Sabotage?!

[sotxbill]

Too much to be coincidental damage. I would bet a steak on it being someone with knowledge that did that. There should be a vote on this page for what happened. Surprised that they did not take the tail gate and spare, if a common thief. Tippy Canoe and Tyler too!!!

 

[NDIHC]

Security camera footage from the hotel would be interesting to see! But like they say hindsight is 20/20. Who would have thought about that in the moment? I probably wouldn't have.

 

[NDIHC]

Might have been the guys evicted or the dealer wanting more money. I DO NOT TRUST DEALERS either. RB

If it was the dealer looking for more money I'd think they would have replaced the EGT even if it didn't really need it. But then I don't blindly trust anyone either.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Too much to be coincidental damage. I would bet a steak on it being someone with knowledge that did that. There should be a vote on this page for what happened. Surprised that they did not take the tail gate and spare, if a common thief. Tippy Canoe and Tyler too!!!

The tailgate was locked, and it would have taken too long to steal the spare, considering an old tire mounted on a steel rim isn't worth much. It seems the intent was to strand me 1200 miles from home someplace where it would be difficult to get my vehicle repaired. Yeah, I think they knew what they were doing; as I've mentioned before the prime suspects have been performing diesel emissions deletes.

Although I've been deliberately vague about where this happened, I feel I should give a shout-out to the guys who got me back on the road: Corey at Transwest Chevrolet in Sterling is the technician who quickly found and fixed the problem. And service manager Jim was very helpful, too.

 

[MarkB_MI]

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Last week I reported this incident to the sheriff's department back in Colobraska. A few minutes later I got a call back from the local PD. (It seems the hotel is within the city limits). The officer I spoke to was very interested in this incident and wanted pictures of the damage as well as all my receipts for repairs. I sent her the requested information. I don't expect to hear anything more from them, unless the perpetrator got caught on a security cam, which I think is unlikely.

Meanwhile I got my truck back from the local Isuzu truck dealer, who had replaced the connectors for the #2 NOx sensor and #4 EGT sensor. It was obvious from the splices on the old connectors that these were what the dealer out in Colobraska repaired. (Their invoice said they repaired a wire to the particulate matter sensor, but I saw no sign of this repair. So the invoice was wrong.) Several of the wires on the NOx sensor connector were clipped too short to properly splice, which probably explains the CEL. I'm sure the tech back in Sterling opted to splice the connector so I could get on the road rather than wait a couple of days to get the connector.

I will note that the damaged connectors are only a few inches apart, and are easily reached without crawling under the vehicle. They're mounted to the outboard side of the left frame rail, right behind the cab. Anybody who knows where they are could easily find them in the dark. So the perp probably started on the left hand side of the truck, reaching under the bed to find and cut the sensor harnesses. Then went to the rear and reached around the bumper to grab a random harness and cut it. And as a final touch he went to the left rear tire and cut the valve stem. It would have taken less than a minute to do all three.

I replaced the backup camera myself, which was fairly easy. Everything seems to be good now.

One other thing: I've said before that the tailgate was probably locked when this all happened, but that's not true. Since there's no way to unlock the tailgate other than with the power locks, and it was unlocked after the incident, it must have been unlocked when the camera harness was cut. Which tells me theft was not the perpetrator's motive. He could have grabbed a thousand dollars worth of tools out of the cab of my unlocked truck and he didn't.

 

[UncleTom]

Just be glad they didnt put DEF in your tank.