5.9 Cummins

[jlinville]

I had an '05 that I bought new in '05. I sold it early 2013 with 199,987 miles on it. That truck had a Bullydog Pup programmer on it, it had an Airaid intake on it, and a slightly modified exhaust.
At around 125,000 miles, the transmission started slipping and it was taken to a respected mechanic that tightened the bands in the transmission and I never had it slip again. While I had the truck, I took it to a front end shop twice to have it checked out and even told them to replace it once, as preventative maintenance. Both times, instead of taking my money, they told me that everything was still in speck and did nothing to the front end. 200,000 and never even needed an alignment! My dash never cracked and that truck wasn't kept in the garage. The only problem I had, other than the transmission slipping, was the recirculation door on the AC/heat system broke. Everyone wanted to claim that was an 8 hour fix, but a mechanic buddy of mine came and helped me pull the dash and we had it changed and put back together in about an hour.
To find one of these trucks with only 25,000 miles, WOW! I wouldn't hesitate to own another one!

[texas bound]

Luckily it being an 06, the tuning options are awesome. You are able to run EFI live which gives you the option of custom tuning which will limit the amount of rail pressure being applied. Unlike the bully dogs, edge, etc which drastically raise your rail pressure which in turn will lead to problems.

As of right now, mine has an s&b intake, fuel lab 200gph pump, EFI live dyno tuned by TSD, 5 inch turbo back exhaust, 2nd gen exhaust manifold, little of this little of that , and a 6 inch bds, 35s on 20x12s. 91k on the clock and no problems. I by no means baby mine, I take care of it to the fullest maintenance wise but I don't drive it like a grandma. They like to run and love to eat 6.0s. ( just playing 6.0 guys, all in good fun)

Its easy to beat a 6.0 most of them are broke down on the side of the road

Sounds like you did your 5.9 right.

[denimdeerslayer]

I got an 04 4x4 1 ton that is about to roll 250k miles. Only thing Ive had break under the hood is lift pump which they fixed on recall. Mine is still factory except for air filter. I did rebuild my front end last month and now looks like I may recoop some of that money due to recall on some of those parts. Only thing left that I want to change out is the factory front wheel bearings. It been a great truck to me.

[berettadave]

Here's the story on mine. 06 1 ton megacab 4wd with automatic transmission. 382,000 miles so far. Still on the original transmission. I did have injector issues at about 180,000 miles so I had them rebuilt and flow matched by F1. At that time I also installed an aftermarket 2 micron filter setup. No issues since then. I also had a turbo bearing go out at around 220,000 miles. Replaced it with an HTT stainless steel turbo(roughly the same size as the stock one). I think it was my fault it went out though. I wasn't very good about letting it cool before shutting it off at the time. Since then I have had no issues at all with the drivetrain. It is known that the AC blend doors and recirc doors in these trucks are prone to break but they can be fixed.

Overall these are pretty good trucks and personally, I would not add a power adder. They are not worth it in my opinion. I had one and removed it. If you are set on getting one, the Smarty is the one to get though.

Dave

[rubydog]

I have an 06 2500 with 268 k on it. I have had couple of minor problems with the transmission pressure solynoid going out 2 times once under warranty and one not. I have replaced the a/c compressor twice. By choice I replaced basically everything in the front end as general maintenance. If you need a/c parts call tech choice parts in Midolothian and they will save you a ton.

[Quackerbox]

Had an 03 that I bought new and traded with 147k (regret the hale out of it). Cracked dash, AC compressor about 100k, lifr pump a tad after that. New ball joints at about 130, replaced with moog.

I think the issue with the front ends are they really arent a serviceable design...ie no grease points.

If I had to go back I would have kept the truck and no payment

[Freer]

the last thing you need to worry about is the 5.9L, its all the junk they put around it that brakes. a/c, fan clutch, dash, transmission temp, rear end howl, squeaky front end.....

[30-30]

Thanks for all the info y'all!

[Trap-Daddy]

Buy the crap out of it.

[kfd82]

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.

I had an '01 3/4 ton 4x4 that I bought used in '05. It had 70 thousand miles on it.

The previous owner had added a Banks intake and exhaust system and that is all. When I took it to a local diesel proformance place to see about putting a chip in it (My 99 powerstroke had a chip and I got 25 MPG, this dodge was getting 20 and was a smaller truck) the guy told me that if I did ANY performance upgrades (chip, programmer, etc..) to change out the Lift and injector pump.

He said the lift pump will go out and you dont really notice it because the injector pump will carry the load, until it goes out. Then you are looking at $$$

He said that if I didnt do any upgrades and just left it stock the thing would run forever.

I left it stock and drove it until last year. Never had a single engine problem. I did have an AC issue. I had to add a can of freon once a month because it had a leak, but I never got it checked out.