I'm considering buying a new truck, 1999 Dodge 2500 diesel, 78k miles, for $9200. I did my homework on kbb and cars.com and it seems like an average price. I'm a diesel newb, so is there anything I should look out for when I go to test drive it saturday? How is a diesel maintenance schedule compared to a regular gas maintenance schedule?

 

Ok, Pretty much never let the oil drop below full, change it every once and awhile, never EVER let your transmission level drop too low, change your fuel filter as dealer recommends, and your pretty much good. A diesel is not even broken in till about 100k, so I don't give a shit what kbb says, you are getting an awesome deal. That Cummins will never break as long as you do the basic maintenance I outlined above. Not too mention you can get about 800 whp and 1500 lb-ft of torque and still get 20-22 mpg on the highway. Snatch it up, man.

One major thing you want to check is any oil leaks, cuz that is the wuickest way to kill a diesel is let it run out of oil, then obviously the pinion seal on the rear axle to let you know if he beat the shit out of it pulling 20k lb loads. Then because its a 99, listen to the turbo to see if you hear any metallic noises or anything out of the ordinary, because those turbos had thrust bearing, not ball bearing. That will also let you know if it was ever ran low on oil because it would have starved the turbo. I'll talk to a buddy of mine that has an 01 to see if he can come up with anything else. Good luck!

 

Check the diesel price of $3.89 to $4.19..

 

^^ what he said. you really wanna pay that for gas

 

gas prices notwithstanding....


I still have the beater honda for a daily

 

15 quarts of oil, $10.50 a quart for amsoil synthetic. good for 20,000 miles...
15 dollar oil filter
and of course fuel prices
but diesels are awesome.
get it anyways....

 

oh yeah $140 dollars for me to fill my tank....

 

You must have a 4 door long bed ha, cost me about 80-90

 

My Ex costs me close about $160-170. 42 gallon tank.

You gotta remember about diesels is that they are more efficient than gas engines, due to the fact that they use high (14-16:1) compression to ignite the fuel, therefore it has a more complete power stroke, which in turn equals more torque. I recently drove my '00 Excursion (9200 lbs!)from Orlando and averaged 26 mpg! I could have drove all the way here on 1 tank of gas, and almost did, but I saw a gas station just on the other side of the NC border that was retarded cheap. Not too mention you can get those older diesels to run GREAT on biodiesel if you make it right. Good luck man. Hope you get it.

 

Eh. Not an issue now. Cock sucker sold it out from under me.