The Heinz

Autocorrect isn't my friend either!

If you can rob it from another motor, I'd recommend trying that. It'll likely be around $300 for the base (comes with filter) from a dealer, and I don't see many aftermarket options that are much cheaper. Part number 25502528 (279GB52M old Mack number). You'll want at least two 9° 1/4" elbows and other brass to run the tubing through it.

I was going to say you may just have a bad starter (MP starters suck, I've replaced several myself), but if you don't have hours showing, you could have something more going on. I've never personally seen something like that so I can't say for certain. My favorite way of testing starters on a road call was having the driver turn the key while I beat the tar out of the starter. Would it have been smarter to check voltage while the key is turned? Probably, but beating a starter was fun and cathartic. I'll ask our foreman for more info to see if he has an idea about an ECU issue.

I didn't think to look yesterday, was focused on the turbo, but your truck did have a VGT filter, same spot that I sent pictures of before. Interesting someone would remove it. I definitely agree in fixing smaller items first and saving the turbo for later, if it works fine enough there's no use in going that much in the hole. About the turbo, I was talking to our shop foreman yesterday about your issues and the rule about selling, and he said he could help us get you the turbo whenever/if you end up doing it.

It's dumb but I don't blame them entirely. The rule was made because someone stole a credit card and had one of our front counter guys order a lot of parts for their truck. Salesperson called many times telling them the parts were here, only to get a call from the bank about a fraudulent charge being made here. Thankfully the salesperson kept record of everything including who called, or it would have been a major investigation into him and our company. Stop, you'll make me blush!

Sadly I was denied the ability to sell out of state without a customer account... Best bet would be your local dealer for the whole turbo. Hope all goes well.

I'm in NC. I'm checking with management to see if it's possible I could sell to someone out of state. I can get one from another location with no freight other than shipping to you. Just waiting to get the ok before I'd go any further.

That's the same story, cost is higher on PAI than OEM... The actuator number on the turboturbos site only crosses to the position sensor and not the VGT itself. Safe to say I doubt Mack ever offered it separately. The controller is also available in OEM warehouses. I'm sorry to hear that about your family situation. I'm no stranger to heartache caused by family illness, lost my dad last year, and my mom had a stroke almost two months ago. Prayers for a swift recovery on his part. If you go the whole turbo route, I'd recommend getting the turbo mount and drain gaskets. I don't have any pulling power at any dealers local to you, so I doubt mentioning me would help at all haha. Maybe if you ask kindly they'd be kind to you. I don't know if I can take an order over the phone here, we've had scammers try it enough that management doesn't like us taking cards over the phone; I'd love to help you out if I could!

I forgot to mention it, but PAI is actually more expensive than OEM?! PAI ETC-8246 is $3,722.65 at cost vs the OEM turbo at $3123.31 at cost. I rounded up the price to account for tax and whatever markup the dealer "graciously" applies. Wow. The OEM turbo is available in warehouses as well, any dealer could get next weekday but with a nasty freight charge.

Perfect, superseded turbo part number is 631GC5176EM10X, and the actuator kit I found online is compatible with with this turbo. Here's the link. I don't know how trustworthy this site is, nor do I know the quality of the part. The turbo itself is not cheap, dealer cost is around $4k... But Nextran in Kansas City, MO shows to have one in stock as of yesterday.

I'm digging a little more to see if it's possible, but so far it appears to be sold with the turbo... I'll update if I find anything different. EDIT: Found a possibility, I'll need a VIN to confirm fitment.

I don't have a lot of experience, but if you're checking the EUP wiring, I'd start at the EUP's themselves. They're on the right hand side of the engine with lines going into the heads above. They're in a high-heat area, so we've seen some wiring getting brittle before. Could also have issues with the EUP/injectors themselves, but you'll want others' opinions over mine for that. As for the VECU, the engine module should be on the RH side of the motor as well, below the heat shields that also cover the EUP's and forward of the air compressor. Here's a diagram from a 2000 RD:

9-5 is a compressor discharge temp sensor fault, 2-9 is combustion air temp sensor, 8-1 and 8-4 are injector faults for their respective cylinders, and 4-9 is your EGR valve code for being blocked most likely.

The truck in our shop didn't have the same complaints, but I feel like at least mentioning one repair we made could be related to your issues. The truck was showing faults for VTG Position Sensor code 4-5, Turbocharger Speed code 6-2, among others. I don't know if the VGT was sweeping correctly before or not, so I can't say if this truck had the same problem or not.

Here's some pics of the truck in our shop. The housing my sausage finger is pointing to is the VGT filter base. Filter is upside down underneath. EDIT: Feel like I need to clarify my finger doesn't look like this, my camera made it look worse than reality lol.

I've ridden in an Anthem with an mDrive before and I'll say it's an amazing thing to feel the truck shift like a manual by itself. The problem is they don't seem to hold up very well. We see a lot of internal failure from the control housing taking out an entire gear. No fault of the driver or anything, the forks just jam up or something and there it goes with much grinding. Just don't be like one company here that destroyed the clutch and transmission on a brand new Mack. Driver was putting it in reverse while still moving and God knows what else to do so. Not warranty!!

It was behind the oil filters on the driver's side of the engine block on the CXU in our shop. I can only imagine it would be the same for yours. It's a very shallow but wide filter. Looks like the below.

We had the local EV demo truck get towed in to have almost $7k worth of parts ALONE in recalls. All of it required a team direct from Mack to help our Uptime guy to accomplish. Brand new and needed that much work. Also has worse range than my 5.7 Hemi with a lead foot.

We've been seeing a massive influx of warranty work here, and we don't sell too many new trucks since Covid... Every manufacturer has been like this: cars, light duty trucks, heavy duty, etc. I can only assume that it's a combination of a rushed production with fewer employees, terrible part quality thanks to China and other manufacturing setbacks thanks to Covid, and the general consequences of the monopolized, heavily Federally controlled, corporation hellscape America has become. I don't dislike new vehicles just because they're new and scary, but because I know 100% they are not made with consumer comfort/quality in mind. It's all about the bottom line that only benefits people at the top. Eerily similar to the coal and mill industries of the early 1900's: You're just a number to us, your wellbeing is of no concern.

No problem, I try to help out when I can.

In my (actual professional for once) opinion, the M stands for MONEY! Money out of the owner's account and into the dealerships. I still won't pick on the CHU much, because I'm a nice guy, and I like the looks of them, but I can't help but make fun of the mDrives. We see the blue boot failure all the time, sold at least one job yesterday actually. We usually replace the press-on boots with spring clamps. It usually stops the boots from coming off. I also don't use Automann boots even if the OEM is unavailable, we noticed they were larger in diameter then OE, and they blew off immediately the first time we used them. We have another aftermarket option that seems to do well, I think it's S&S Truck Parts?

Here, I'll post the pictures of what Impact shows and try to explain a little to help out: This is looking at the truck from the front passenger side. The actual VGT is the turbo, which is OPTION 1. The filter in question is in OPTION B, which I'll show below. It goes to the driver's side of the engine. OPTION 15A is the filter FJH is talking about. It should be identical to the 2006 CXU we have in the shop I used to find this. Mack part number is 25502444, WIX cross is 49458. It's mounted on the engine right next to the oil filters. The afore mentioned truck in our shop has different issues, but me and the foreman noticed when the tech revved the engine after fixing a misfire the turbo made a nice little metal-on-metal noise for a split second, like the turbo isn't getting the proper oil quick enough. Fun stuff!

The original part number should be 37QR5140 according to PartsLinq's supersession chain. Searching that gave me some results. Dixie Truck Center in Lakefield, ON has a listing on truckpartsinventory.com, could maybe call them and see if that's an option. https://truckpartsinventory.com/part-details/85075935/used-1997-mack-rb688s-dash-ass-y-for-sale Northwest Truck in Alberta, Canada could potentially have it too, will need to call them to find out. https://parts.nwtruck.com/part/QR-37QR5140 Those are the best options I could find, even though getting parts from Canada is a royal pain, believe me...

Yea, that's my bad for not looking as closely, sorry. I couldn't find any other good crosses, don't know where to suggest you find the right ones either.

The part numbers don't cross, can only assume they're not interchangeable... Thanks for that link, could be handy in the future.