04 Dakota Pricing and Quality Questions

From : mike

Q: i dont think that the type of glass that he needs can be cut so easily. -- if at first you dont succeed youre not cut out for skydiving would not a glass shop cut you a piece anyone have a factory rear slider for a 2k dakota they want to get rid of ill actually take the center slider piece if the rest is bad... my center class cracked and the local junk yards dont have anything that new. sean rec.bicycles.marketplace .

Replies:

From : dan j s

on tue 14 dec 2004 175359 -0700 miles nope@nopers.com wrote you buy what suits your own particular needs. i drive where there are alot of steep mountain grades. the v8 doesnt struggle as hard. i also tow so the v8 works better for me. as far as mpg goes i have not seen that the v6 gets all that much better in the rams. dont know about the dakotas. from what ive seen miles the v-6 gets about 1 mpg better than the 4.7l... my guess is that in town it might get a bit more that the 8 but on grades etc. id think that the v-6 would be working harder and using more gas .

From : Annonymous

ive ruled out the direct correlation to the fan it seems that it was just coincidence because if i have the fan on high while trying to the start the truck all behaviors remain consistent. also if i turn the fan on high immediately after the truck starts it will still run for the 30 seconds or so. i happened to be turning the fan on before at about the 30 second mark thus drawing the wrong conclusion that the fan was causing the stall. the problem appears to be directly related to temps below 40 degrees f. once i get it started it will run for about 30 seconds then stall out. then i can start it again it will run for 30 seconds +/- 10 seconds then stall. by about the fourth or fifth start i can slowly give it throttle bring it up to about 2000 to 2500 rpms and let it get warm. during this warm up period the rpms will drop in 1/2 every 5 seconds then it will surge back up. the longer it runs the less frequent and dramatic the surges. after about three minutes running at 2000 rpms everything is fine and she purrs like a kitten. the key to getting it up to that 2000 rpm mark is to give it throttle very slowly. if i try to gun it the truck dies immediately like its just not getting enough gas or is getting too much air. sensor problem vacuum leak if a vacuum leak why does it go away after warm up as always i appreciate everyones help and insight. jason .

From : j haggerty

i have an old dodge ram pickup and a few years ago i put a heater in the lower radiator hose. i plugged it in tonight for the first time this year and noticed that it got very hot almost too hot to touch. so i unplugged it. these things are just supposed to get warm right im thinking it might be broken. pat actually they can get quite hot. remember they need to generate enough heat to warm up the block which is in itself a giant heat sink not to mention the radiator also dissipating some of that heat especially when it gets cold. to warm the engine from outside of the block with these conditions you need a significant amount of heat so it will get almost too hot to touch. if it just got warm it wouldnt do the job unless the only thing you wanted warmed up was the lower hose. -- if at first you dont succeed youre not cut out for skydiving .

From : j haggerty

it appears that you purchased your truck in accordance to your needs and for that you should not feel bad. i do not like v6 four cycle motors for pure engineering reasons. try to work out a balanced firing order in a v configuration you will realize that there isnt one. you may think that a 120 degree crank and a 60 degree v is the right answer. it is for a two stroke but not a 4 stroke reguardless of the v angle. the commonly used offset is 90 degrees and there are no common rod journals as in a v8. the rod journals have an offset. this puts a great deal of stress on the blocks main bearings crankshaft and lower end bearings. add to that the rod journal offset and you have a substantially weaker motor. the beneficiary of this is the manufacturer in space allocation. that is why you primarily see them in the smaller vehicles. the manufacturers could also build v8s in a similar size but that would involve the use of parts that could only be used in that engine. you see another savings the manufacturer realizes is the common use of the v8 parts in the v6 as the bore and stroke of both motors are usually the same. you as the end consumer end up paying for benefits you dont receive. there is more i could go into the generation and damping of secondary harmonics tortional vibration on the crank main bearing support space etc. but in the end 6 cylinder motors should be inline. steve im a new dakota owner and ive been searching the web and reading groups about my new truck.. one thing i notice is that v8 owners are really down on teh v6 trucks yet the v6 owners seem to really love their trucks. so im just wondering why do the v8 guys dislike the v6 is it really a bad motor or is it just the typical my motor is bigger than yours so it must be better attitude i test drove the v8 and the v6 and chose the v6 because of gas milage and it also still felt pretty beefy. i dont tow and i dont plan on towing and mostly ill use the truck for hauling light loads to the dumps or picking up do it your self supplies at the local home depot. i guess it bothers me to see people talk down about the truck i chose when there really is no reason for it. anyways happy holidays! -steve -- ---- knowing others is wisdom knowing your self is enlightenment. -- lao-tzu .