ProMaster diesel info

[Ian F]

Sadly, I no longer own a TDI, but this is the only diesel forum I trust...

An associate has a ProMaster diesel. I'm wondering if there are any good online sources for information about them. Service. Maintenance. Common issues, etc.

(I'm still in the diesel community - currently own a 1992 E350 with a 7.3 IDI)

Thanks!

 

[T1MMBOJONES]

nice, i own an 01 E350 7.3l PSD aswell as my 13 JSW (CJAA) i have no real help for you or your friend. i havent read much good about the pro masters in general but the internet would steer me away from my current tdi aswell....

 

[d24tdi]

A buddy of mine has had a couple and still has one.

He really likes driving it (and I liked it the one time I rode in it). Good power and mileage, reasonably quiet and smooth. It's a work van for him and puts on lots of high speed highway miles on the passes up here in the Rockies. Sounds like it performs great.

However, he is afraid of owning it for the long term. He had two and sold one when it went out of warranty. The one he still has is under extended warranty coverage of some kind but I think he wants to get rid of it too once that's expired. According to him there are various potential issues.... glow plugs, DEF system service/parts availability, and trans service. It has a single clutch automated manual transmission that seemed to work nicely when I rode in the van but apparently finding someone competent to work on this engine and trans is very difficult. Granted that is here in Montana where population is sparse. If you have major urban areas around you with a big dealership maybe you would have better luck.

All around though, from everything I can tell it's hard to make a good argument for the ProMaster diesel versus a far more common and robust Sprinter diesel from a similar year. Yeah the Sprinter probably would cost more upfront but in terms of keeping it going for the long term, far easier due to much greater numbers on the road, and probably less cost in the end. I'm not sure there's a single thing to recommend the ProMaster as an alternative other than possibly price.

My buddy bought two TDI-swapped Eurovans and those are his solution to moving away from the diesel ProMasters. He also bought a gas ProMaster. Apparently those have their own issues but at least parts/know-how for keeping them going are much easier to come by. The TDI Eurovans of course will be bombproof.

And your IDI Ford will probably run forever too, hard to see any ProMaster beating that on long term outcomes. If it were me I'd keep that on the road and enjoy. Those engines aren't power houses but hard to find anything more simple and tough.

 

[T1MMBOJONES]

my ford is about 10 years post idi but yeah ive owned it ten out of its 22 years and racked up most the miles. mileage growth has gone way down since purchasing my first tdi in 2019 but its still got around 250,000 miles and is going strong. sadly wisconsin winters have done a toll on its undercairage but it does what i need when i need it to. that said there isnt a whole lot i havent replaced on it....

 

[oilhammer]

The Iveco engine is great. The transmission actually isn't too bad either.

BUT... the rarity [here] and parts availability, coupled with it being a rebadged brand and now FCA has become yet another entity (Stellantis), taking care of them may become more difficult moving forward.

The Promasters with the leftover minivan powertrains are junk, but at least for the most part everyone knows what a turd the Pentastar and the 62TE transmission is, but they have another set of oddities in that they are made for this market only so all the hodge-podge specific parts for those are always seemingly in short supply. We went through a six month period waiting for drive axles for them. At least the diesels are all Fiat, save for the badges.

The newest versions bid farewell to the troublesome ChryCo slushbox in favor of a ZF unit, so at least there's that going for them. Probably still a light duty unit, though.

Sprinter is leaps and bounds a superior vehicle.

 

[d24tdi]

Yeah. It seems like the diesels in particular are doomed to become orphan vehicles in terms of parts/service support over the long term. An engine and trans that are not used in any other vehicle sold in the US and only in very small numbers in the ProMaster..... No parts or service commonality.... Zero familiarity from your average independent garage and probably little or none from most dealers....

At least as OH points out it is a common engine elsewhere in the world. So at least even if parts supply gets difficult here it would probably not be hard to get needed parts from overseas. Notwithstanding what I assume are probably at least a few differences in the US models when it comes to emission control parts.

I remember thinking when they came out it was surprising that FCA even went to the effort and expense to go through EPA/CARB emissions cert for this engine given its unique/limited use and guaranteed low volume sales. It is hard to imagine they thought they were tapping into a huge market of folks wanting big European style vans with small/efficient/slow European style diesels. Maybe they were looking over at Mercedes with its success with the diesel Sprinter, and figuring they needed a diesel in their own lineup to be competitive with it. But I think their mistake was not realizing that anyone buying a ProMaster instead of a Sprinter was obviously making their decision based on lower upfront cost vs better long term value.... Why would that budget buyer then turn around and spend extra to upgrade to the diesel, especially an unknown one with no reputation? Anyone thinking that way would just buy the Sprinter instead, or maybe a Ford Transit with the 5cyl PSD.

 

[oilhammer]

The diesel Transits dissappeared as fast as the diesel Promaster. Probably almost as rare here too.