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Pickups Dodge Ram Dodge Ram: Problems & Solutions 
3275 messages, Last post on Oct 18, 2006 at 8:20 PM
You are in the Dodge Ram Forum. Your Host is kcram
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Ever since I bought my '99 Dodge V10, 4x4 (new) I have been very pleased with the performance. I have one "major" problem though and that is with the brakes. I have replaced the front pads on this baby every 20K miles (I currently have 84K on it) and this last time I had to replace the shoes on the back....I'm not really complaining about the back brakes since this compares to the Fords I've driven previously (over 25 years experience with them..) Am I the only Dodge owner (again, this may be related to the fact that it is a V10, 3/4 Ton) who thinks the braking system (front wheels) were copied from a small KIA, or Honda? (Oh yes, the obvious thought would be to question my driving habits, but I assure you I do not ride the brakes, and all my trailers have their own brakes except for my boat trailer, plus I only pull trailers approx. 2 times a week, the rest is "normal" city street driving. |
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| Dodge has been known for "small" brakes for some time. They did correct I believe in 2001 when they received 4 wheel discks. Anyhow, if you have the rear brakes adjusted the fronts will last longer. The "self-adjusters" on the rear brakes don't work. | |
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I haven't jumped on board the Ram 1500 band wagon just yet. I have heard too many horror stories about the Dodge transmissions. I REALLY like the new 1500 Quad Cab 4wd, but am a little gun shy because of the tranny. Has anyone had issues/experience with the new 1500's transmission? Thanks David |
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I have had a Dodge/Chrysler product for 23 of the past 26 yrs. Most have had minor problems like mirrors falling off, pwr. door lock malfunctions etc. But the 2002 Ram has pushed me to the limit. Theres a ticking sound from under the hood, one dealer says it origintes from the vacuum canister and nothing can be done. The dealer that I purchased the veh. from cannot hear anything. The truck has shut off 2x while at traffic lights, and I get 10 -12 mpg on the highway. My truck is at the Dodge dealership as we speak for repair. The dealership suggest that I let them drive my truck for 200 -300 miles and I'll have to buy the gas. Of course I refused to pay for the gas. The service mgr. tried to convince me that the sticker states that the truck should get 11 mpg.. When we looked at a sticker it stated 17-22 mpg hwy. Of course the back peddling started. I'm so busy venting that I probably didn't mention how much I love the owning the truck. But the dealership that I'm dealing w/ sure will try to make a person feel dumb. |
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David, I have talked to various transmission repair people. I have one, in fact, in the family. The consensus is that Dodge truck automatic failures were rarely seen until Dodge began using an overdrive system. These would be the A-518 and A-618 units and the time frame for trouble extends from 1985 through 1994 and the newer 45 & 46RE transmissions. During this time frame there were several complaints about delayed engagements and shifts on these transmissions. It was determined that this problem was caused by ATF siphoning out of the torque converter after shutdown and was predominantly a problem in cold weather climates. Chrysler addressed this problem by field retrofitting a "drain back valve" in the transmission cooling return line. This prevented ATF from draining out of the torque converter. However, the drainback valve inserted a new problem, that being that it was easily clogged or sometimes became frozen closed in extremely low temperatures which cut off fluid to the transmission. I have been told that in as many as 50% of Dodge truck transmission repairs all that was done was remove this drain back valve from the cooling line. In others, a complete drainback valve replacement was performed. Other Dodge truck transmission related problems appear to be the result of some solenoids in the electronic versions that either stick or fail, and an even smaller percentage related to corroded or faulty electrical wiring to these solenoids. Another problem is the use of the incorrect transmission fluid. Dodge specifies a "7176" ATF which contains special anti-friction modifiers. Use of MERCON 4 or 5, which is commonly used in Dodge truck transmissions, will lead to failure. I was told by one transmission shop that Dodge truck transmissions rarely fail because of catastrophic component failure, but more from contaminated ATF, either from lack of maintenance or severe duty use such as snow plowing. Indeed, the Consumers Report data shows more trouble for the Dodge 4x4. GMs, for example, have several hard failures such clutch desintegration, output shaft wear, seal failures and sun gears breaking. Fords have a multitude of seal problems. As I read posts from others on the GMs or Ford's F-series I have noted a fair amount of transmission related woes as well. I also note that the vast majority of so-called "reports" of bad Dodge truck transmission comes people who don't own a Dodge. Now regarding Consumers Reports (CR), there are several things that need to be understood about the data. First, the CR data reflects what is reported by owners, supposedly based on actual experience. Second, the reporting form used by CR asks to list "problem areas." Thus the input from these forms is only a reflection of a PROBLEM as defined by the person filling out the form. It is not an indicator of the severity of a problem, or whether there was actually a problem at all. In this respect a simple noise caused by a loose transmission cooling line will have the same gravity as a complete transmission failure. It is this area that, in my opinion, has gotten Dodge trucks the so-called "black marks" in past CR data. Upon inspection of the Dodge truck TSBs I noticed the vast majority addressed non-debilitating issues, such as noise or erratic shifts. Ambiguousness in the CR reporting method doesn't stop there. The so-called "black mark" method is highly inaccurate. Consumers Reports rates by the little circle method that represents a percentage RANGE of reported problems per 100 vehicles: full red = 2.0%; half red = 2.0 to 5.0%; no color (white) = 5.0% to 9.3%; half black = 9.3% to 14.8%; and full black = more than 14.8% (you will note a statistical overlap). J.D. Power, Runtzheimer and others base their quality reports on the number of problems per 100 vehicles. However, CR does not report the actual number of problems as most people think, but the deviation from AVERAGE reported problems, represented in percentage. So because of the ambiguious method that CR uses and without knowing the actual numerical figure of problems reported per 100 vehicles, it is possible that one vehicle with 9.3 problems reported per 100 vehicles will get a solid white (average) rating, while another with 9.31 problems will get the terrible half-black circle. But the actual difference would be less than one-half of a vehicle per 1000 vehicles. Still another problem. The CR transmission data does not differentiate between manual and automatic. So it is impossible to know which transmission is driving the reported problem number. For that matter, there are six different transmissions used across the RAM line. I have now talked to about 40 Dodge truck owners and I have had only two report that they have had a transmission problem of any type. One was a "failure" on 1994 RAM 4x4. The other was a Dakota manual transmission. The RAM 4x4 was operated by snow plow owner who admitted that he did not perform the routine 25,000 mile fluid changes. The Dakota owner reported poor shifting when cold and a rattle noise. Chrysler significantly addressed long term reliability problems with the "RE" series in 1998. Most of the changes enhanced fluid flow during overdrive operation. The newer 45RFE is a different design and is being reported as extremely reliable. If you get a 4.7 in a RAM 1500, it will likely be the 45RFE. Good Luck, Dusty
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It seems that you are knowledgeable about Tranny's so here is a question that hopefully you can shed some light on for me!! My 02 QC 4.7L(auto 45RFE) after about 7000 miles seemed to shutter after coming to a stop with the truck still in drive and my foot on the brake. Not a constant shutter but a kin to the vibrations you would get if a large truck would pull up next to you. Also started to notice that when the sutter happens the RPM's are at 500 with slight fluctuations down. Only seems to happen after the engine is a operating temperature. Also when this occurs if you stop and put the truck into reverse you get the "normal" solenoid sound followed by a brief grind of the gears. Only when going into reverse. The dealer put a DBR on the truck and said that the engine hit all targeted RPM's however it was in the shop and not up to temperature. Dealer said that sound heard was the solenoid, went back to reproduce sound for Service Manager and he would like the tranny guy to listen to the sound on Wednesday. Could there be a link to the low RPM's and the gear noise. And which should I address first. The dealer stated that once the test shows everything ok that they are not there to trace my problems and to drive it until the "annoyance" becomes more of a problem. Thanks For your Help. Tom |
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02 Quad 45rfe 4.7. When I slide her into reverse I hear a moderately loud clunk. I am not mechanically inclined but a friend said it sounded like the "knuckles" were loose in the rear end. Now, I damned sure don't want to be riding around town with loose knuckles! Whatever. I would never have noticed it but now that I have, it concerns me. The transmission has a small hesitation after being placed into drive. I did not expect this truck to react to inputs like an Accord. 8000 miles into this and I am a very satisfied owner. Dusty-Should I be concerned? |
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| Both conditions sound normal. The clunk you hear is the gears in the rear end taking up the "lash" or in simpler terms the gap between the pinion and the gear. The hesitation when you place the tranny in drive is the time it takes for the fluid to be directed through the proper channels and start the output shaft turning | |
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Sorry, I am far from an authority on the inner workings of an automatic transmission. My automotive experience is induction and fuel delivery systems and engines, ex-GM certified engine technician. Never got involved with power delivery systems. Most of my knowledge is from some years in the repair business or reading. I just happen to be doing a little research on the subject of transmission reliability. First, Lariat1 is correct that a certain degree of "clunk" is normal. This varies by design and manufacturing tolerances of both the differential and the auto transmission. As I recall Chrysler products of old did this more than any other car or truck and I don't remember seeing any axle failures on them. A tight set of side gears and close ring & pinion mesh can actually cause more trouble. "Knuckles" is an ambiguious term to me since there are steering knuckles, and it is a very old term for U-joints on 4x4s. Too high of an engine idle speed or incorrectly set throttle pressure at the transmission can cause or aggravate this symptom. Too loose of a ring & pinion gear mesh in the differential will also cause this as well as slop in the pinion bearings. I would try to find other examples of vehicles similiar to yours and see if there is any difference. It could be that both the axle components and transmission are at the extreme ends of their manufacturing tolerances. Good luck with your dealer. I'm not sure about your problem, Peppe1. Transmission shudder is usually the result of a problem in the torque converter. We had two replaced in our Chevy van, although the second one failed in a different manner. My daughter's Ford Explorer has had two torque converters replaced with the same symptoms as you've got. However, to the best of my knowledge the Chrysler 45RFE doesn't have a torque converter failure history. In fact, older Dodge transmission problems related to shudder were most often associated with expired ATF or, even more commonly, the wrong ATF. Still, I seem to recall some Dakota/Durangos having a similiar problem, but I'm not sure which transmission (could be the 45RE versions) and they may be related to the torque converter solenoid sticking. I'm afraid I'm not much help to you on this one. Regards, Dusty |
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Hello all, I have a 2002 1500 ram quad cab with the 4.7l and auto tranny. I am very pleased with my new ram that i got in sept 01, trading in a 96 1500 club cab with a 5.9L and auto tranny. I read a few messages here and have had some of the same problems. I have taken all my problems in and have had all of them fixed except one, and this is with the transmission. Since day one when the engine is warm, the a/c is off, and usually after driving at highway speeds and coming to stoplights the engine would pull down to about 300RPM and idle roughly. It never died until about 7000 miles when my wife was driving it. A week later it died on me in stop and go driving. I took it to the dealer and had their tech ride with me (this was back in feb). He had his DRB plugged into the computer and checked all parameters. The problem appeared and he could find nothing wrong with the engine. This prompted a call to Chyrsler Engineering and I returned my vehicle to them for four days so they could look at it. When I picked it back up the Trans filter/oil had been replaced and a TSB on updating the PCM had been accomplished. My service adviser had told me that the engineers believe the problem is coming from an engagement of the lock-up torque converter. ( this new tranny 45rfe is designed to lockup with a loss of pressure instead of pressure being used to apply it) They believed the problem was due to low pump output. This halfway fixed my problem. It has not died and now has 9500 miles. But it will still occassionally idle rough and pull down to 350-400 RPM. I tried the "lock up theory" out. When it started to pull down I put the tranny in N and it immediately cleared up. The service advisor has told me the Engineers are working this problem and are fairly confident that it is in the computer program. I check back in every month to see if they have the fix. Hope this helps out some who have this problem and confirms the same problem happening with others. Mine has only happened when: The engine is warm Has been operated at highway speed and then into stop and go traffic The A/C is NOT on. Also there was a discussion when at low speeds the tranny slips or bangs. The service advisor had said that most new chrysler auto trannies would do this because they are "confused" for a short period of time. Mine has done this when coasting through stoplights, making a turn (slowing to between 10 and 30MPH) and then getting on the throttle. It "bangs" (not hard, but harsher than normal) into the proper gear (usually to downshift to second instead of staying in third). He assured me that this is "normal" and no harm will come from it. I apologize for the length of this message, but hopefully it is a balance between enough info and brevity. |
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