Pete 386 with the Paccar MX engine

For those of you shopping for a Paccar equipped truck that is NOT under warranty, I would urge you to do this. Imagine having a typical problem (bad turbo, fuel injector, water pump, etc...) now call every shop you can find a phone number for. Good luck finding anyone who will even look at your truck, now take your truck to Peterbilt or Kenworth (because you have no other choice). If you are in a big city your truck will sit for a few days before they look at it, then of course they don't keep parts on hand so they'll overnight your parts....
So, not even considering the real issue (after treatment) consider what you'll do when normal issues arise. My guess is you'll reluctantly go to Peterbilt and be treated like an idiot by service writers who couldn't care less about your problems.

 

As a warranty manager for a large Peterbilt group, I'm not sure where this information is from. We keep a large stock of turbos, fuel injectors, water pumps and the like. If you're in a big city like this post says, and the dealership you stop at is a decent size, they should have a pretty decent inventory and therefore should have this all in stock.

The only reason a Peterbilt or Kenworth should not have the parts on hand is if they've had a string of failures and are waiting for a restock or if your failure is outside of the normal run of the mill parts they stock. Normal AFT failures should be stocked by all Peterbilt and Kenworth dealerships.

If you're being ignore for days and treated like an "idiot" by service writers, service managers or the dealership in general, that has less to do with the MX engine and more to do with the dealership and is a dealership (and maybe dealergroup) you should avoid in the future.

You can pick your engine of choice based on preference, part availability, shop availability, needs, etc. However, the above statements reflect only on a dealership, not on an engine.

One thing I can tell you, when the engine is out of warranty, Peterbilt will do more to help you than Cummins will. Cummins has very strict guidelines regarding customer goodwill. Peterbilt is much more lenient.

 

My main point was the "out of warranty" part, if you buy a used truck, good luck finding anyone who will even lift the hood on a Paccar engine.
As far as having standard parts in stock, so far I have needed an intake manifold (3 days shipping), a turbo speed sensor ( had to pay for overnight shipping ), turbo actuator ( several days ). Even that is not as big of a deal as waiting a few days before they even pull your truck in the shop.
If you have a Cummins, you have the option of going to Joe's diesel shop down the street, Joe can shop at the Cummins store, Peterbilt, KW, Volvo for the quickest available parts. Joe won't even say the name "Paccar". Maybe someday in the future that will change but most owner operators can't wait a couple years for that to happen.
Now to the MOST IMPORTANT POINT you made "Peterbilt will do more to help you than Cummins will"...
No, Rush Truck Center in Tolleson Arizona GAVE UP on my truck. It was in their shop for 4 months, they did every conceivable thing that the Paccar Rep (Greg H.) told them to do. I told them it was a communication problem from day one because I got different codes all day long. They took those codes as gospel, my argument was, how do 20 different sensors go bad the same day then fix themselves the next day... They didn't listen, they gave up... I spent a month (at least 200 hours) chasing wires, pins, plugs etc. I found a bad pin in a CAN. Truck runs great. So forgive me for thinking Paccar does not have my best interest in mind.

 

@Guntoter that's what sucks about today's trucks. Everything on them is proprietary except diffs and maybe the transmission. 15 years ago if your Cummins powered Kenworth broke down, you could take it to just about any brand dealership shop and have it fixed. The trucks are just like cars now. Its like trying to take your Powerstroke to get fixed at GM.

 

And thats why Im suggesting that single truck O/O's stick with a power plant that can be worked on at any shop. Cummins, Cat, even Detroit. But Paccar leaves you with very few options. That Cummins powered Kenworth that you speak of can be worked on at a Freightliner dealership, better yet it can be taken to any backyard mechanic if you so choose.. Its your choice where you get your truck worked on, I don't have that luxury.

 

Limited number of non-dealer shops who will work on a Paccar is to be expected - it's still a newer engine. There aren't as many years of experience out there compared to Cummins, Cat, Detroit, etc. Being an early adopter of a Paccar engine means you accept that limited availability of non-dealer shops.

And again, regarding lack of stock, that's an issue with the dealership. How long ago was that? I'm just curious if it was back when the MX was still relatively new, because all dealerships have what is called a "standard stocking" requirement, which means we have to stock a certain quantity of certain part numbers as dictated by Paccar. You shouldn't run in to these issues at any decent dealship.

Regarding your "most important point", you misunderstood me. I said "Peterbilt will do more to help than Cummins". You're mistaking Peterbilt Dealerships for Peterbilt Motors Company. As dealerships, we represent Peterbilt (sometimes, poorly, as your experience at Rush shows), but we are not Peterbilt.

What I mean by this is we don't have control over your warranty, your truck, your engine. We have to follow the procedures that Peterbilt has laid out. If you come in to a dealership yelling about how you want a truck covered under warranty (as just an example), there is nothing we can do, because we did not make the rules, and we don't analyze the warranty claims, we just follow the procedures and submit the claims.

When I say Peterbilt will do more for you, I mean it. Because when your truck is out of warranty and you ask Peterbilt to help you with the cost of a repair, they'll do more to cover the cost of that repair than Cummins will.

Cummins has "Policy Requests", Peterbilt has "Goodwill". Both serve the same purpose - the provide customer assistance on repairs outside the limits of warranty, to maintain customer satisfaction. Cummins has limits on theirs, though, and those limits are very, very strict.

Peterbilts level of goodwill depends entirely on the rep involved and how much he/she determines the customer should have to pay. This means I've seen engines that were 150,000+miles outside of their warranty get several thousand dollars of goodwill on large repairs.

Oh, that also applies to the chassis. The same reps handle your chassis as well. The large fleets usually have a dedicated fleet representative who handles their goodwill claims. All dealerships though have a rep to handle non-fleets. For example, the other day a customer asked if I could see if my rep would help out of a repair. My rep decided to cover 50% of the cost, parts + labor, that we charged him. He was 12 months + 80,000 miles outside of his chassis warranty. Needless to say, he was content with a 50% reduction in his price.

On the extreme scale - I've seen nearly $10,000 of goodwill given out by Peterbilt. I've never seen that amount Cummins.

 

Hey Guntoter. Where exactly did you find that bad pin? Was it near one of the chassis nodes mounted on the frame rail? As a shop owner, I like to keep notes. Thanks.

 

I appreciate your response and information but I have to disagree. After months of dealing with Rush Corporate, and Peterbilt engineering in Denton (Wade Waltershide) I was abandoned. When it became clear that they had no idea what to do about my truck, they ALL quit answering/returning my calls. This has all happened since last July so Paccar should have Rush Truck center stocking every part for these engines (2013 m/y) but they don't.
As far as the "goodwill" repairs, I agree 100% Rush Truck Center and Peterbilt went way beyond anything I would expect a dealership (especially one that I did NOT buy the truck from) or manufacturer to do. Rush reduced my labor rate to $50 an hour, Peterbilt and Paccar were supplying most parts at little or no cost... The problem came when it became apparent that nobody was ever going to be able to fix my truck. It was crickets from everyone after four months. I still had a truck that would not run and nobody that was willing to try to fix it. I was left with one option, do it myself the old fashioned way, so thats what I did.

 

Yes, it was the one between the battery box and DEF tank. The bigger of the two cans. IMO, putting a twist on wire loom directly in line with the U-joint was a bad idea. I had to chip away the grime to get the plug off. The U-joint throws grease directly on the connection from a few inches away.

 

So, from what I understand, it seems to be more of a Peterbilt problem (wiring not ran correctly) rather than a MX engine or DPF issue. What I mean is that the wiring that feeds engine and, or DPF is failing causing the issues.