How dependable in Volvo semi Truck

It depends, are you getting a new truck or a used one? Which motor, What year?

 

i think that comes down to how you maintain the truck

i have 05 780 d12d, the motor is rock solid it is the bolt ons that have issues. ie egr, egr cooler.

781000 miles and still have better than 95% compression accross the board and no leak or consumpution problems.

 

It seems for the most part the engines are ok, but the rest of the truck can be another story, the electrical systems on these can be a real nightmare.

 

EGR's seem to be the biggest problem. replaced a couple of wiring harnesses on the headlights. but really not very much else. Had the overhead run at 500,000 miles, kept up with the PM's. Now that i'm just about out of the lease looking at a bypass filter system. Been running Royal Purple since I've had it and I think it has paid off for me. Going to have the Computer set back to original, The company I work for has turned it way down, I think it should get better milage with the power turned up a little, speed needs a little help too.

 

I have Volvo 780 2007 D12 with an Tri-pak AUP on it. The EGR and the cooler lasted for four years before I had to replace them. By not idling, the EGR in question will lasted.

 

Volvo has been making diesels for many years nothing new to them, mostly for the marine industry. The emission controls is new and will take some time to get right.

 

If you hate paying 1 grand a year for new EGR's block em.

 

I get sooo tried of hearing about blocking the EGR's. In every conversation it has to come up. It's like in the 70's when everybody had to take out the thermostats from the engines to get them to run cooler till they overheated the engine and trashed the car. Yes the EGR's are a problem, yes you can and if the EGR is closed while your running the engine its ok, if it's stuck open, then too much back pressure will overcome the seals in the EGR and cause exhaust leaks. To prevent more problems then just the EGR, then you would have to disable the EGR in the closed position, remove the plug where it goes into the computer, or cut the wires. If the EGR is closed. If it's open then there is no signal to close it or it just won't close. Still you sooner or later will have another problem. If you pull the plugs out of the computer then you open the computer for water, shorts, and failure. I've heard of some of the large company's doing this and later replacing the computer or just selling the truck to some driver and letting him figure out whats wrong. So if you are going to block them it's up to you. I'm not sure just what a new computer costs. I have one bad now, Yes it's blocked, yes i have an exhaust leak on that valve, and yes i am going to replace it, although i might not hook it up and use the plug off the old one to keep the computer sealed but thats up to me.

 

The only thing that I wish I had fixed earlier was the oil leak on the back of the head on the driver side, When I got the truck it was checked and didn't need fixing, (just after they washed the motor) but started after I got it. It got worse each month. Just before I got to 600,000 miles I had one month that I had to put almost 2 gallons of make up oil and was getting pissed at the oil spot under the engine when I parked. So I took it in and had it fixed, they poured epoxy in both ends of the pass thru. I started to get in excess of 6.5 to 6.9 mpg almost right away. In the last 3 months my mileage has gone from 5.6 - 6.1 to almost 6.1 in 3 months and 6.6 last months. I have asked about this leak several times and have been repeatedly don't worry about it. It won't shut you down. It's not worth fixing just for a oil leak. Nobody is going to spend 1500.00 just to fix an oil leak, (that's with a new wiring harness). I spent about 200.00 for the guy to fix the leak and it was well worth it. What was happening was what they were calling oil wicking, when oil seeps down the wires and gets into the connectors for the computer. The oil increases the resistance and causes the injectors to fire the wrong amount of fuel. After I had it fixed and the engine washed the mileage just started to come up. I had to run an empty trailer about 230 miles and had an average of 7.3 the whole way. I had never hit anything above 6.5 with an empty before.