a friend of mine recently got a '05 2500 24 valve diesel truck, it just started making a wierd knocking noise at idle (kinda sounds like a mix between an exaust leak and a valve knock) he took it to 4 dealerships and they all have said nothing is wrong, they adjusted the valves and pretty much told him he's stupid. nobody seems to be able to figure out anything that could be making the noise and the dealers dont wanna take the time to actually do something right so...
any help would be great as this is starting to get old
thanks
---Forrest

I have feeling its a drippy injector, at idle they make a knock, if it had more miles I would beleive it was something else

if its like a ticking noise between the cab and bed at idle it could be a check valve in the fuel line making noise. nothing wrong there if it is.

Have you tried having a Cummins (medium/heavy duty truck) dealer listen to it? In my experience Dodge dealerships with *GOOD* diesel techs are a rare find. Working on diesels every day makes a difference, especially on making an engine noise diagnosis. If it is a "normal" noise, a good tech should be able to tell you exactly where it's coming from and what component is causing it. A Cummins dealer might also have some tools that a Dodge dealer won't have. My old shop mgr said they paid $6K a year for their Cummins "factory service" authorization, training, & Insite (http://insite.cummins.com/information_en.html) subscription (large Freightliner dealership). We ocassionally had Dodge/Cummins diesels come to us for PM and unscheduled service. The parts and service manuals are the same, no matter what truck they put the engine in. Our labor rate was about the same as the local Dodge dealer, and from what I witnessed our work was a hell of a lot better quality (I'm not bashing all Dodge dealer mechanics - just a few in the area I worked). Cummins makes up only a small percentage of Dodge's market compared to a Freightliner's market, so Freightliner's techs simply had more experience and did better work as a result.

Dodge dealers have only been dealing with common rail systems for the last two years, so a medium/heavy dealer might also be better qualified to make a diagnosis on injector problems. Common-rail has been around for much longer (relatively speaking) on the big diesels. I don't know how much Dodge fawks with the Cummins computer but AFAIK, 05 Dodge should still be "full electronic authority" with Cummins software. Don't quote me on that, I no longer work for a Cummins dealer and could very well be wrong.

If a Cummins dealer does find an engine related problem that 4 different Dodge dealers have missed, you should have some recourse to pursue warranty reimbursement with Dodge. As far as making a guess over the internet - that's all it would be is a "guess" .
this [making wild uneducated guesses] is starting to get old

Good luck

I work at a local dodge dealer. I work on cummins diesel's. The majority of them are not driven hard enough. The injector nozles carbin up and spray improperly and carbin up pistons and can cause an odd knocking sound. Out of the 5 trucks, I have fixed 4 completely by performing a fuel injection flush with BG chemicals from flemming distributing.

After the flush and a substantional flogging up a freeway to blow out the carbin, the sounds have been gone. I advised the customer to drive it " hard" at least 2 times a week! For an ex.. use the freeway and not through town! Really get your foot into it.

The 5th trucks sound is faint and can not be located to a specific cylender. Performing a balance test revealed that all cylenders were 100%. I advised the customers that cummins motors just dont blow up. I advised him to continue to drive until we could determine problem better! Warrenty does not cover.

If the vehicle is operated in the 0-10% load range more than 10% of drive time, it will be proned to carbin and sounds. People that pull heavy loads do not complain at all so far.

Since you are just up in Nevada County, just run the truck down to Cummins West, Inc. in West Sacramento. They work on a lot of Dodge trucks. I don't think real highly of their work quite honestly ( I have an N14 in the shop they fawked up), but I see a shit load of dodges going through there, so I am sure they have plenty of experience with them.