Dodge Rear Ends

Was the gear oil ever changed ? DO you do a lot of towing ?

gear oil changed at around 50k miles and towed once about a year ago. Mostly highway driving to/from work.

1998 Dodge Dakota Club Cab 5.2L V8 Automatic Loaded with options 89K miles Truck is in near new condition inside and out. I am the only driver since 19k miles (bought it from dealer in 2000).

Well, I got the truck back after almost 10 days on the rack. The estimate that was told to me was $1,364.62. When I went to pick it up they tried telling me it was $1,996.87. Right then I knew they had real issues. I only paid the smaller amount because I showed them the estimate on the back of the invoice they handed me written by their services rep. The entire rear end was rebuilt even though the only bad part I could find from the original stuff was a bad pinion bearing. The rest of the stuff looks fine. No obvious metal fatigue, wear, or particles in any of it except for the pinion bearing. It has some worn/pitted rollers and looks like it would have caused the noise I was hearing.

Now, I feel vibrations at 65 MPh and it feels like I'm pulling a small trailer. My gas mileage has also dropped a little but can't say for sure until the tank is almost done. At 1/2 tank of gas I get around 15.5 MPg city/highway. I should reach 16.5 MPg by 1/4 tank - as it was before I brought it in.

I called the Service Manager and left a voice mail. I will do that just one more time then start climbing the food chain. When I hit a lawyer's office there will be no further discussions with this dealership and the listening public will be told who, where, phone numbers, addresses, etc.

I've bought 6 cars from these people in the past and have almost never had to use their service on any of them.

"Abby Normal" wrote

Try not leaving messages, but calling back until you talk to him, right off. Ask whoever answers the phone, "when will be a good time to call back."

Be SURE to point that out, and lean heavily on it. They value return business more than anything else.

I hope you get it worked out. I have a feeling you will.

I had a 1997 Ram 1500 that I bought new. Within a week I noticed a vibration at about 42 mph and the truck felt exactly like it was pulling a trailer, with a "buck-board" feel. The dealer did everything from balancing the tires, replacing the cam in the engine, replacing the torque converter, and then the entire transmission, all without success. They called in a factory rep who verified the problem. After a conference with engineering in Detroit, he told me they wanted to try one more thing, but he didn't think it would fix it and I should pick out a new truck. I agreed to allow the "one more thing" attempt and they replaced the entire rear end, axle, and wheels. (They actually took it off a new, '98 truck the dealer had in stock). The problem went away and the truck was fine thereafter.

Eisboch

I agree and thought that return business would be a good thing. It is in most companies - not to mention "customer satisfaction." Advertising by word of mouth can carry a lot of weight in "both" directions sometimes.

I know the problem is that the pinion is too tight and the same bearing is causing the vibrations. But what it takes to fix that I am not too sure about. I don't think loosening the yoke nut will do it. I'm thinking they need to pull it all apart again and re-shim it. After all, the wrong or lack of correct shims, was one thing they mentioned more than once. They also told me they ordered new bearings and the pinion bearing came without a shim. They had to reorder it too.

Just got the truck back from the dealers and it's fixed this time. It took them all day to connect the drive shaft to the rear end yoke "properly" this time. They said: "no charge" I should have said: "no SH** !!" but I didn't. I thanked them properly and left.

The End...