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Is anyone else waiting for a DEF tank for their 2020+ pile of GM garbage?

Blu Du

Blu Du

Well-known member
Premium Member
i havent had my truck for 5 weeks now. there is 6000 trucks sitting on dealer lots like mine and rising daily. found out from my dealer today that the manufacture will not be sending tanks until the end of april to chevy. that means 2-3 months with out my truck. the wire harness for the def pump and heater gets so hot it burns the terminal off so the def system doesnt work and your speed is limited to 5 mph after approx 300 miles. the EPA and chevy are holding my truck hostage and i am madder than hell. **** GM i will never give them motherfuckers another penny
 
Blu Du said:
i havent had my truck for 5 weeks now. there is 6000 trucks sitting on dealer lots like mine and rising daily. found out from my dealer today that the manufacture will not be sending tanks until the end of april to chevy. that means 2-3 months with out my truck. the wire harness for the def pump and heater gets so hot it burns the terminal off so the def system doesnt work and your speed is limited to 5 mph after approx 300 miles. the EPA and chevy are holding my truck hostage and i am madder than hell. **** GM i will never give them motherfuckers another penny
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Took my 2016 in for a check engine light. They diagnosed it as a failed def tank heater. They installed the new heater, warranted of course, and had me out of there in a little over an hour.
 
Blu Du said:
i havent had my truck for 5 weeks now. there is 6000 trucks sitting on dealer lots like mine and rising daily. found out from my dealer today that the manufacture will not be sending tanks until the end of april to chevy. that means 2-3 months with out my truck. the wire harness for the def pump and heater gets so hot it burns the terminal off so the def system doesnt work and your speed is limited to 5 mph after approx 300 miles. the EPA and chevy are holding my truck hostage and i am madder than hell. **** GM i will never give them motherfuckers another penny
Click to expand...
So they won’t even give the truck back? I assume you don’t want to delete it since it’s still under warranty. Supply chain is such a mess.
 
Saw this on another forum:
Every single person I know that owns a Duramax has had the def heater replaced multiple times, me included, and yet my dealer acted like it was the first time they have seen this. The first time it took 2 trips to shop, 1st one to "diagnose" even though I told them what it was, and they didn't have parts on hand to fix it so had to make a second trip to get it fixed, even though I told them what it was the first time so they could have the parts to fix it on hand, but what do I know, I'm not the fancy gm certified shop. You can buy the replacement "element" for like $180 online and drop the tank and swap it out, no need to get the $1000 complete the tank. Takes about an hour, second time mine went out I just did it myself than hassle with the dealer for a warranty fix. This whole def tank deal is my Number one reason I now own a Ram, not that Rams are perfect either but I've had it with GM.
 
I have a 2015 Duramax. I purchased the DEF heater at Amazon for $130. I replaced it in about an hour. There is wire above the rear of the transmission you can disconnect to delete the turtle mode. A few months ago, my DEF injector failed and I went to turtle mode immediately. I was able to clear the codes with my BlueDriver and temporarily disable the feature.
 
My 2020 was down 2.5 weeks in January for the def heater. Said it was on national backorder. They called all over the west coast trying to find any in inventory. All dealers have them for the 2019 and older models but none to be had for the 2020 ands newer models that are different. I told them if was nice that in 11 years of def that they haven't found a better more reliable system than they started with in 2011. Really sucks though.
 
I have a 17 L5P, no def heater issues so far, but everyone with L5Ps should be aware of the MAP sensor getting plugged with soot and throwing multiple codes, and losing performance.

Pretty easy to remove and clean, definitely carry an extra for $16USD, or at least that's what they used to cost. Treat it as routine maintenance like oil changes, trans filter, fuel filter, etc. Spacers help, but are not a reliable solution.

The EPA and federal gov mandates on OEMs will kill these trucks for us, just a matter of time. Crappy designs and execution by the OEMs don't help. Yeah, they're way cleaner, but at the cost of runnability, dependability, and maintenance $. Been running oil burners for over 30 years, likely my last. The LBZ was the best overall. DEF suxs, so do DPFs. At least there are some decent HD gassers out there right now. That will get screwed up, too.
 
so the 2020 and newer trucks the heaters are not replaceable so they have to do a whole new tank with everything already installed inside. my tank actually showed up at the dealer 2 days after gm told them it wasnt going to ship until april 28th. so after 5.5 weeks i got my truck fixed.
 
Blu Du said:
so the 2020 and newer trucks the heaters are not replaceable so they have to do a whole new tank with everything already installed inside. my tank actually showed up at the dealer 2 days after gm told them it wasnt going to ship until april 28th. so after 5.5 weeks i got my truck fixed.
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The 2022 models have been updated. They reduced the voltage to the tank heaters so as not to burn them up. I was in the same situation as you with my 2020 AT4 HD. It's been sitting at the dealer since the end of Feb. They tried to do a work-around on mine so I could drive till the tank showed up and not have to deal with the "reduced power crap", but it didn't work on mine due to all 3 heaters were fried. They said the earliest I would see a tank would be mid May (A big MAYBY), So I traded it in on a 2022 Denali HD today and they can sit on the 2020 AT4 HD till a tank shows up.
 
Had 30k on a 2020 with no issues. Do miss my LBZ and LB7 without all the crap though. More crap to break, and cost to run def. All those plastic containers got to be great for the environment too. Surprised with national back order EPA isnt giving gm the waiver to turn it off. Pretty sure freighliner was/is having an emissions issue and couldn’t/cant get the parts so the fix is to disable it. Guess the government may care more about keeping big trucks rolling than grocery getters though.
 
ratlover said:
... Surprised with national back order EPA isnt giving gm the waiver to turn it off. Pretty sure freighliner was/is having an emissions issue and couldn’t/cant get the parts so the fix is to disable it. Guess the government may care more about keeping big trucks rolling than grocery getters though.
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Well, we can all agree the EPA is inherently corrupt. Was close to the Navistar EGR-only debacle (alternative to SCT/def) in my job 10 years ago - EPA played both sides of that game, and the customers ended up holding the bag, as they always do. Just a crazy game of (dirty) thrones. The flip to EVs is going to disrupt the entire diesel industry within the decade, buckle up. Owning a non-fryer oil diesel in 10 years will be likely owning a flame thrower or fully automatic rifle - kinda frowned upon.
 
Reg2view said:
Well, we can all agree the EPA is inherently corrupt. Was close to the Navistar EGR-only debacle (alternative to SCT/def) in my job 10 years ago - EPA played both sides of that game, and the customers ended up holding the bag, as they always do. Just a crazy game of (dirty) thrones. The flip to EVs is going to disrupt the entire diesel industry within the decade, buckle up. Owning a non-fryer oil diesel in 10 years will be likely owning a flame thrower or fully automatic rifle - kinda frowned upon.
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i have a 2013 cat truck with the maxx force 13. next time the egr goes i will be deleting it
 
Reg2view said:
Well, we can all agree the EPA is inherently corrupt. Was close to the Navistar EGR-only debacle (alternative to SCT/def) in my job 10 years ago - EPA played both sides of that game, and the customers ended up holding the bag, as they always do. Just a crazy game of (dirty) thrones. The flip to EVs is going to disrupt the entire diesel industry within the decade, buckle up. Owning a non-fryer oil diesel in 10 years will be likely owning a flame thrower or fully automatic rifle - kinda frowned upon.
Click to expand...

Flame throwers are legal most everywhere, and full auto guns are readily available after an intensive FBI background check and tax stamp from the ATF if you have the cash (limited supply, from pre 1986, so demand drives the price).

3 letter agencies are really good at passing illegal mandates that we're forced to adhere to and costs us lots of money.

I had a whole def tank melt, had another heater fail a year later, and hate the whole stinky exhaust because it reduces 1 emission to create another.

And now nobody will sell delete kits because the EPA is enforcing all the emissions on "off highway vehicles". So no more off road exemption.
 
For what it's worth, I had the DEF heater fail on my '15 Ford just shy of 50k miles, out of warranty. Dealer wanted $1300 to repair and couldn't get the part in time (I was in Revelstoke) - I was able to drive the truck home under "reduced power" and changed it in my shop with a genuine Ford part for ~$450. Next time I'll use a cheaper replacement, I'm sure it'll happen again. At least the truck was able to get me home.

That is, as long as the emissions crap doesn't fall off before then ;)
 
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