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Dodge Dakota: Problems & Solutions
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Comments
I've had nothing but excellent service from the GM dealer with whom I've been loyal to for years. This is what I get for betraying that loyalty. Great truck the Dakota... just lousy service from a company that doesn't have a clue.
BTW, the same service procedures I get at the GM dealer will cost $270 more at the Chrysler shop. This includes tire rotation, air filter, fuel filter, oil change, checking belts, hoses and other mechanical parts.
GM - $130
Mopar - $400
Just think, the quality of maintance isn't much
better on civilian and military aircraft!!!!
Sad:(
I'm very lucky I haven't had to deal with many
service departments!
mm
So far our Dakota has been great. Bought it with 67,000 miles 2 weeks ago now it's almost at 69,000. We drove it to Birmingham, AL (160 miles each way) twice and it didn't skip a beat. So far I feel like the truck is well worth the $6,000 we spent for it.
I'm not here to defend Dodge however the Factory has little control over how the dealerships run their business. They are independent and set their own prices. The only ones with control over them is the customers. If they have a 5 star rating they must be pleasing however many customers Dodge requires for them to maintain that status. Market forces control the dealerships.
If they provide crappy service people should take their business elsewhere. However trading trucks is a little extreme<grin>
I don't feel that the Dakota is a bad product nor it seems does the GM dealer you are trading with if you are getting $1500 over what you paid. Good luck with your GM and may your new truck make you happy.
I am fortunate, I have a great 5 star dealer. I bought a new Ram 1500 Quad cab to replace a Dakota Quad cab because I needed more space and a automatic transmission.
I found the cab a little difficult to get in and out of so I purchased a set of used Mopar step bars on Ebay. When I received the bars there were no instructions on how to install them on my Quad. I went to the dealership and checked the parts department and they had the instructions faxed to me from Mopar parts. While at the dealership I mentioned to my salesman I had gotten the bars and needed to install them once I located some hardware that was shown to be missing on the installation instructions I had just received. He told me to bring in the Quad that weekend and he would have his new truck prep guy install the side steps for me. I asked what that would cost and he said don't worry, I'll take care of it!!!!
This is why I have dealt with MY 5 star dealer over the past 10 years and recommend them to my friends and coworkers. Rick
When I bought the truck they refused to let me see the MSRP sticker prior to having it delivered from another dealership. I told them to just have the other dealership FAX the thing over. Nope, can't do it. They said "It's exactly like the one on our lot, why do you need to see the other MSRP?" They didn't want me to know where the other truck was in case I decided to pursue a deal with the other dealer. I got up and left their deal on the table. Before I made it to the car, the salesman came back and sweetened up the deal with $500 off invoice price. They kept doing this every time I started to walk. Well, to make a long story short I got up and walked out a grand total of 4 times which got me a grand total of $2,000 off their price besides the $3,000 factory rebate. Now by this time my wifes about ready to have a cow. She pulls me aside and tells me if I walk out again she'll buy the thing and I'll be walking home. What I ended up looking at from the other dealer was not what I wanted. As I suspected they (morons) didn't get the same vehicle. Besides that, the vehicle was manufactured about 1 week later than the local vehicle and they raised the base price by $300. So, again I took a walk. Next day they called me and offered their local truck with a few options added to sweeten the deal. They had tried to push this one on me in the first place as it had been sitting there for over 6 months without selling. Now they are going to try to keep my $500 deposit for the truck they found. With this round of BS I threatened to call the Illinois Attorney General's office. Guess what... the morons grew a brain and decided I wasn't going to roll over and play dead. After this they ended up finding another truck at another dealership that just happened to have all the options I wanted and was built the same week (been sitting somewhere 6 months) as their local truck with the same MSRP price. Again, I didn't get to see the MSRP on this truck but the morons ended up finally getting it right.
I've never spent this much time dealing with such morons as what I found at the Dodge dealership. Now I know where stupid salespeople end up... at Dodge Dealers.
I will have a brand new Silverado sitting in my driveway tomorrow morning. It is much better than the Dakota I owned for 2 months. One final point to this story: I doesn't matter what you buy as every brand has it's lemons. It's how the dealer treats you when you need help.
BTW, all thats required to be a "5 star dealer" is to have a heartbeat.
Good luck with your decision,
Dusty
Bought this leftover 2002 Dakota Club SXT auto 2WD for $14700 in May. Clock wouldn't keep proper time and radio refused to stay on programmed station. They had a new unit in a week and installed in the truck in a couple of hours.
Bookitty
Dusty
There are two parts to the store: the front end (sales) and the back end (service). A lot of dealers consider their service departments to be nothing more than a contractual obligation, and those sentiments often result in a "don't give a darn" attitude that permeates the entire service staff. There's often a lot of pressure on the service department to show a profit. They won't get rich on warranty work alone.
On the front end dealers consider this their prime. Moving inventory is what it's all about and unfortunately this often translates into motivation without discipline. That's how you get the unscrupulous tactics Bookitty was talking about.
A good dealership doesn't need to practice business in this sort of way.
Of course, every buyer is throwing the dice twice. Once in anticipation of getting good service, and another for getting a good unit. I've seen people in the past react like Lotech and be satisfied, and others regret they did what they did. Based on my experience and the experience of others, proclaiming improved satisfaction by going somewhere else may be a bit premature.
Best regards,
Dusty
Guess I've totally confused you guys eh? I can understand how buying through Daimler could cause so much confusion :-)
Well, my family has been buying cars from the same small town GM dealer for 3 generations. I went with my grandfather when he purchased his last vehicle from them many years ago.
What prompted me to buy from a stranger (O'brien Dodge) was an ad in the local paper with deals too good to pass up. I knew better but I wanted to get something in the size of a Dakota, even though I always buy GM. My wife is comfortable in our new Chevy Crew Cab after driving the Dakota Quad for 2 months. Guess you could call it a "Drivers Training Car" (LOL). Won't have to worry about what the Dodge Boys will try to pull on me next (LOL). Got an even better rebate from GM. Take care, and have fun discussing your Daimler vehicles. As for me, I'll be enjoying my new truck and not second guessing why I ever bought a Dodge in the first place.
No. I'm not confused. Didn't appreciate the implication that because I bought something you don't like my intelligence is suspect. I've owned a few GM products. I worked, in fact, for that company for a number of years. I'm very familar with the superior attitude that many Chevy owners suffer from. Really great vehicles those GMs(:-). That's why I've bought Nissan, Toyota, and Dodge lately.
As to the comment about the Chrysler loan, the US taxpayers never spent one cent. Chrysler's loan was supplied by private financing institutions and were only guaranteed by the US government. Chrysler, by the way, paid those loans back eight years and two months ahead of time.
Dusty
I get really tired of hearing this referred to as a "bailout". It is not. How many here went to college and had GSL or Stafford loans? Yes, the banks loaned the cash, but Uncle Sam was your cosigner. So, if Chrysler was "bailed out" then millions and millions of college graduates were also bailed out.
Secondly, Chrysler never went bankrupt. Close, but close only counts in horseshoes, hand gernades, and sometimes sporting clays.
On the 4.7 you need to be careful with the clips that hold the heater hoses. They are very fragile. The plastic on the hinge side is very thin, so it's definately not designed to be opened and closed several times. I broke the one on the passenger side when reinstalling it.
I suppose this is why the Saturn sale concept works for certain personality types. Give everyone the same non-confrontational deal (even if it isn't really a DEAL and the product is mediocre) and everyone is happy.
Personally I love the challenge of negotiations and have in the past made it last weeks until I felt I had gotten the best deal possible.
I also won't purchase from some dealerships but it is not because of the product but rather the "attitude" of the sales people.
I think that Dodge products are given bad press based on the previous generation of vehicles and don't accurately reflect the current state of the product.
I was raised in a Ford family, my dad would never consider any other brand and it carried over on my early purchases. I looked around and saw there were some really desirable cars made by the other guys.
I have owned and enjoyed Ford, Mercury, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Toyota, Datsun/Nissan, Honda and currently Dodge vehicles. They have all had their strengths and weaknesses but none of these strengths or weaknesses were the fault of the salesmen that I purchased the vehicles from!
Enjoy your new Silverado and hopefully it doesn't suffer from the cold startup piston slap that seems to occur in quite a few of the 5.3 V8s. Rick
Yep. Know exactly what you're talking about. I broke the same one, only I leaned on it with my arm. You just reminded me that I need to order one of those.
By the way, I was a little surprised when I removed the plugs that I saw no signs of anti-seize on the threads. Then I noticed that the service manual doesn't mention using any. I must say that the plugs weren't difficult to remove. But I used anti-seize anyway.
Best regards,
Dusty
My 1st response to the board was to advise Lotech1 to chill out and I did it in a nice manor. Several of you came to his defense as if he was acting rational. I don't know, maybe you regular contributors feel the need to be "Fatherly" toward the "Child Like" that respond here. This guy never had a problem that wasn't caused by somebody else, always got a better deal than the next guy, always sells at a profit, and now I hope is bothering everybody at a GM site. I'm ready for the response......I only hope there will be more all around productive discussion taking place. MY 2CENTS!
I now question the veracity of that person. I don't know too many people that are willing to sacrifice a big whack on depreciation with a vehicle that new and with so few miles, and give up so quickly on a otherwise good vehicle. Most people I know go on the attack and will start to make life miserable for a dealer like that, and I don't blame them.
Like a lot of people, I've come to be highly suspicious of dealer service anyway, so the product is more important to me. I might have to interface with the dealer's service department for up to three or four years, but I'm going to have to live with the product much longer. My last three vehicle were over ten years old when I replaced them.
The emphatically stated comment about being much happier with a vehicle he hadn't been in for more than a day or so, coupled with the noticeably pro-Chevy hype about how good GM was, sort of has me very suspicious, if you know what I mean.
Regards,
Dusty
started with a 87 2WD V6 which I only had for 3 years, the shortest I've ever owned a vehicle, lousy mileage. Next was a 94 4WD with the 318,
mileage was much better than the 87 V6. I had that one for 9 years, my Son is driving it now. No complaints with that truck, it still looks and runs near new. Only thing that doesn't work on it is the 2nd fan speed. Rebates and buying on the Employee plan ( my Father Inlaw retired Chrysler), helping out my son, made it time for a new truck, and the rear doors will make it easier to load ( and maybe more importantly, unload ) the Grand kids LOL. I got fairly loaded with options and so far I'm quite happy with the purchase. I'll keep checking in to read, question, and even contribute. Some of you guys seem well informed, thank you for sharing. BTW never met Mother Theresa, and now I never will, but I'm sure we would have gotten along famously.
Regards,
Dale
Dusty: Guess you run the numbers diffently than I do. Got $1,500 more than I paid for the Dakota new. Never mean't to insult your intelligence. My mistake on the wording. Good luck with your Dakota.
3rdtime: Don't need anyone to come to my defense. Watch the blood pressure eh?
You want real "service" at a dealership. Buy a Lexus and give them a try. After having our Lexus serviced there last week I almost wanted to trade my car in for a Lexus.
My check engine light came on yesterday and I flipped the key 3 times to get the P-code. It reads...
P0455 - EVAP Leak Monitor Large Leak Detected
Can anyone tell me what this means?
Thanks
2000 Club cab 4x4 Sport Plus, 3.92 rear, 5-speed, 4.7L, one ton package.
According to a co-worker, if you leave the gas cap loose on a newer Dakota you will get a malfunction lamp illumination (MIL lamp). My daughter's old Explorer would get a malfunction indication if she fueled the vehicle without shutting off the engine.
I can't find a list of diagnostic trouble codes in the 2003 Dakota service manual like I've seen in past Chrysler/Dodge books.
Regards,
Dusty
All modern vehicles (by federal law... aka OBDII) have to test for leaks in the venting system of the fuel tank. The EEC system (Evaperative Emmission Control) is supposed to store up any fumes from the gasoline while parked then feed them to the engine to be burned when the engine is running.
Imagine an underground parkinglot where all of the car fuel tanks are venting gasoline fumes into the air..... the explosion would level a city block!!
The Dakota has several tests that take place based on time, number of starts, temp. and other factors. The test we are concerned with here uses a pump located on the firewall above the engine.
This pump (heard as a ticking or thumping sound under the hood when you start your Dakota) trys to build a slight pressure in the space above the fuel in the gastank.
If pressure cannot be created then thee P0455 code is thrown. This is usually a gas cap that was not tightened according to the owners manual. (On my Dakota, a porkupine had chewed thru the fuel vent hoses and I got the P0455)
One of the other "tests" that are done is the 'pressure holding test' where the pressure in the fuel tank is checked to be able to hold for several minutes.
Bests,
Dusty
The 3 key turns should still work on the newer trucks as far as I know.
1) start with the key turned to the first click (where the steering wheel is unlocked and everything is "OFF")
2) Turn the key to the next position (the "ON" position) and back to the "OFF" position.
3) Repeat step 2
4) Turn the key to the "ON" position and leave it there.
Note: Steps 2-4 need to be a constant pattern. eg - from lock position to the off position, on, off, on, off, on
5) Look at the odometer read out for any P-codes.
Ron
I did a search on past post, I noticed you placed the bosh 4418 in your truck. Do you still like them I have a 2001 4.7 4x4 with 53k on it and was going to change the plugs, At present I dont have any noted problems just thought I would change the plugs. I did put the Gibson Cat back exhaust on and it sounds better and not much increase in cab noise.
The install was a breeze nice product.
Also does anyone have any experience with those Air type load levelers that are placed to assist springs when loaded? I am placing the IAS edelbrock shocks on as soon as they come in X 4
Thanks Jon
Bookitty
Well, they're okay. I seem to realize a slightly improved idle. Fuel consumption hasn't changed either way. When I first installed them I actually thought there was a slight decrease in performance, however that is a very subjective response. I have no way of measuring any change in performance and whatever "slight" difference I thought I felt, I don't trust my seat-of-the-pants feel.
I only have a little over 3000 miles on them, so longevity is still to be determined. Oddly, I've talked to guys who have gone 30,000 plus miles on the original Champion factory plugs and don't have a complaint. One fellow told me that he went 58,000 on the factory set and his Dakota started and ran fine.
The tips on the factory plugs at 10,000 were showing signs of erosion around the circumference of the top, typical of any ordinary plug. The gap measured a very uniform .042 on all eight plugs, which isn't really bad for a plug with that many miles.
So, bottom line. Did I get what I paid for?
I think it's to soon to tell. But I think it's fair that nothing was hurt by installing them in my 287 motor. But my results may not be typical.
Best regards,
Dusty
Ron
The only "heavy duty" option available was the one that added a power-steering cooler.
The 4.7L V8 ALWAYS has the same alternator bolted to it from the engine factory.. this is NOT part of any "heavy duty" option.
Believe me, I researched this with intensity by visiting many dealerships and looked under the hood of many dakotas on the lots. On the 4.7LV8, the radiator, alternator, battery and lots of other stuff WAS ALL THE SAME. The "heavy duty" option (in my opinion) was a big waste of $$ to just get a power steering cooler.
Perhaps, if one had the V6... the "heavy duty" option actually changed a few things.
Another Item I looked at was the "rear end" (aka rear differential) The "heavy duty" option did not always include the 12-bolt rear end. (some "heavy duty" vehicles had the 10-bolt differential cover)
Dakota sales catalog obtained from dealer April 2000, page 26, under "Options": "Heavy-Duty Service Group - 136-amp alternator [vs. standard 117-amp], 750-amp battery [vs. standard 600-amp], and maximum engine cooling"
bpeebles: "The 4.7L V8 ALWAYS has the same alternator bolted to it from the engine factory.. this is NOT part of any "heavy duty" option."
Monroney Label from 2000 QC 4.7 in my driveway: "Optional Equipment...Alternator - 136 Amp" [part of Sport Plus Group vs. standard 117-amp].
Them's the facts; all else is opinion.
AHC - Tow package $234
ADJ - HD Elelctrial 136 amp Altr. $102
NMC - HD Cooling $51 (my truck is a stick)
There must be some difference!
ADJ - HD Elelctrial 136 amp Altr. $102
NMC - HD Cooling $51
My actual "under the hood research" showed me that the 4.7L ALWAYS had the 136Amp alternator installed. I was not about to pay $102 for an upgraded battery!!
Perhaps somone with the 4.7L but WITHOUT the ADJ option can look at their alternator? >
The NMC option was simply a PowerSteering cooler. (with the automatic tranny, this also added a tranny cooler... but I have the NV3500 tranny)
The factory computer system may 'split out' these options on the window sticker and show additional cost... but after I did my "under the hood research", I realized what options ADJ and NMC were all about.
BTW (ferous) I beleive the AHC option included the ADJ and NMC. (cant get one without the others)
Again, keep in mind that I researched the constraints and inclusions of the option groups. I am very aware of the available options and how they 'meshed' with the other option groups. Some options are not available with with some others or MUST be included some others.
(For example, the LSD was a manditory option if one orderd the 4.7L V8 and the manual tranny)
According to my 2003 Dakota brochure, the implication is that the 136 amp alternator is standard equipment on all Dakotas. My search of the on-line inventory of Marina Dodge in Webster, NY, seems to reinforce that as well as each Dakota they list, regardless of engine or trim level, lists the 136 amp as standard.
The 2003 service manual, however, indicates that 117 amp (pn 56028692AA for 4.7 and 56028914AA for 3.9/5.9) was equiped on some models.
It also looks like all Dakotas get the 600 AH battery unless equiped with trailer towing package, which then gets the 750 AH.
My 2003 DOES NOT have the ADJ option, and I do have the 136 amp alternator.
Regards,
Dusty
If one could FIND a stripped down, 2WD, 4cylinder Dakota... it would perhaps have somthing less than the 136 amp alternator.
Do not forget that part way thru the 2000 model year, the dakota saw quite a bit of 'cheepening' such as the spare was NOT mounted to an aluminimum wheel that matches all of the others on the truck. (mine does!) Also the underhood insulation was not installed in later 2000 Dakotas. The 'air baffle' was not installed on the side of the radiator....etc
My 2000 Dak was built in November of 1999 and has ALL of the items that were deleted from the build list when the 'cheepining' process began.
My 2003 is a fairly quiet vehicle. I hear very, very little engine sound except for the exhaust note. At reasonable highway speeds wind noise is almost non-existent. The vast majority of the noise I do hear is from the Goodyear Wranglers. This noise is coming in through the cab vents that are located in the cab's rear bulkhead in front of the box.
I've been in other Daks that didn't have anywhere near the tire noise than mine has so I've been attributing it to the Wranglers. But then I noticed that the service manual shows a rubber gasket that attaches to the bottom of the cab's rear bulkhead. I'm thinking that this is a sound block to prevent under body noise from reaching the cab vents.
I haven't noticed the underhood insulation on other Dakotas. I'm going to check that out.
Regards,
Dusty
Jim T (in the Quad discussion) was correct on the disc brake explanation. Dakotas with a GVW over 5440 lbs. get rear disc brakes.
According to the parts list for 2003, there was no 2.5 4-cylinder engine offered in the Dakota. But previous years listed a 117 amp alternator as standard. Here is where it starts to get a little murky. It appears that the 117 was the standard alternator from 2000 and up, and the Dodge parts database does list the 117 for a 4.7. However, the 136 amp appears to be standard if the vehicle was equiped with factory air conditioning. Since more than 90% of Dakotas built since '97 were shipped with AC, it makes sense that the 136 amp alternator is what you'd see on a 4.7.
2000 Dakotas had a number of little items that were dropped in 2001. The box noise seal I mentioned in my earlier post was dropped in 2001, the underhood silencer and engine bay lamp were dropped in 2002 as were the engine emblems and the black tape filler between the door and rear quarter window on Club Cabs. In 2003 they dropped the "Sport" decals on the side of the door.
Regards,
Dusty
it was a 2000 club cab with a build date of 12/19/1999.
The 117 amp Denso alternator was standard.
The 2003 Dakota service manual does appear to list them.
Thanks in advance,
Dusty