Am I Wrong?

So I'm sure I'm not the only one who's dealing with these outrageous temperatures so I won't get into that. But suffice to say my truck decided it didn't like the cold anymore. Started sputtering, bucking, and has no power. She won't go better than 35 at this point. I originally thought gelled fuel but I started getting blue smoke out of the exhaust. So I shut her down at a rest area on I95 outer Boston.

Now here's where it gets fun. I still have two deliveries left for the day. So I called my boss to tell him the truck is screwed and I'm shutting it down. His response is " it's probably just the fuel, can you finish up your run first then we'll get it checked out when you get back." So I in turn say "no because my next stop is more than an hour away and I'm not going to run up I95 outer Boston at 35mph. Not safe and illegal"

My question here is am I in the right here? I haven't even been with this company a year and I'm the least experienced out of all the drivers we have. But this man has never driven a truck before and I have a feeling from the smoke that's its more than just the fuel.

Thoughts?

I can't say about the truck Heavy, but from what I've read of your posts you don't strike me as a person that would shut down unless there was something seriously wrong.

So I'm sure I'm not the only one who's dealing with these outrageous temperatures so I won't get into that. But suffice to say my truck decided it didn't like the cold anymore. Started sputtering, bucking, and has no power. She won't go better than 35 at this point. I originally thought gelled fuel but I started getting blue smoke out of the exhaust. So I shut her down at a rest area on I95 outer Boston.

Now here's where it gets fun. I still have two deliveries left for the day. So I called my boss to tell him the truck is screwed and I'm shutting it down. His response is " it's probably just the fuel, can you finish up your run first then we'll get it checked out when you get back." So I in turn say "no because my next stop is more than an hour away and I'm not going to run up I95 outer Boston at 35mph. Not safe and illegal"

My question here is am I in the right here? I haven't even been with this company a year and I'm the least experienced out of all the drivers we have. But this man has never driven a truck before and I have a feeling from the smoke that's its more than just the fuel.

Thoughts?

This is what I found on this. I would say you made the right move. By shutting it down. Blue smoke is an indication of oil being burnt. The oil can enter the combustion chamber for several reasons.

Worn valve guides or seals Wear in power assemblies (ie cylinders, piston rings, ring grooves) Cylinder glaze Piston ring sticking Incorrect grade of oil (eg oil too thin, and migrating past the rings) Fuel dilution in the oil (oil thinned out with diesel) At cold start, blue smoke is often evident, and can reflect reduced oil control, due to fouling deposits around piston rings or cylinder glaze (which is actually carbon deposited in the machined cylinder crosshatching. These tiny grooves actually hold a film of oil, which in turn completes the seal between the combustion chamber and the oil wetted crankcase). Blue smoke should not be evident at any time, but it is worth noting, that engines with good sound compression can actually burn quite a lot of oil without evidence of blue smoke. Good compression allows oil to burn cleanly, as part of the fuel. It is not good though!

I googled "gelled fuel blue smoke" and there does seem to be a correlation. That doesn't fix the fact driving on I95 at 35 mph is a bad idea.

First link that popped up for me was a school bus forum from 2005.

It could be fuel, it could be the turbo, it could be an injector - it could be a lot of things. What it isn't going to do is fix itself, become suddenly safe to drive, or become less expensive to repair if you keep driving it. You did the right thing. Tell them to come look at it or send you someplace real close to look at it. And prepare to get a hotel room cuz that's not going to be a two hour repair no matter what the problem is. You're going to be sitting for a day or two more than likely if you wind up at a dealership. But that's likely going to be warranty work which usually means the dealership.

Well here's what happened. After my shut down I found a Ryder close to where I was (we lease our trucks from them) and was able to nurse it over to them. Which is a good thing because when I talked to emergency roadside they wouldn't have been able to get to me for two to three hours. They were completely overwhelmed with calls because of this cold spell we got.

So all they did was change a bunch filters and send me on my way. It helped a little. It still had some smoke and still sputtered a little but it was able to get me home. I was very nervous the whole ride but I made it. We ended up bringing it to our local Ryder for them to hopefully fix it. I also just found out that this truck has been waiting for a fuel pressure relief valve so maybe that played a part.

Either way I'm home and back in a tractor tomorrow.

My truck had the same problem yesterday. Changed the fuel filter and today went fine. Lots of drivers on the CB going through a lot of fuel filters. The shop said it was probably the fuel starting to gel, but I am religious with antigel so I dunno about that. The guys on the radio blamed it on the quality of the fuel.

Your in the right sir. If your in a funky situation like that and you need to shut it down, then do it. I wouldn't run 95 at 35mph. screw that.