, you will never get ahead like that!.

-- the bulk of repair shops in the USA are not there to cater to a truck owners whims!. They don't have time for that any more.. and there is no money in it for them to do so. - They do good to only put out the immediate fire, shove you in,.. and shove you out the door so that they can get more trucks a week in and out.. everything else, they could not be bothered with. your only going to find fix-it shops who at best, will fix something just long enough for you to make it another 300 miles or so.. And end up right back into the next place!... That is what they ALL do for the most part!. It is the NORM, NOT THE EXCEPTION!.

If you want anything more than that, then you are going to have to learn how to actually take responsibility towards properly owning a truck for yourself instead! ... By grabbing a wrench and waking the h#ell up to the fact that you have been doing nothing but wasting moneys it seems!.

- A TYPICAL TRUCK OWNER NEEDS TO LEARN TO DO ALL MINOR AND MEDIUM REPAIRS THEMSELVES.. AND ALL TUNE-UP WORK, SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE, ETC.. OR GO OUT OF BUSINESS!.. IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT!. -- THAT IS WHY IT IS CALLED TRUCK OWNERSHIP.. AND NOT TRUCK DRIVING!.

IF ALL YOU ARE GOING TO DO IS DRIVE IT AND THEN KEEP RUNING OFF EVERYWHERE, EVERY TIME THERE IS A PROBLEM, .. THEN BY ALL MEANS.. THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE!. GO SELL IT OR RID YOURSELF OF IT.. AND GO BECOME A COMPANY DRIVER FOR SOMEONE ELSE, BECAUSE THAT WILL BE THE ONLY WAY YOU WILL MAKE MONEY THAT YOU CAN KEEP in todays trucking world.


- WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU, YOURSELF, pulled things apart, and cleaned them out?.
- When is the last time you performed an EGR tune-up on it?.
- When is the last time you shut it down for a few days, gone thru it to perform any service and real maintenence-schedule item work yourself?.. BEFORE THE PROBLEMS HAVE SET IN .. and what have you done FOR YOURSELF towards solving the trucks problems?.

and...

(leaky valve cover)...
When is the last time you pulled the crank case filter off it and inspected/replaced it .. or replaced it with a maintenance free one so that crank case fumes will not build up and push oil out of every gasket and electrical fitting on the engine?. When was the last time you pulled the valve cover off it and inspected the cams while it was off, and check the cover gasket, and mounting surfaces, etc. to FIND OUT WHY THE GASKET FOR IT WAS LEAKY? INSTEAD OF RUNNING OFF TO SOME PLACE THAT CHARGES HUNDREDS OF $$$ AN HOUR FOR SOMETHING YOU COULD HAVE DONE (OR LEARNED TO DO) FOR YOURSELF!>?>

THIS IS WHAT I AM GETTING AT!... So I would suggest you invest in some tools and start there. Otherwise, if you ARE one of those people who is not willing to learn how to work on their own truck to some medium degree for yourself, then you NEED TO START BY selling it or turn it back in, and go back to being a company driver, drive for someone else! because you will clearly make more moneys that way.

TRUCK OWNERSHIP .. is about doing the things that the mega-fleets cannot do. It is about taking control of your operating costs, including repairs and maintenance ... YOURSELF.. and becoming AS SELF RELIANT AS ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE. Without this, you have no chance in h#ll of ever making any real moneys that you can keep long term. Without educating yourself and grabbing a wrench and learning how to do most things... you are always ever going to be just around ever corner to the next problem, you will have more moneys sunk into it than you will ever be able to repay off, and it will be an endless cycle of doom.

- If your valve cover gasket is leaky.. THEN REMOVE THE COVER AND FIND OUT WHY!. It will only leak like that if ...

A). you have too much crank case pressure buildup in the engine all the time due to neglect, or perhaps because the engine has excessive blo-by and NO ONE has replaced the crank case filter, etc. like mentioned above.

or...

B). the cover gasket is damaged, because some moron did not install the cover properly, or left dirt/debris on the mounting surfaces... or used a goddamn speed-gun and over-tightened the h#ell out of it like a fool instead of using a proper torque wrench on it then installing the cover.

take your pick.

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And as far as coolant and water pump issues.. your description so far points towards excessive coolant pressure buildup for one reason or another. Either due to a blown head gasket, or due to the pressure relief cap not working properly, etc.

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As far as the turbo screeching,... that is a common one, and it sounds like you have been taking it to some morons so far. IT IS ALMOST ALWAYS, ALWAYS.. the turbo mounting gasket that causes that, or a broken exhaust manifold bolt and an exhaust gasket is screeching. - ALMOST NEVER is it the actual turbo itself.


most of of those problems you describe are fairly easy to find and figure out.

Some more info about the history of the truck would help too. Does it still have all the emissions system in tact or is it deleted? ... How many miles on it?.. etc.