By Gary Butler
Most automotive repair shop owners are very keen on making sure their technicians are well-educated on trends, technology, and information necessary to keep vehicles in tip-top shape, but Chip’s Diesel Repair co-owner Terrell Cox goes one step further. Cox says he urges his customers to educate themselves on the “dos and don’ts” of buying and owning a truck powered by a diesel engine.
Cox says his shop, located at the intersection of Highway 411 and Highway 66, smack dab in the middle of Sevierville, Tenn., is regularly inundated with repairs that could easily have been avoided if truck owners had simply followed the maintenance protocols specified by the vehicles’ manufacturers.
“I’m not complaining, mind you. We stay busy all the time,” said Cox. “But it is often painful to see how expensive it is for some of these folks to get their trucks back on the road.”
Cox says that although diesel engines have been the mainstay of commercial vehicles for decades, they have crept their way slowly into the hands of people who, he says, “probably shouldn’t be using one.
“If you don’t need a diesel engine, if you’re not making money by having it, you most likely shouldn’t have one,” Cox insists. “It will cost you ten times as much to maintain one, and sometimes a lot more than that if you don’t pay attention to what the engine needs to work properly over the long haul.
“Sure, they are hard-working engines, they pull heavy loads much better, and they last a long time, but there is a stiff price to pay for those benefits,” he said.
Cox pointed out that the average non-commercial driver of a diesel-powered truck — at least those who are first-time owners of a diesel — are often not prepared for what many of them discover are brutally expensive repairs caused by their failure to maintain the engine properly.
“Some of them buy a second-hand truck for $10,000 or $12,000, not realizing that they’re going to have to put about that much into the truck in maintenance and repair costs. And those who buy a new truck, even one that is upwards of $80,000, have only factored in the cost of the monthly payment, not the maintenance,” he said.
Cox said that, in the best-case scenario, the owner of a diesel-powered truck has to figure on a couple hundred dollars a month in maintenance, mostly keeping various filters clean and replaced, expensive oil changes, as well as periodic servicing critical to the continued smooth operation of the vehicle.
“But the price goes through the roof if they are unaware of or for whatever reason don’t follow through with this servicing,” he said. “New Dodge [diesel] trucks, for example, are supposed to have EGR [emission control] servicing every 20,000 miles, which isn’t too much more than a year’s worth of driving for the average driver. To take the truck to the dealer and get this done is about $1,000, and a lot of people aren’t willing to pay for that. A thousand bucks is a lot of money, but it is a fraction of what a repair costs when the engine shuts down because it wasn’t properly maintained.”
Cox says that normal maintenance of diesel engines has always been more expensive than that of gasoline engines, but regulations by the EPA has caused the costs to skyrocket in recent years.
“Fuel systems for diesel engines have always been sophisticated, but they were primarily mechanical in the past. Now they are electrical over mechanical and hydraulic over mechanical,” he said. “In large part because of EPA regulations to keep diesel smoke to a minimum, these engines have increased oil pressure PSI [pounds-per-square-inch] of up to 30,000, compared to a maximum of 4,200 PSI when I started in 1985.
“Oil pressure is used to inject the diesel fuel to hydraulically actuate the injectors, so if you don’t keep those oil filters clean and replaced you end up sending dirty oil through the injectors. A set of injectors for a 6.0 or a 7.3 [liter] Ford engine cost from $2,400 to $3,000, just for the injectors alone. On a Chevy Duramax diesel, the injectors are closer to $6,000.”
Cox said diesel engines were required to incorporate diesel particulate filters (DPF) in 2007, and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) was required by 2011. He said the urea DEF has to “regenerate” every now and then, otherwise the filter will clog and the engine will bog down and eventually stop altogether.
“We live in a tourist town, and frequently a guy will come in and tell us he has a diesel truck pulling a heavy camper and it just won’t pull more than four miles per hour, or it quit on him,” Cox said. “I will ask him when is the last time his DEF regenerated, and he says, ‘What is that? Never, as far as I know!’ I tell him his [DPF] filter is clogged, and he says, ‘Well, clean it, then,’ to which I say, ‘I can’t; I have to send it to Knoxville and have it cleaned, and it will cost you $750.’”
Cox said salesmen at dealerships know, more or less, what the costs of maintenance are for these engines, but they are reluctant to share that information at the point of sale.
“If he or she starts telling a customer how much this maintenance costs, he’s likely to lose a sale, so too many times they withhold this information from a potential customer until after they’ve purchased the truck. So the [customers] are left to find it out the hard way, the expensive way, after damage has already occurred, “ he said.
Cox said he believes sales of diesel-powered trucks to non-commercial customers have actually dropped some, and he believes it is due to the fact that people are finally beginning to become aware of the high cost of operating a diesel.
“They need to keep in mind that it may take 50 miles of continuous driving for the regeneration process to complete its cycle,” he said. “So if you just drive your truck from home to work, or down to Wal-Mart or somewhere and shut it down, the regeneration cycle may be interrupted and you’ve got raw diesel fuel sitting in the exhaust pipe. You come back out and start it up, and raw diesel fuel goes into the filter and becomes carbon.”
Cox said he loves diesel engines and working on diesel engines, but it’s like the old adage says, use the proper tool for the proper job.
“If you can afford to buy a diesel and make it earn money for you, then by all means, go for it,” he said. “But if you just intend to drive one casually, be prepared to spend some money, especially if you don’t maintain the truck properly.
“We see guys all the time who don’t realize they are supposed to change their fuel filters every 5,000 miles,” he said. “They come in here and tell us they haven’t changed them in 40,000 miles, and wonder why they need $6,000 worth of injectors.”
Cox adds that customers aren’t the only ones who need education.
“Young guys come out of high school, maybe with a set of tools, all eager to start working as a diesel mechanic,” he said. “I tell them, ‘Get some higher education in your area of interest.’ If they aren’t willing to invest in themselves, why should I invest in them?”
Cox said he expects a prospective employee to pay his dues, get some experience and education, “get some skin in the game, then come see me.
“I paid mine [dues] by attending and graduating from Nashville Auto Diesel College, and I’ve been to school with Caterpillar, Kubota, Izuzu, and numerous Bosch schools to study all the fuel systems. Then I worked for 26 years at City Diesel, Inc. in Knoxville,” he said. “I have an Association of Diesel Specialists certification, which is similar to an ASE certification for gas-powered repair technicians.”
Cox said his shop keeps him and his chief mechanic, John Bolden, busy virtually day and night.
“I was here working until 11:45 last night,” he said.
Their hard work over the past three-and-a-half years has paid off, though, according to Cox.
“We have closed on a purchase of some land not far from here, and we will be constructing an 80-by-120-foot facility in the next few months,” he said. “Which is long overdue, because our 24-by-45-foot building here is way too small, especially with all the new business we’re taking in. And parking here is a big problem, especially with big rigs and trucks with trailers and campers.”
Cox said he is likely to start offering servicing of gas-powered engines at the new facility, “but I will hire someone new to do that work.
“Specialization is the key to surviving today’s economy, I believe, and my specialty is diesel,” he said. “But so many people ask us to work on their gas engines, I hate to turn them away. When we move down the street to a larger facility and add another technician, we won’t have to.” •
