5.9 Cummins

[30-30]

Dad managed to find and buy an 06 3500 4X4 the other day with (no lie) 25,000 miles. I know that these motors are famous for reliability and longevity. Still, are there any common problems or part failures that he should know about? Anything that he should check out or look for?

Also, would y'all recommend any aftermarket add-ons, programmers, etc? Thanks for the info.

[Chapo]

The ac, heater fan system sucks on them. Notorious for breaking

[Rustled Again]

Lift and injector pumps.

[oneisnone]

06's had some injector problems intermittently, not on every truck. I think that bully dog tuners are the best/most popular for the 5.9 cummins, first mods should be intake and exhaust, in my opinion, their on the cheap side of mods and produce decent results (mileage, engine temps)

A lesson I learned buying an "older" truck with that low miles, is check all your wiring. The one I bought had sat up for awhile and I had many, many issues with cracked wires and poor grounds. Good job on the find though.

[KNEE DEEP]

Front end wears out fast. I quit counting how many track bars I replaced on the Dodges I had.And the dash will crack, you can bet on that.

[QDM4fun]

Common rail lift pumps don't have same problems as the VP's. Add a GOOD small micron additional fuel filter, this will help save injectors. There is a way to pull engine hours on the odometer. It's been a while, so I don't remember the the sequence with the key. This will let you know if it idled a lot.

[gert man]

Well we have four of them,91 with 450,000 miles ,a 95 with 250,000 miles,a 2003 with 150,000 miles and the biggest pos I every bought an 07 that has the a/c fixed every summer,had transmission rebuilt at 85,000 miles ,injector issue at 60,000 miles,torque converter at 115,000 miles ,coming out of Houston dragging stock trailer loaded with show heifers rear u joint just comes apart drive shaft falls off the truck,other then that it's been a good truck . The older one's knock on wood no problems !!!

[30-30]

Common rail lift pumps don't have same problems as the VP's. Add a GOOD small micron additional fuel filter, this will help save injectors. There is a way to pull engine hours on the odometer. It's been a while, so I don't remember the the sequence with the key. This will let you know if it idled a lot.

Very interested in finding out how many hours are on the motor. Do you know how to find out the sequence? A website maybe? Supposedly, the first owner put 9k on it in 5 years, and the second owner put on the rest.

[texas bound]

06's had some injector problems intermittently, not on every truck. I think that bully dog tuners are the best/most popular for the 5.9 cummins, first mods should be intake and exhaust, in my opinion, their on the cheap side of mods and produce decent results (mileage, engine temps)

A lesson I learned buying an "older" truck with that low miles, is check all your wiring. The one I bought had sat up for awhile and I had many, many issues with cracked wires and poor grounds. Good job on the find though.

Bully dogs are probably one of the worst tuners on the market. Very dirt tuning. If it was my truck I would put an airdog 2 lift pump to help with filtration and to help the injection pump out, new exhaust size depends on how loud he wants it, a set of gauges and either efi live or smarty udp custom tuning from a good tuner not some joe blow off craigslist or the local wannabe diesel shop. FYI if you are rolling black smoke that doesn't mean you have a lot of power it means you have dirty tuning and is bad for the truck.

[KHoes203]

Well to start the long list of dodge problems

- dash board
-a/c
- front end
-tranny

Are just the ones that top the list. The motor on the other hand are good to go.

[Chadroe]

#4 high pressure fuel line bracket can loosen and vibration over time could cause leak.

Keep oil and fuel/oil/air filters changed according to maintenance schedule.

I personally would not add mods.

Steering assembly/tie rod design should be upgraded to the 08 and up. I believe theirs a recall out now for certain VIN numbers.

TIPM or totally integrated power module - went bad on mine.

The 5.9 is great if maintained properly. It's every thing surrounding it that's poorly designed.

[trophy8]

i would be worried about how the gears look in the transfer case with it sitting so much. low miles isnt always a great thing.

[ABroussard]

Install Carli ball joints and a steering box stabilizer and it will dramatically help future front end problems. A lot of the injector and injector pump issues are caused by poor fuel filtration. An aftermarket filter assembly is needed. Vulcan diesel sells one that mounts on the frame rail and uses 2 micron spin on filters. If your keeping the engine stock the factory lift pump is sufficient.

[brushtrooper]

We got an 04 with 325k and other than regular maintenance, no problems. Ours is a 2wd dualie and we go down dirt roads on a regular basis...the condenser will plug up, use air compressor and blow it out...4x4 may not have that problem sitting taller. Ours is bone stock, never needed a tuner or that stuff. Truck pulled a 40' and was loaded heavy a lot of those 325k miles. My dash is just fine. Good luck and enjoy.

[sambo73]

When i sold dodges, ones that were traded in like that seemed to be more trouble prone than ones that had the crap drove out of em by a young kid. Seems like they were putted around in and not drove and when u went to usin em and really driving them , they would fall apart.