| Subject: |
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The life story of my experience with a 2001 Dodge Cummins |
| Name: |
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GaryO |
| Date Posted: |
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Oct 29, 07 - 4:42 PM |
| IP Address: |
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76.1.1.35 |
| Email: |
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gwo1988@yahoo.com |
| Message: |
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Bought new in May of 2001 with my Chrysler employee discount. I wanted to help the company who started having hard times financially by buying a new truck. Later Chrysler, sold the plant I worked at. I was lead to believe that this was the best truck on the planet that would last a long time.
3 months of owning truck, truck mysteriously died on a camping trip.
30,000 miles, track bar wore out
42,000 miles, track bar wore out again
replaced it with a Moog track bar.
then I had rust repair done on the time, a 2 year old garage kept truck waxed with 3 coats of Meguiars.
60,000 Front brakes shot, track bar shot again. This time upgraded to a 3 generation track bar and added steering box stabilizer. Lift pump died, truck was never the same fuel mileage dropped like a lead balloon.
Truck got where it wouldn't start unless I pumped it.
About 80,000 miles replaced track bar with an adjustable track bar.
90,000 brakes shot again, injection pump died, non greasable ball joints shot, Axle u-joints replaced, trailing arm bushings replaced. Truck had less power than it did before the injection pump replacement.
147,000 miles. Replaced lift pump because the old one was getting weak due to this wonderful ultra low sulfer diesel that jelled (first time I had a gelling issue) Replaced the injectors because I suspected they got burnt because of the lift pump/injection pump failure, added gauges, added high rise intake and bigger exhaust manifold to lower the egt's because of the RV injectors were added to increase fuel mileage because big oil is raping us. Rust repair again.
Replaced over priced wheel bearing front hubs.
But I still had this clanking noise in the front end, replaced front brakes again. Still there. Bushings in track bar were bad and the u-joints in the axles were shot. Non greasable Ball joints showing wear again.
Hazards mysteriously would not flash, door locks quit working once and the instrument cluster is flashing at me for no reason. At this point I nicknamed the truck "Jennifer", it was sending me mixed signals and I have no idea why or what it means.
Broke flag nut trying to get the bolt out to change track bar bushings, got mad threw the wrench across the garage, punched the truck and logged onto internet posted it for sale on Wednesday, gone on Sunday.
If you have deep pockets, a wide array of speciality tools and mechanical apptitude or a good mechanic, buy one. If not, buy something else.
The one thing Chrysler is known for is bad transmissions. This one however gave me no problems.
My 98 Ram with a 360 I saw a month ago. The truck has a lot more miles, and beaten and has not given the owner any problems. The bottoms of my doors and tailgate on my 86 beater truck are perfect.
This is a prime example of why automakers make bad cars and trucks (and yes I mean perfect little Toyota and Honda too) and before someone blames it on a lazy union worker, this truck was made in Mexico who has a higher quality rating than the St Louis plant. My old 98 was built in St. Louis by a union worker. I was one repair away from bankruptcy with this thing.
My 95 Ram 1500 was in the shop 13 times in 9 months. I won't dive into that story, but thats how I ended up with the 98. Hindsight is 20/20. I should have kept the 98.
This truck was the third disappointment in my life, the first was a woman, the second was a 95 Ram and the third was this truck. Let me add a 4th, the idiot who invented non greaseable ball joints.
Gary |
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