Does anyone know of a good engine repair shop in Oakland County, MI as an alternative to the High Cost Dealership service?

I purchased my CRD new in 2006 and now have 165,000 miles on it. DaimlerChrysler gave me a new engine block, head & turbo at about 36k miles, but since then I have had very few problems. Following advice from CRD Forums, I use good fuel additives in every tank and I regularly run it hard to blow the soot out of it until it burns clean. I generally try to do all my own maintenance but I recently took it to the dealership where I bought it to have it checked out for some issues I felt were beyond my capability. After charging me $440.00 for diagnosis of four (4) issues ($110 each issue....LOL) they reported the following:

1. Needs Timing Belt & Water Pump. This has been on my To Do list for over a year but I don't think I want to pay the dealership $1,900.00 to do it.
2. Turbo-Charger is toast. I suspected this and actually look forward to a much improved unit as recommended on various forums (GDE, Suncoast or Mopar Euro). The Dealership estimate was about $4,000.00 for this job.
3. I was very disappointed that the dealership did not know about the air intrusion problem with the suction fuel system. I had to tell them that Mopar has an upgrade kit and they wanted $500.00 for this job. Based upon my research, I am leaning towards putting a pump in the fuel tank as it should have had from the start.

I could probably do most of the work myself but I do not have time. I hope I can find a good diesel engine mechanic to fix all of the above with the Best Available Hardware, plus ECO-Tune, upgraded air intake / filter, Torque Converter upgrade, and possibly some reduction in the factory exhaust restriction. With all of this, I am hoping to get 300,000 miles or so from my CRD. I expect that the cost of all these repairs & upgrades will cost about what the CRD is worth right now, but I am hooked on the TORQUE and it is a pretty solid small SUV. I have had it in some tough spots in the Michigan Deer Hunting woods in winter and it has never let me down.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations! My CRD has been a pretty good vehicle for over nine (9) years and there is hardly a spec of rust on the body and even the under-body is nearly rust free. I would like to keep it alive for my teenage boys to drive for the next several years at least.

Timing belt can be done via geordi. Is the turbo bad or the torque converter? You mention Turbo, but then mention suppliers of torque converters. You can put in a new turbo yourself, and any trans shop can do the torque converter. The fuel head only takes a few minutes to swap out if that's the air intrusion problem. Otherwise a lift pump should be added somewhere.

Mike

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2005 Liberty CRD Limited
DIY Garage Remanufactured Engine with GDE Full Torque Eco Tune from mile zero.
ARP Studs
Cummins Lift Pump
Transgo HD2 Reprogramming Kit
DIY Rebuilt Tranny Pump
Suncoast Torque Converter
2nd Generation Fuel Head
Sears P1 Battery
Hot Diesel Solutions Thermostat

For what it's worth:
1. you don't mention a TB job having been done so I'll assume the current TB dates to the 36k "service" in which case you have 129,000 miles on the current TB and are well past the 100K service interval. If so the TB job needs to be done IMMEDIATELY preferably with no driving until it's done lest your TB fail and add a rocker job to the list. Given your location you must be within like 20 miles of GDE (http://www.greendieselengineering.com/Welcome.action) so give Keith a call.
2. turbo may or may not be toast. Keith can easily tell. New turbo and associated parts from idparts (http://www.idparts.com/) ca. $1,150. Anyone that can handle a wrench can do the job in say 4-5 hrs not counting the time soaking the turbo to manifold bolts in penetrating lube so they can be removed. PM me your email address and I can provide a how to.
3. 2n gen fuel head with wiring from idparts $135. Easy to replace takes at most 1hr. Pop the small electric plug; insert "Q" tip into plug on head; remove and sniff; if smells of diesel heater plug is leaking. Note 2n gen head has blue heater plug vs 1s gen black. Most likely sources of air - bad heater plug or quick disconnects on feed (not return) line back by tank. Quick disconnects can be replaced with marine grade diesel rated fuel hose but it requires dropping tank. Again I can provide basic how to.

Any decent tranny shop can do torque converter as the tranny is not CRD specific. Euro TC from idparts $509, might consider new style stronger front pump if in that far or at least a transgo kit.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

To be honest with you, if this is the case, the absolute best thing you could do is to try to find the time to do it yourself. Maybe a good chance to spend some time with the boys working on the vehicle they will be driving.

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Share your ideas freely at https://www.facebook.com/groups/libertydiesels/

I say skip the 2nd gen fuel head and install a Racor fuel head. The 2nd gen head is not much better than the 1st gen. It is junk in my opinion. I have had problems with both 1st and 2nd gen units. The priming pump on my 2nd gen filter head failed after 22k miles. I have installed a Carter in-tank lift which has completely eliminated the air in fuel problem. Since the installation of the lift pump, the 2nd gen fuel head keeps a very light oily film. I wipe off the film every 3k miles when I drain my Provent drain hose, but it returns. I can only assume that this film is the result of diesel seeping from the previous air leak(s)

The next time I change the fuel filter, I will replace the entire assembly with the Racor unit used on the export CRDs. Another benefit of the Racor unit is the availability of 2 micron filters.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=82432

http://www.auerbach.ca/kj/racor/

I received a quote in 7/2015 of $155 from B-line for a Racor 245R122. This includes a 2 micron filter and the electrical connector for the heating element. The cost of replacement 2 micron elements are $23 each.

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2006 CRD Sport
GDE FT ECO tune, GDE TCM ECO tune, ARP studs, HDS-001 203F T-Stat, 3.7L nylon fan & Hayden 2905 clutch, Carter P76148M in-tank pump, Racor 245R122 filter head & 2 micron R25S fuel filter, Provent 200, Samcos, Fumoto F-102, Litens 920834A de-coupler, PML rear diff cover, OEM trans pan with welded in bung, JBA UCAs, full skids.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful input. I ordered about $1,500 worth of parts and expect to get started on the work in my cousin's garage soon. I bought the OEM timing belt, water pump, tensioner and pulleys, plus HD clutch fan. Thermostat, serpentine belt and tensioner were all new earlier this year. Got the Samco Hoses and turbo intake hose too, as mine are all shot at 165k miles. Ordered a cool grill guard push bar so I can push our 2WD vehicles out of our snow covered street this winter. City plows rarely hit our street before noon.

I got the upgraded fuel filter assembly too. If the air intrusion persists, I will add the fuel pump in the tank next summer.

After the Timing Belt is done I need to check out my turbo and vacuum modulator to see if it is working properly. I bought a vacuum modulator filter because mine is original at 9 years and 165k miles. I will read the posts about checking turbo bearing play and options for cleaning the turbo. I'm hoping it is fairly clean because I regularly performed the Italian Tune up since I drove it off the lot new in 2006. I also use fuel additives in every tank (Diesel Kleen).

I hope to be able to clean the soot & oil mess out of the intake too. If the turbo is OK, I will drive it to GDE to have them scan the ECM to see if it is bad as the Stealership reported for their $109 diagnosis fee. If that checks out, I will probably get the ECO-Tune to kill the EGR.

If my turbo is bad, as reported by the Stealership I have to choose which way to go on that. Stock OEM replacement seems OK but maybe the Euro Version? The GDE Custom Turbo seems great but I'm not sure I can do that this year after all the money I have spent on the CRD so far. I hope my existing turbo is OK and will last another year. It doesn't make any odd noises and works great up to about 3,000 rpm. After that it sputters but that could be all the bad hoses and clogged intake. My guess is the engine has been starved for air!

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Original owner - 2006 Liberty CRD Limited Black 205k
Chrysler Warranty New block, Head, Turbo, Timing Belt / Water Pump @ 36k.
Timing Belt Kit, push bar, Fumoto drain valve, Samco hoses & upgrades fuel filter head at 165k
Dropped an exhaust valve at 205k - Trying to determine if it’s worth buying a replacement engine.

Check your turbo. It's easy. Take your turbo to intercooler hose out, stick your hands on the impeller and move it up down or left right for radial play. In my opinion up to 1/8th play is acceptable, provided you don't have scuff marks on the turbo housing from impeller touching the housing and no oil leaks visible on the bottom of turbo housing. Then check for axial play. Push the impeller from the center nut back and forth, you should have no play at all, but a very tiny bit (like 1/32) is acceptable. Again, there should not be oil leaks on the bottom of turbo housing. If you do have some oil on the bottom housing, then that oil can come from the ccv, these engines are known on having some oil blowback through the ccv, especially if you put more oil than 1/2 mark on dipstick. My advice is to install provent 200 (available on idparts.com). A boost gauge would help you know if the turbo is working right, or if you have any leaks on your turbo accessories (hoses, intercooler).

If the above check right, then you may have some stuck vanes, this being a vgt, it uses vacuum to actuate turbo vanes. If those are stuck, the vacuum can't move them, and more then likely you'll get some check engine codes. Scan the codes if you have them and post back, or look them up in the field service manual (fsm) available in the noob guide sticky.

You can definitely clean the soot from intake. Use gasoline once you take the parts apart. Let it soak and use a bottle cleaning brush for the intake valve passages or intake elbow.

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2005 kj CRD, samco, suncoast tc, provent, Kennedy lift pump, GDE ECO full torque, 2nd gen filter head, 245/70/16 a/t tires, mopar light bar, fumoto oil valve, OEM Skid Plates, ARB Front bumper and HD OME, tru cool LPD47391 40k GVW tranny cooler (stock cooler delete), FF Dynamics e-fan and shroud, rocker arms replaced, HDS2 190F thermostat.