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Dodge Dakota: Problems & Solutions
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Comments
Ron
I could only wish they were covered $$$$):
Truck is always cleaned promptly after returning from the beach ( promptly being within 48 hours, usually within 2 hours ) - but it is hard to believe that I've gotten it PERFECTLY cleaned each time.
Sometime in the last year the clutch pedal has started to induce a wrong sound - a squeal or a squeek - but only when it is dry / warm. Totally silent and smooth freshly cleaned, or if it's raining. Do some downtown driving in hot/dry weather and then it starts.
It's a pretty significant should, louder outside the truck than inside, and I can feel a friction induced into the pedal motion that makes it much harder to balance the truck on the clutch on an incline or similar.
I'm concerned something significant it wearing out, but having a hard time getting my mainteance shop to pinpoint it ... it's not the kind of thing they'll see if I drop the truck in the AM fork pickup in the PM.
So, I'm wondering, any words of wisdom for the experienced out there?
I'm concerned that something is getting worn out in a bad way, from lefover sand or rock, or just salt-spray exposure.
Thanks in advance,
-t
Does the sound seem to be louder under the hood? Or is it more like from UNDER the vehicle?
The answer to these questiions will help us guide you to a better diagnosis.
(I think I know what it is but would prefer to wait until you answer the above questions.)
BTW: The throwout bearing is only spinning with the clutch PUSHED-IN and the engine IS running. If you are hearing this "squeek" when the engine is NOT running, then it is somthing else.
Toadmantim
With that many miles on it there are a number of things it could be. I'm intriqued by the fact that water or moisture has a positive impact on this noise. My first guess would've been either the clutch release bearing or the release fork. Both are inside the bell housing...sorry, clutch housing, and as such are more difficult to get wet from anything but extremely forceful spraying action.
Since you are feeling some kind of resistance or change in the mechanical operation of the clutch pedal, you're reasonable sure the noise is eminating from outside the vehicle, and water has an effect, I'm thinking that it might be the operating rod on the clutch slave cylinder. If it is the clutch slave cylinder is replaceable without breaking into the clutch housing. In addition, on Dakotas I've seen this as the most commonly replaced item at high mileage for the inconsistent resistance symptom that you've mentioned.
Suggestion. With the engine off and the emergency brake applied, have someone operate the clutch pedal while you are underneath the vehicle. The hydraulic clutch line goes into the left side of the clutch housing (driver's side). Hold onto to this line while the pedal is being depressed and see if you can feel anything.
Let us know what you find out.
Best regards,
Dusty
My '99 dakota has 70,000 miles and the speedometer went out, in turn the , the ABS light came on AND the red brake lamp. The problem turned out to be the speed sensor valve, mounted on the rear differential housing. What really sucks is that you might think you can do without the speedometer for awhile, but when the ABS light comes on,it's telling you that it automatically turned itself off. Better not slam on your breaks!
Sound definitely louder outside the vehicle than inside - under hood or standing next to vehicle.
Dustyk: I'll try to get a friend to help me out on that score, not truly knowing my way around the "guts" may slow this down though.
I do appreciate all help gang, sound is driving me nutz and it's one of those things that is hard to make happen in the morning when I can usually get to my service dude.
-t
- Fram trans filter
- 6qt C+ ATF
- 1, 3oz tube RTV silicone (see concerns below)
- Roll of extra fine sand paper
- BOB
I have a couple concerns. One is what do I do about the gasket/seal. BOB and one auto parts store said to clean and reuse the existing rubber gasket, but the dealership and another auto parts store said not to reuse the gasket, and only use silicone sealant(that's why I bought it). Do I buy a new rubber gasket? Who is right (pertaining to best practice, not what is possible)? This leads to my second concern, silicone sealer scares me. I have had bad experiences in the past with head gaskets that seemed to never seal using silicone. If I use only the silicone, how big of a bead? Do I apply to both pan and body? Do I apply the bead and let it set before assembly? How long do I let it set?
Thanks,
Gordon
Now most of the aftermarket transmission filters I've used for Chrysler products come with a gasket. Using a gasket has a slight isolation affect from noise, but I think you'll need an instrument to detect the difference. If your leary of using RTV, using the gasket is not a wrong thing to do. Just unnecessary.
The obvious disadvantage with using a gasket is the potential for a leak, and in my opinion, more than a likely thing. If you're going to change the filter every 20,000 miles, it probably isn't a problem since you'll be removing the pan and reinstalling a new gasket before a significant leak occurs.
Other problems with using a gasket is distorting the flange on the oil pan from improper or over tightening. Also, once at their correct torque, ATF will have a deteriorating effect on all but the very best gasket materials, causing the gasket to swell and soften. Then after a while you will notice that the oil pan bolts apperar loose or not at correct torque specification.
In my opinion RTV is the best way to seal the transmission pan. I use the Mopar RTV sealant. I've found that it applies and cures better. In a pinch I've use Permatex "Ultra Black Hi-Temp RTV Silicone Gasket Maker," number 598B. I would highly recommend NOT using the Permatex "Black Silicone Adhesive Sealant," number 16B.
After you've dropped the fluid, clean the oil pan carefully. Believe it or not I use a strong liquid dish soap and hot water. Scrape all of the old RTV off of the flange surfaces of the transmission and the oil pan. Re-wash the pan. You can use a strong solvent to soften the old RTV if you're impatient. But I would then soap and water wash, then dry with a clean towel.
Run a 1/4 inch bead all around the flange on the oil pan in a line that intersects the centerline of each bolt hole. Make sure that there is a quantity of RTV that completely goes around both sides of each bolt hole. Set the pan aside. Depending on the ambient temperatures, wait approximately 5-10 minutes before reinstalling the oil pan. You want the RTV to be at a semi-congealed state. It must be pliable enough to reform itself. If it gels to a non-tacky state, you'll have to start over.
The tricky part is getting the flange on the transmission clean. ATF will want to drip out of the transmission for about four days (just kidding, of course), leaving several areas constantly wet with ATF. What I do is get the oil pan ready and wipe the transmission flange with a solvent filled cloth. Before ATF can start dripping again and running over the surface of the transmission flange somewhere, I quickly reinstall the oil pan, having several bolts at the ready.
Because I'm basically anal, I wait an hour sometimes to allow the ATF so reduce dripping. This makes it easier and I've always got something else to do around the shop or yard that can divert my attention.
Anyway, once you get some bolts started just install the rest and torque to 105 inch pounds. Allow the pan to sit in place approximately one-half hour then you can refill.
Best regards,
Dusty
I started hearing the noise intermittently a few weeks ago. We've had extremely wet weather lately. At 27077 miles the noise is there all the time now.
So at 19 months this is my first reason to take it back to Dodge.
Dusty
~400 miles and no leaks, and the truck sat at the airport for a week.
Everything went smoothly, just really time consuming. I slowly dropped the trans pan by unscrewing the rear screws first, allowing the fluid to drain from the back of the pan while I worked in the yard. After I had unscrewed all the screws at the rear and all the screws along the sides, leaving the front screws only 1/4 loosened, I still felt like there was too much fluid to drop the whole pan, so I stuck a tube down into the pan and siphoned a lot more fluid out. I was then able to hold the pan while taking out the front screws, and although I had drained most of the fluid, I still splashed a little while lowering the pan. I had the front of the truck jacked up, so I replaced seven qts of fluid, and I have to buy one more qt.
The diff's were easy to drain, but the front was a pain in the rear because of the limited space to loosen the bolts. After finally getting the frt cover off and cleaning the old sealant off, I practiced re-assembling the cover to the diff, pretending it had RTV on it and tried not to touch anything. I couldn't do it because of tight space and the vacuum hose nozzle. I ended up taking a hammer to the nozzle and turning it to a more vertical position. After practising a few more times with the nozzle in the new position, I felt comfortable enough to apply the RTV and attach the cover. It when right on without touching any surfaces. I curse (my neighbors can testify) engineers that package things inaccessibly when they are supposed to be routinely maintained. The rear diff was easy.
Re-filling the diff's was challenging. Anybody have a trick?
Besides the accessibility of the frt diff cover, I found the biggest pain was removing the old RTV sealant.
I still have to add up the receipts to find out how much I saved, if anything, by changing the fluids myself. I had a few capital expenses such as a torque wrench and the service manual that I will try to bake into the cost for a one time pay back.
Next is the xfer case, brake rotors and pads.
Gordon
I found refilling the rear diff is not a big deal because of the large amount of clearance around and above it.
QUESTION: How much 'gunk' did you actually get out of each of the gearcases? (was it really worth all the trouble of breaking the seals on the diffs rather than sucking it out?)
Ron
However, in my opinion, and please tell me if I am wrong, but in the future I plan on replacing my front diff fluid less often than the rear now that I have removed the cover completely and removed almost all the gunk (possibly only sucking out the old oil). If you do not use 4wd very often, is it necessary to change the front diff as often as the rear, and now that I have redline oil in the diff's, how often should I change fluid?
If you do not use 4wd very often, is it necessary to change the front diff as often as the rear?
The front differential is ALWAYS engauged and churning the gears as the vehicle moves. The only disenguagement that occours is in the xfer case so the front axle is freewheeling. (It is not like the old days where each wheel is disenguaged and the front diff does not move.)
now that I have redline oil in the diff's, how often should I change fluid? I do not plan to EVER change my fluids again now that I have RedLine in there. I do verify the levels once in a while.
To others, as far as front and rear axle fluid changing, you guys must have a lot of time on your hands. Unless it gets contaminated or low, I would never mess with it. I had a '78 Ford F-100 that had the original rear end in it when it was totaled last year, Dad bought it new and I bought it from him in '86, had over 220,000 miles w/ no rearend problems and my father in laws '82 Ram had the original fuid in the rear when he sold it (nearly 200,000 miles). How many people people have their trucks that long? I guess if its easy enough to do, go for it but I do not plan on doing anything other than checking the level.
I helped a friend of mine a few weeks ago change the rear axle fluid on his GMC. At 15,400 miles he had evidence of a chipped tooth, a fair amount of metal grit and filings (not a limited slip). If nothing else he now knows to keep an eye on it.
Best regards,
Dusty
According to my wife, I will have my truck for a looong time, and that's ok, but since I know that, I want to keep it well maintained. I also put ~30k on it a year, so I want to make sure it lasts said period (long) of time. I could have taken it in to a shop, but I'm a little adventurous and fortunately it turned out ok.
I didn't notice any metal chips, just dark in color. Boy does that oil stink.
I didn't notice anything wrong with the trans fluid, but the magnet was caked. When I first looked at the pan, I really thought I was in trouble, because I thought it was a chuck of the tranny, but then I remembered the magnet.
I'm going to change the plugs this weekend. I think I will go with the Bosch Platinum Plus. When changing the plugs, should I run any fuel system cleaner? Before or after changing the plugs?
Thanks,
Gordon
Ron35
The B schedule maintenance for the new Dodge Ram has you changing the differential fluid every 15,000 miles and is spec'd as synthetic 75W140. That is really overkill and tells me that there is some underlying problem if it has to be changed that often. Rick
regards to all. cookie
Within the first 8000 miles on my '03 4.7 auto Dakota I started to get a slight bumpy idle periodically. This would come and go and, as it turned out, was predominantly a cold weather thing. I installed new Bosch 4418 Platinum+4s at 10711 miles and at first thought the bumpy idle thing had gone away, but it later returned once or twice.
When the weather turned warmer I threw in some injector cleaner and I did notice a slight difference in idle quality. I've since repeated the injector treatment again. With the exception of yesterday the idle has been very good and stable for the last 15,000 miles or so. I installed a new air filter and cleaned the Idle Air Control Motor plunger at 20K and the gas mileage on mine has been averaging 18.06 for the last ten tanks.
The intermittent bumpy idle thing is directly linked to a drop in the idle speed. I'm not sure what causes this. For a while I was suspecting that the engine computer was sensing an erratic injector, but I'm really not sure.
Best regards,
Dusty
I have not experienced low, rough or bumpy idle, but I have been experiencing lower mpg. I drive mostly highway miles with an average between 19.5 to 20 mpg. For the passed three to four weeks, I have averaged around 17 to 17.5 mpg. I changed the plugs on Sunday, replacing stock with Bosch Plat +2, because I was worried about some peoples results with the +4's. Before changing the plugs, I added fuel injector cleaner at the last fill-up. Today, on the way to work (58miles), I was back up to 20+ mpg at an average speed of 75mph with some higher passing speeds. I will have to continue to monitor.
I have read that some people have increased their MPG after replacing their fluids with high end synthetics, but I didn't notice any positive results after switching to red line. My MPG stayed around 17 to 17.5 until I changed the plugs and ran the injector cleaner.
Any other maintenance tricks I can do to keep my MPG up? I do have a tonneau cover, red line in diff's and trans, Bosch +2, K&N air filter.
Next maintenance project is to overhaul the brakes. Replacing the front rotors, pads, and possibly draining/replacing brake fluid.
Gordon
I used a suction pump to pull out the lube before I pulled the cover plate. I put the used lube in a clear plastic container. I held the container up to the light and it looked like it was really clean. No particles settled into the bottom of the container.
Once I pulled the cover and got the last 1/2 cup or so all over me I inspected the insides. I found maybe a teaspoon of dark gray gunk on the magnet. I'm assuming it was metallic rather than material from the LSD clutches as it was only on the magnet.
The contact pattern on the ring gear looked good. Full contact the width and centered top to bottom on the teeth.
I bought the manual specified sealer and found it to be a different color than the factory sealer. The new stuff was light gray and the factory looked like red Georgia clay.
It scraped off pretty good with a plastic putty knife and I finished up with what looked like a tooth brush with stainless steel bristles.
I wiped the insides out with a clean lintfree cloth and cleaned the cover and contact surface on the differential with lacquer thinner. I put the sealer on the cover and installed it torquing the bolts to about 30 ftlbs.
We had a family get together to go to so we took the wife's car and let the sealer set up overnight.
The following day I put the 75W140 Redline synthetic lube into the rear and test drove with no problems and so far no leaks.
The Redline contained said no limited slip additive was required and I did not use any.
Based on my inspection of the rear end and the condition of the old lube I think next time I will just suction out the old stuff and put in new without pulling the cover.
Now I've got 15,000 miles to decide if I want to tackle the lube change for the transmission. Rick
I would not consider your description very serious and would just keep an eye on it for now.
cause=insufficient or excessive vapor flow detected during evaporative system operation. this the same old gas cap problem &related solonoid etc. we have changed every thing out 2 times now, so i am really baffeled.
regards cookie parkes
It is the dealers problem and dime.
You should insist that they pay for a loner vehicle until they have it fixed.
regards &later COOKIE
Has anyone experience this problem?
BTW, I misrepresented my MPG. I average 19.5 to 20mpg on highway only, which, recently declined to 17 to 17.5. I am now back up to ~20mpg on highway only.
P0441 codes are usually te result of a open vapor return line on Dakotas. There are two different systems used on newer Dakotas: the standard system which uses a Leak Down Pump, and a On-board Refueling Vapor Recovery (ORVR) system.
Refer to the VECI label that is attached to the underside of the hood. This will schematically show you routing of the hoses going from the fuel tank to the vapor canister and other system components. Check these hoses. A very common problem are these rubber hoses becoming cracked, rendering the evaporative system essentially inoperative. This causes a P0441 code.
Yes, a defective gas cap can do this, too, but the hoses disintegrating is a common enough problem that I'm surprized your dealer technical staff isn't aware of this.
Best regards,
Dusty
Best regards,
This applies to late 2002 through 2004 Dakotas and Durangos.
Regards,
Dusty
i now know how to bring up the fault codes and to clear the ecm without going to the dealer, saving some money.
regards &later cookie
You will remove all "learning" that your onboard computer has done. The engine may run pretty crappy and stall for several hundred miles. (every time the ambient temperture changes...it will have to "learn" how to idle agian)
Also, If you have an automatic xmission, it may shift rough for awhile.
The only front suspension issues I have heard about are the BALL JOINTS which can be replaced with MOOG brand units with grease nipples.