Volvo d13

Well...just may area of expertise. I am a Detroit fan have been for a long time, I owned trucks all with cat motors. I also work at a Volvo dealer. If you hunt around for my other posts on the D13 I have put out a lot of info. As for reliability ranks as good or better than the series 60. They are simple to work on. There are some problems that are common. You will hear about the injector issues that plagued everyone for a while. They issued a new tool that swedges the inj cup at install. Instead of 4 pulls it now has just one. That has all but eliminated the leaking non sealing injector issue. The current weak link is in the head. The #5 exhaust valves come in contact with the liner. Breaking the valve and usually cracking the liner. Progressive damage can wipe out more cylinders as the metal travels thru the intake system. The other issue we see is the lower idler gear failure. The broken valve issue seems to be limited to late 2013 to mid 2014 builds. The idler gear failures have been limited to early 2014 models and was a supplier fault. 2015 and 2016 models I haven't really seen any recurring issues. If I had to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 I would say a solid 9. Most issues are sensor issues and more of am inconvenience than a major failure. I would offer that you use as little bio diesel as possible and the should limit aftertreatment issues. Especially plugging in the egr cooler. I would offer that if you are going to get one or some do it before the 2017 model year engines come out. The changes proposed are common rail injection, possibly compounded turbos a couple others too. The big change for the Ishift is dual clutch. As for the Ishift it is probably the best auto in a truck. Warranty is 5 yr/750 k miles. It has about 13 available shifting programs available. Your salesman might tell you 6 but there are some fleet specific programs available on the service side that salesmen probably are unaware of. The are very solid. The problems recently were the range cone failure for which repair was either replacement of failed parts in the range housing or if there was damage in the main box it was a replacement trans complete. The Ishift is very temperamental to moisture. Never run with a bypassed air dryer.

 

is it easy to replace lower idler gear ? the transmission must be taken off?

 

So 2012 and 15 and up are the best to buy?

 

Lower idler gear failure requires the removal of the transmission. Total damage usually involves power steering pump this is what the lowers idler drives. The crank gear, the double idler gear, the flywheel housing, the air compressor gear, rod and main bearings, oil cooler, oil pump, along with all parts needed to reinstall removed components to gain access. Also have to flush block. Can bearings to be replaced with evidence of metal on top of the head. This is considered a major gear failure. It is covered by base warranty. If out of warranty and falls within a certain build date either fleet rep or dealer service rep should be involved and goodwill authorized. They have yet to issue a recall as all trucks are accounted for per vin that the bad gears were installed on. Warranty is to 500k on this failure. Anything over that is handled by the reps.

 

2012 to 2014 had their issues but most have had the fix. 2015 to present seems so far to be fairly free of major issues. I am beginning to see a lot of trucks based in the Midwest starting to come in with mass flow issues. Root cause is a plugged egr cooler. The only common denominator is they use bio diesel. I'm going to say maybe 9 out of 10. What I am hearing is that fuel stations are getting a higher concentration.close to 20-25%. Trucks from the east and west coast I see very few. Maybe 1 out of 100. Most are dirty and can be cleaned, but the Midwest trucks are plugged solid. The DSM has us cutting them open to look for coolant traces. Never have we found one yet. Fuel is being mixed at the rack to fuel station order. I thinks it's a cost v profit move. Also the large mega carriers that buy their fuel and then dump at fuel stations like flyingJ Pilot TA Petro Loves etc buy fuel to their spec and then dump it for their fuel service contracts. Due to the fact its actually private owned fuel it bypasses pump standards and biodiesel standards both minimum and maximum set by state. Volvo has been collecting samples for about 3 months now and has seen numbers as high as 34% biodiesel. That was at 13 locations in one state. The names are included above. All in all there are no more major issues with the D13 than with any other manufacturer or platform. I honestly see very few 2010 trucks with 2007 emissions. The best of the 2010 emissions seems to be the 2015 2016 trucks. 2013 also seems to be a good year also. The common rail injection has been in business on marine and some Europe trucks since 2009. And seems to be solid but I still wouldn't want to be in on first year mass production. I think there are power gains and big fuel mileage gains in the pipeline especially with the dual clutch Ishift.

 

ok. in short Lower idler gear failure is catastrophic and can lead to o/o bankruptcy If it will happen lets say at 600k m..)))

 

Well, it is considered a major failure.. Yes. As for leading an owner operator into bankruptcy, I guess that depends on said owner operators business sense. If said owner operator spent all his settlements on Harley payments, lot lizards, a mortgage payment on a 150k house that was bought for 350k in the boom, ford raptor payments camaro payments escalade payments or whatever else they bought instead of reinvesting and saving for their business, then yes it's a possibility. But on the other hand I've seen smart business men come in drop $47,000 in cash for an engine swing (for an ISX). Then go take a couple weeksboff and enjoy some non trucking activities. Boils down to how much sense a person has that operates a business.

 

the only real downside to the Volvo d13 is that only volvo can work on it