New CRD owner with some questions

[Workinman]

Hello Boys and Girls! FNG here. Ive owned a 2005 gas Liberty about 10 years, and I love that thing. It enables me to keep unwanted mileage off of my Ram 2500 CTD. Ive always wanted a CRD but could never find a decent one in my area that was for sale. Ive only actually seen ONE that was for sale, at a little used car dealer in my area, and it was gone pretty quick. So, a few weeks ago my wife was driving in the area and she spotted one for sale in someones front yard. I checked it out pretty thoroughly, but still took a chance on it as it had 120K on it, and it had a CEL on. I read the code, and it came up P1267. Which I believe is pretty common to these things?? The PO (Bought it brand new) stated that he had had the glow plugs replaced twice but that the light stays on . I don't even know if they are working at this point because its 95 degrees here. when I turn the key on, the glow plug light flashes for a second and then goes away pretty much instantly. The engine fires up just fine, but in my opinion it cranks a TAD too much before starting. By that i mean that it cranks for 4 to 5 seconds before starting. None of my other diesels have done/do that. They fire off a little quicker. Regardless, I can live with that if its normal.
My concern is with the check engine light. I can't stand having that light on constantly. I'm assuming that the PO had the glow plugs changed (Twice) by someone who didn't know what they were doing. Maybe the glow plug controller should be replaced when you change glow plugs? Maybe the computer needed to reflashed and wasn't? If I need to replace the glow plugs again, and change the controller, and have the computer reflashed, I will. I just hate to throw money at something that might not need it. I'm willing to bet that you guys have run into this before and can steer me in the right direction. I don't want to drag this out too long, being my first post, and I'm really hoping you guys can help me. My local Jeep dealer won't be much help, I'm afraid.Im hoping to keep my CRD for many years, and I want to get it right.
Thanks for any guidance you guys can give me.
Chris

 

[seafish]

Welcome to the forum…I ALSO drive a 2005 KJ CRD as well as a 2005 Ram CTD. BOTH great trucks, one is just a little smaller then the other LOL

While they are both CRD fuel injection systems, one difference between the two, is that on the KJ CRD the lines from the fuel tank to the firewall mounted fuel pump and filter tend to crack and leak from age.

The eventual result is air at the top of the filter head which can lead to slow or even no starts.
The air in the pump and filter is purged with the priming pump/purge bolt (10mm) at the top/passenger side of the pump/filter head.


Additionally, you can check for air (with engine not running) by pressing the prime button until it gets hard to press, and then open the bleed screw. If fuel comes out immediately, then I am wrong about the cracked lines, but if air comes out first, then likely they are cracked and will continue to leak even after you purge the air this time. Purging the air will fix the slow start for awhile, until enoiugh air leaks in again.

The ultimate fix for this is to to buy (or make) a converted in tank lift pump/fuel gauge sender from a 3rd gen Dodge Ram (with Cummins) and retrofit it into the KJ CRD fuel tank. Whle you do have to drop the tank on the CTD, It is not a particularly difficult project , especially if you buy the (fairly expensive) kit from Sasquatch, which is plug n' play.
I have a write up about it somewhere on this site.

Of course, if air does NOT purge out when you try to, then your slow start problem is something else entirely.

You do know that JEEP stands for "Just Empty Every Pocket", right? LOL