Just spoke to a friend of my wife who is a car mechanic who makes money by fixing cars.
He mentioned that it could well be a tranny problem.
He advised me that once shit starts on Chryslers, that it only gets worse, and advised me to not do any repairs and to get rid of this truck as soon as possible.
I am inclined to do just that.
i
And I bet he knows somebody who will take it off your hands too.
Nope, he has been very good to us. He is a good person and never made any money from us in any way. Never did any work on our vehicles or facilitated any purchases. My wife knew him for a very long time.
iIgnoramus16919 wrote in article ...
Making money fixing cars does not necessarily equate to being a mechanic or technician.
Given the fact that there has been no apparent, concentrated attempt at a true diagnosis on this vehicle - just a bunch of "It COULD be's..." - his opinion is just that - an un-educated opinion.
I've driven many Chrysler products ( ...and GM...and FORD) to well beyond
150,000 miles without major component problems.Watch out for generalizations.
Most REAL technicians understand that every vehicle has its peculiarities.....and that generalizations simply do not apply to today's vehicles.
Diagnosis by trend ( Oh! They ALL do that....) is not a valid way of solving any problem in today's complex vehicles - yours included.
Sometimes - when backed into a corner where they cannot come up with a decent solution to a given problem - these people would rather say......
"All (insert brand here) are pure junk. Get rid of it before it starts to cost you a lot of money.......(and before you continue to ask me questions I cannot answer!)."
Well, I mean, he is a car mechanic by trade, works for a car repair shop.
True.
You know, this is all pretty much true.
I hate the idea of buying a new truck, a lot of money down the drain, and *IF* I can somehow fix up this truck and continue driving it for next 10 years, I would be happy. I would rather have a beater truck (which this one is not, sans latest mechanical problems), and retire a few years earlier, or just work less, than pay money for shiny new vehicles.
That said: it all hinges on the likelihood that my latest mechanical problems can be resolved not too expensively.
His opinion is that it is unlikely.
I think that it would not hurt to try to do a couple more things by myself, to ascertain a little more.
What is clear is that plopping thousands down the drain, paying car mechanics etc, is likely a bad route to take. With DIY approach, the cost is less.
i
You're probably in over your head on this if you haven't narrowed it down between the transmission and rear yet. No offense intended, it's just you need to develop a better troubleshooting method, and on a vehicle you need running isn't a pleasant place to learn. I think it'd be worth your while to take it to the dealership to have them troubleshoot it and tell you what's making the noise. Should only cost you an hour of labor or so. Then you'll know for sure what's wrong and won't be relying on guesses from people who haven't seen the truck. That way you can make a sound decision. A reman transmission isn't terribly expensive to get and have installed; so if that turns out to be the solution, I think it would be worthwhile unless you simply want a new vehicle. Whatever's wrong, it's cheaper than a whole new (or used) truck unless you get a hell of a bargain.
B.B., I will take my pickup to the dealer tomorrow at 7am. I will see what they say, I will ask them to do a test drive.
i
Hey - I have no knowledge of car mechanics (I have a brilliant mechanic, in return for giving him money, our cars run perfectly....) - if you dont have a mechanic you know and trust to do a dignosis, then
Why not run it till it dies, then you will know which bit is faulty....crude faultfinding, but it works.
noise, so why worry about it until the vehicle stops?
Because, at the moment, its generating endless mental grief for you .......out of all proportion to the severity of the fault...
Andrew VK3BFA.
I used to have a 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4x4. Great truck, but I traded it because of the infamouse "rear end whine". The irony is the whine didn't start untill I changed the rear end oil. I used the Dodge factory oil and the additive, but the rear end went from quiet to pissing me off real quick. Only 60K miles when it started. Get on some of the Dodge truck forums. You will find the Dodge rear ends are prone to develop the rear end whine. Most say even a professional rear end rebuild will not make the noise go away! Just something about the Dodge rear ends. Now drivin' a powerful, made in Canton Miss., Nissan Titan! With Dana axles! Greg
One more update.
I went to a dealer today. Drove it with a mechanic, etc and he raised the pickup and listened with stethoscope.
The problem is rear end related and he will replace the pinion bearing and other internal bearings. In his opinion the gears are fine.
The cost of this, including cost of the "diagnostic", which they waived, is $1070 and I decided to let them do it and instead I will resell something on ebay to make up the money. The labor charge is $600, the rest are parts.
i
Whenever my current Dodge RAM 1500 dies, my next truck will be a 1 ton diesel with a full bed.
i
We just got rid of a 1998 Ram 3500B stretch extended van, that may or may not have a similar drive train as your truck. (5.9 L engine, auto trans). The transmission croaked at something like 89000 Miles, and they rebuilt it for ONLY $3100! We did get a "lifetime" warranty on the rebuild, so if it ever blew AGAIN, we'd be covered.
Having had major transmission problems on our last THREE American-brand cars in a ROW, I've pretty well sworn them off. Meanwhile, I'm still driving my 1989 Toyota Corolla station wagon with manual transaxle. Maintenance on that one has run about $100/year, on average. Some years it requires ZERO maintenance whatsoever. 170,000 miles on the original wter pump, alternator, the A/C refrigerant has NEVER been even topped-up, etc.
It ought to be possible to isolate grinding noises to the transmission or rear axle. Any way you can jack the rear wheels off the ground? If it is the transmission, you are in deep DOO-DOO, and he's definitely right, if you can in good conscience dump the thing, do so.
If it is the axle, then I really don't see how some grinding in there is going to take the transmission with it.
Jon
Jon, it is in the axle. The dealer offered a relatively sensible total price of $1070 (that includes the $114 that they charged me to look at it), so I decided to just have them do it.
isnipped-for-privacy@naxs.com wrote in news:1159884644.482499.111160 @k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
I believe the Dodge axles are Dana also.
Ignoramus906 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.alt.net:
Ya, but you could have saved yourself $600 :)
Sincethey would charge me $114 for having "looked" at it, the amount saved would be $486.
i
They were in the 2500 and 3500's until 2002. With the new 2003 body also brought American Axles. 1500's mostly use the the 9.25 corporate axle. Good axle, bad bearings. Chevrolet has also had lots of problems with their
1500 trucks and vans, bad bearings again.
What about 2500 RAMs, are they also shoddily made or are they more reliable?
i
..........
================== There appears to be no technology so mature that some suit can't take a few cents out and turn the product into pure crap.
Didn't the suits ever read the Midas story? You are suposed to turn things into *GOLD*, not crap.....
AFAIK the DANA corporation is operating under chapter 11 also. Unka George (George McDuffee) ............................. I sincerely believe . . . banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. Thomas Jefferson (1743?1826), U.S. president. Letter, 28 May 1816, to political philosopher and Senator John Taylor
So how much was a rear end from the wrecker?
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