Can a diesel back fire or does the 2014 need a turbo waste gate?

3679 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by sumyunguy, Mar 21, 2017

c00per11

Discussion Starter · Dec 30, 2013

So I'm driving home at 2 am (just coming from watching the hobbit at 10:55) and bombing along at 60 km per hour on a back country road (Steeles east of Markham Rd), there were some great tunes on the radio and so I had it cranked at 30, suddenly a huge bang, boom or explosion (your choice) happened, it was so loud it beat out "Smoke on the Water", I stopped, no damage, nothing on the road, though the def registered as empty, the tank was fine, nothing under the hood.

So how prevelant are diesels to back firing, or lets say pressure build up from the turbo, could this have caused the bang?

It's funny, this happened on Fri night/ sat morning (2 am) and on Tues (Christmas eve) I hooked up the block heater so we'd be fine Christmas morning.

****** Don't use remote start with the block heater plugged in *****
************* Would be nice if the owners manual said something about this, or even how much DEF to fill *******************

So I remote started, but of course it didn't start...10 mins later out to the jeep to load it for a trip to mom & dads for Xmas, I unplugged the extension cord, started the jeep and the engine light was on. It wouldn't shift out of 1st, so I turned it off and left it, took another car for Xmas day. Came home, started the jeep, drove it around the block (after googling Jeep block heater issues) and it was fine, by Thursday the engine light was off as well (just as I was about to disconnect the battery and reset the ecu before taking it to jeep).. I assume the boom or back fire if that's what it was is not related.

After new years I will take it Jeepo/ Chrysler to see what alerts there are and any indication of unseen damage from the explosion.

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1 - 7 of 7 Posts

MDBones

· #2 · Dec 30, 2013

Have you checked your EVIC in the main instument cluster for messages and/or diagnostic faults?

At the very least you should be getting regular messages about low or empty DEF.

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Casper

· #3 · Dec 30, 2013

I believe when you run out of DEF the motors power output is reduced to say 80% or so and when you turn it off and restart it goes into "creep" mode which would explain not getting out of 1st. What the result of running out of DEF and the power dropping while cruising I wouldn't care to guess. Could have resulted in the BOOM, I'm assuming you also felt it. At any rate I hope everything works out.

c00per11 said:
So I'm driving home at 2 am (just coming from watching the hobbit at 10:55) and bombing along at 60 km per hour on a back country road (Steeles east of Markham Rd), there were some great tunes on the radio and so I had it cranked at 30, suddenly a huge bang, boom or explosion (your choice) happened, it was so loud it beat out "Smoke on the Water", I stopped, no damage, nothing on the road, though the def registered as empty, the tank was fine, nothing under the hood.

So how prevelant are diesels to back firing, or lets say pressure build up from the turbo, could this have caused the bang?

It's funny, this happened on Fri night/ sat morning (2 am) and on Tues (Christmas eve) I hooked up the block heater so we'd be fine Christmas morning.

****** Don't use remote start with the block heater plugged in *****
************* Would be nice if the owners manual said something about this, or even how much DEF to fill *******************

So I remote started, but of course it didn't start...10 mins later out to the jeep to load it for a trip to mom & dads for Xmas, I unplugged the extension cord, started the jeep and the engine light was on. It wouldn't shift out of 1st, so I turned it off and left it, took another car for Xmas day. Came home, started the jeep, drove it around the block (after googling Jeep block heater issues) and it was fine, by Thursday the engine light was off as well (just as I was about to disconnect the battery and reset the ecu before taking it to jeep).. I assume the boom or back fire if that's what it was is not related.

After new years I will take it Jeepo/ Chrysler to see what alerts there are and any indication of unseen damage from the explosion.

Save

c00per11

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 2, 2014

No issues with low DEF. from my other posts, a different dealer filled up the DEF sooo much, that the sensor is random, sometimes says full, sometimes says empty.
There is a known issue with remote (and probably normal starting) if you leave it plugged into house current for the block heater.

I think Jeep needs to do 2 things.
1 - update the owners manual with the DEF part number, and how to fill or capacity of DEF, so we all know how much to put in, and which type to buy.
2- needs to update the owners manual with all the in's & out's of plugging in the block heater - like no remote starting as it causes issues, which could be so severe that the engine light and other issues happen, which require multiple restarts and reset of ECU etc...

Anyway this still doesn't answer the questions as to whether a diesel can back fire or whether a turbo diesel needs a waste gate for releasing excess pressure if that's what the boom was. Since we had an ice storm could have been a tree falling beside me on the road, so close it was sooo loud... "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" well over 1000 tree's are toast in Ontario due to the ice storm...

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M5040

· #5 · Jan 11, 2014

Big trucks sometimes blow a intake hose that is pressurized by the turbo and it sound like a tire blowout or a gunshot. I would think these engines are so sophisticated that it wouldn't be possible and anyway if it happed it would sound like a gush of air every time you work the engine and get boost psi up (the air would be leaking out the blow hose)

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Wireman

· #6 · Nov 23, 2015

cOOper11, Just got my 2015 JGC diesel 6 weeks ago. I had the very same problem 2 days ago at 1500 miles. Thought a bomb went off underneath the car. Couldn't find any damage and it runs fine. Did you ever have it happen again?
Did you take it to a dealer and what if anything did they find? hope you see this message as I'm curious on what you have to say. Wireman

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sumyunguy

· #7 · Mar 21, 2017

c00per11 said:
So I'm driving home at 2 am (just coming from watching the hobbit at 10:55) and bombing along at 60 km per hour on a back country road (Steeles east of Markham Rd), there were some great tunes on the radio and so I had it cranked at 30, suddenly a huge bang, boom or explosion (your choice) happened, it was so loud it beat out "Smoke on the Water", I stopped, no damage, nothing on the road, though the def registered as empty, the tank was fine, nothing under the hood.

So how prevelant are diesels to back firing, or lets say pressure build up from the turbo, could this have caused the bang?

It's funny, this happened on Fri night/ sat morning (2 am) and on Tues (Christmas eve) I hooked up the block heater so we'd be fine Christmas morning.

****** Don't use remote start with the block heater plugged in *****
************* Would be nice if the owners manual said something about this, or even how much DEF to fill *******************

So I remote started, but of course it didn't start...10 mins later out to the jeep to load it for a trip to mom & dads for Xmas, I unplugged the extension cord, started the jeep and the engine light was on. It wouldn't shift out of 1st, so I turned it off and left it, took another car for Xmas day. Came home, started the jeep, drove it around the block (after googling Jeep block heater issues) and it was fine, by Thursday the engine light was off as well (just as I was about to disconnect the battery and reset the ecu before taking it to jeep).. I assume the boom or back fire if that's what it was is not related.

After new years I will take it Jeepo/ Chrysler to see what alerts there are and any indication of unseen damage from the explosion.

Reset the ECU? I thought you can only swap out the ECU.

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