2004 Ram - Cummins - Funky smell
From : Annonymous
Q: are there manuals out yet for the new generation models i have checked the web the best i could and all the local dealerships. the dodge dealer wants $100 for one. i have one i bought of ebay for $10 in cdrom format but its 2800 pages. i would spend more in ink then i would buying the $100 manual. plus the dodge dealer one is most likely a shop manual not as detailed as a haynes or chilton. thanks john .
Replies:
From : william boyd
ok so lets do some calculating. i drive a car or truck about 9000 miles a year. my current vehicles get 12 mpg average so i use 750 gallons of gas a year at $2 per gal that is $1500. all my vehicles are paid for so no payment to make plus they are older so license and insurance are relatively low also repairs which i can do are very cheap. so now if i buy one of these new vehicles that get 60 mpg i would use 150 gallons at $2 per gal $300 for fuel. i expect that my insurance would be about $300 more and my license would be at least $100 more. so $300 + $300 + $100 = $700 now subtract that from $1500 i end up with $800/year for a car payment or $66 per month. think i can find a dealer that will sell me one of these fuel efficient cars for a payment of $66 a month we could work this backwards to find out at what price gas will have to get to before i would be equal to the new car payment. now if i was driving 90000 a year i am sure i would be rushing to a dealer to buy one. ron tbone wrote bob g. wrote the honda accord with the electric motor rated at 29 & 37 racked up 20.4 mpg i have no experience with the accord hybrid but my mothers civic hybrid did a real-world 47mpg on the highway on a trip to new jersey and back from florida late last year. as far as the defroster sucking up fuel thats because the engineers at the car companies assume their customers are idiots and wire up the defrost to run the ac compressor whether its needed or not. if they would go ahead and switch from an engine driven compressor to an electric one then it would have a much diminished effect on fuel economy. last time i looked the gas mileage of the us fleet was around 20mpg which is the lowest its been in 20 years and instead of getting better its getting worse. ap its called hemi hd 8.1 liter h2 escalade yukon ram f250 silverado... funny how ten years ago 220 hp was a lot. now its insufficient. tell me just how much do those groceries and soccer balls weigh do you really need 350+ hp on tap while parked in traffic a honda civic sits motionless in traffic just as well as the tallest 4x4 you can find! just goes to show how insecure so many people are and how willing they are to spend the extra money for a little compensation. as for some folks that do need a big truck contractors landscapers 5th wheel pullers if people bought what they needed and were not afraid of who might see them in a little car then the national average mpg would go up and the fuel prices just might maintain a reasonable price. but driving around in an economy vehicle just doesnt look cool and the typical driver simply cannot have that. it is much better to look cool and do without lots of money that could be used for other things isnt it .
From : tom lawrence
that price sounds ridiculously cheap. i hunted around and 300 about a year ago was the best i found so be careful to check that seller out make sure its not re-man or fallen off a truck. sounds to cheap to me also. you can put in an el-cheepo but you wont be happy and the aggrivation will drive you to rip it out. happened to my bro in law. i found the alarm for $189.00 here http//tinyurl.com/54onn . tell me what you guys think. they say its a brand new unit and all items they ship are verified to ensure there are no missing pieces. thanks for the help so far. .
From : tom lawrence
please bring me up to date here tom. what is a cad face it the smell resulted from a hot autotrans. i installed a bd 2 low kit on mine. right - but this isnt possible on an 04 or an 03 for that matter... no more cad. .
From : Annonymous
mindless troll bait snipped dont know or care what your problem is but your are becoming a fool. roy .
From : ken bosch
ken bosch wrote looks like you did not get the tow mirrors either cost me around $350. to add them. i like my lighter color but should have got the 4wd. nice looking. bill my truck didnt have the tow mirrors either. i negotiated to include the mirrors or no sale. the sales guy wrote it up and i bought the i didnt want trailer tow mirrors. i dont care for the look of them too much. i do tow boats/pwc trailers often. i have no problem with the standard mirror. its amazing what the dealers/sales people will do for a sale. my sales person assured me that i had 1 full year of sirius satellite radio included. he also assured me that i could call the people that produce the navigation dvd alpine and get an updated version for free. sirius ... on the 90th day it shut off. sirius had no record of my esn so i had to pay for new service. i called the salesperson ... he doesnt remember saying i would get a year for free whatever!. so i talked to his manager. he was going to check into and call me right back. that was 2 months ago. navigation ... i called alpine and they audibly laughed at me. they want $150.00 for the updated dvd. id love to order a truck directly from dodge ... no lying sob salesman involved. i did get the last laugh however. my sales person worked in fleet. he gets the majority so he says of his commission from the sale off of the survey form i am supposed to fill out. i forgot to fill it out and have since lost it. hehehhehhe ... i crack me up. craig c. .
From : roy
2800 pages. i would spend more in ink then i would buying the $100 manual. plus the dodge dealer one is most likely a shop manual not as detailed as a haynes or chilton. thanks quite the opposite. first there are no manuals available beyond the 98 model year from haynes or chiltons that ive seen. second having both a chiltons haynes and factory manual for my older trucks the factory manual flat-out blows the others away as far as details. granted the haynes will sometimes give you alternative work-arounds for some of the procedures that normally require special tools but dont come anywhere near the detail of the factory manuals. not only do the fsms give you detailed removal/installation instructions with lots of diagrams - by the way where do you think most of the diagrams in the haynes or chiltons manuals come from yep - the factory manuals they also discuss the operation of each of the systems - giving you some background on how exactly things are supposed to work. then theres the wiring diagrams... if you do any electrical modifications to your truck the electrical diagrams alone are worth the entire price of the fsm. the chiltons or haynes will have maybe 10-20 pages of typical wiring diagrams... this is how its probably wired in your truck - good luck. the factory manual will give you every circuit every connector every splice location...nothing is left to guesswork. why not go through section 8w in your .pdf file and compare that to what little information you get in a haynes. or compare section 21 transmission... with its step-by-step list and diagrams of how to disassemble and re-assemble your transmission or transfer case to the corresponding section in a haynes manual. of course the haynes i have for the 94-98 trucks has 7 count em - thats seven whole pages covering the automatic transmission. youre not going to find any disassembly diagrams there... not that you would ever tear down your trans unless you knew exactly what you were doing but this illustrates the difference in level of detail now - as far as the .pdf file on cd goes... i have both the printed version and the cd-rom. granted its sometimes nice to be able to flip through an actual book but ive found more often than not that the book is just too big and bulky to keep around - not to mention getting the pages all greasy ripped torn etc. if im doing something specific to the truck i print out the relevant pages usually a half-dozen or less and i dont care if they get grimed up - im throwing them away when im finished. in short - theres a reason the fsms cost more than an $11 haynes manual.... because theyre worth it .
From : Annonymous
trey wrote steve lusardi wrote avoid the automatics. the engine torque in combination with high load toasts the clutches. even the standard clutch with the manual gear can be suspect under severe load. a dual disk clutch would resolve the problem but they are grabby and harder to drive. the problem is exagerated with increased power with either the power chips or later model engines. however they are still the best there is at the moment. a good but expensive solution to this would be to replace the transmission with an allison like a lot of medium duty trucks use. that would put an end to most of your transmission worries but it would knock your wallet for a loop. ap have you seen an alison in a dodge ram thats a combo i would love to get! if you do find an allison transmission in a dodge ram then its been put there by a custom truck shop. the only light duty trucks im aware of that have them out of the factory are gm. where you find them in other manufacturers products is in medium duty trucks. i work the ramp for southwest airlines and a lot of our provisioning trucks are ford f-650 truck bodies with cummins engines and allison transmissions. if you want to install an allison transmission in your ram im sure a good truck shop could do it for you but expect to pay a fat stack of cash. the other side of that equasion is that with a cummins engine and an allison transmission youd have the heart of a medium duty truck in your ram pickup. ap .
From : roy
tom lawrence wrote face it the smell resulted from a hot autotrans. i installed a bd 2 low kit on mine. right - but this isnt possible on an 04 or an 03 for that matter... no more cad. for those of us with older trucks this can be done easily with inexpensive parts. for the how-to see http//www.vtlink.net/users/joespond/media/miker2x4lo.htm .
From : det
face it the smell resulted from a hot autotrans. i installed a bd 2 low kit on mine. right - but this isnt possible on an 04 or an 03 for that matter... no more cad. .
From : Annonymous
had the tune-up about a year ago and it has about 110k on it. i hadnt run any cleaners through it because i was under the impression that 99% of the stuff sold was not any good. or am i thinking of the wrong stuff at the parts store there are both good and bad ones out there and the best way to think of it is that you get what you pay for. you dont have to look for the most expensive one just a name brand in the mid to upper price range. the injectors may also be wearing out after 110k miles and not giving an optimum spray pattern. i would try to clean them first and see if your starting situation improves. -- if at first you dont succeed youre not cut out for skydiving .
From : tom lawrence
steve lusardi wrote avoid the automatics. the engine torque in combination with high load toasts the clutches. even the standard clutch with the manual gear can be suspect under severe load. a dual disk clutch would resolve the problem but they are grabby and harder to drive. the problem is exagerated with increased power with either the power chips or later model engines. however they are still the best there is at the moment. a good but expensive solution to this would be to replace the transmission with an allison like a lot of medium duty trucks use. that would put an end to most of your transmission worries but it would knock your wallet for a loop. ap .
From : nosey
this morning i hit a patch of black ice spun sideways across the road into a snowbank. i broke off my passenger fog light. light still works. my question do i have to buy a new fucisa or can i just buy a new mounting bracket for the light the mounting bracket broke from around the light. thanks .
From : Annonymous
will try it - not too confusing. thanks for the info. i have to finish taxes first. on my two pole system i put black marker on the inner in the area where the edge of the outer is. then when i manually slide it into contact with the rear side of the rims on both sides nice and straight i scribe a line at the edge of the outer tube. then repeat for the front. if you did an accurate measurement there will be two different marks indicating the amount of toe-in you have. if you need any additional description i know this might not be very clear email me and ill send a pic. ld thanks i think i understand. in the past alignments on my 88 van they only adjusted toein/toeout with linkage adjustments. i should be able to check/adjust. ive checked and set the toe-in on my 70 blazer for all the years ive owned it 27 with a tape measure and a sliding set of tubes a couple of old tent poles. something similar would work as long as you can accurately measure the distance between the same parts of the rim on the back side vs. the front side. without knowing your specs probably a 1/16 difference larger on the rear would give you all the toe-in you need. the toe-in is the spec that most frequently gets out. too much 1/4 for example will cause excessive wear on the tires outer edges too little or toe-out will cause wear on the tire inner edges and could be dangerous causing the vehicle to wander or pull from one side to the other over any little bump in the road. ld my 97 van is out of alignment again. these roads are wicked in winter and spring. the tires are wearing on the outside both sides. this happened quite often with my 88 full-sized van also. is there a quick and dirty way to get them somewhat back in alignment - im tired of having to pay yearly alignment. it doesnt have to be perfect just better than it is. any help would be appreciated. .
From : det
discovered an almost severed leading to the radiator fan relay due to the wreak my wife had. fixed this and replace the relay. interestingly there are two types of these relays one that costs 24 dollars and another that is 77 dollars. the 24 dollar one comes with screws apparently there is a recall on a bunch of the rad fan relays. the 24 dollar on is for this. other then that they appear to be the same. i finally found the speed control it is behind/underneath the front drivers side headlight has a part number of 04707286af- reva 64469d 1820g. it looks like it is riveted in it would be exposed to water should it rain i might try making it water proof some how. this number matches the link that i found. thanks everyone. my guess is that the relay or speed control is not your ploblem. water ingress is. once you find the relay carefully find the temperature sensor and carefully examine the wiring harnesses and parts for water penitration. steve whenever it rains the engine light comes on my dodge grand caravan and sometimes the radiator fans continue to run after i turn off the engine. they 2 fans will run until the battery is dead. it never happens when it is not raining. i swapped a couple of the relays around and the problem did not show up again. yet a couple of days ago the engine lite came back on coming back to dallas from east texas in heavy rain. this time the radiator fans did not continue to spin and run down the battery when i turned the engine off yet by the time i got home it was not raining. i took the van to autozone and they read the computer code for me. they did not know what it means. in a previous post i was told it was the radiator relay under the aircleaner box but i cannot see any relays underneath there. all the relays appear to be beside the battery and a few under the dash yet there is nothing labeled radiator fans in the bank of relays. searching https//www.rockauto.com i did find some relays that almost look like the ones in the relay bank next to the battery. but what caught my attention was the one that looks like http//www.rockauto.com/ref/smp/smpdetail2.htmlry330.jpg it is labeled engine cooling fan relay i am wondering if this is mounted on the chassis somewhere maybe under the air filter box as i was told earlier. i have 2 questions 1. does the engine cooling fan relay mount on the chassis and if so where is it located can i see it without removing the air filter box. 2. what does the code below indicate is wrong. this is what the autozone ticket says troublecode obdii alpha p code p1491 secondary switch solenoid circuit mulfunction any ideas thanks in advance... -- john behneman john dot behneman at gmail dot com .
From : tom lawrence
the clear coat on the top of the left front fender of my 92 ram started breaking down when the truck was about three years old. the dealer repaired it immediately at no cost to me. had no other problems with the paint or the rest of the truck for that matter and traded it for a brand-new 2003. great trucks great dealer. on tue 22 mar 2005 071342 -0700 big al nospamsal1@qwest.net wrote ya the roof is toast too. and the tops of the fenders arent far behind. thanks dodge. i have a black 94 ram 2500. about 2 years ago a small spot appeared on the hood where the clear coat was apparently wearing off. it has spread like cancer onto all of the horizontal surfaces of the truck. does anyone know of a recall for this problem or am i out a paint job. the sides of the truck look brand new. thanks for any replies. zoso i had the same problem on my 94 1500. it started with the hood which i had re-painted for $300 and the roof was starting to wear off when i sold it last summer. i dont think there was a recall issued and its doubtful youd get much help 11 years later. ron w. what urks me is my 87 90 and 92 all did this. why the hell didnt they fix a known problem gm ford and lots of the jap cars also do this. al that was the time period when the big three and probably others got some bad primer. the paint didnt stick real well. i went through gms adjudication process with a zone rep and got my 91 corsica repainted in 95. my father had his 92 dodge ram repainted at no cost in 97 for the same problem. a co-worker had her 91 ram done at about the same time. but i think ron is right - 11 years is probably stretching it for any support from the manufacturers. greg .
From : det
we tow a 7600lb trialer loaded with a hemi in a 1500 with a 3.92 rear end and auto. average mpg is 10 while towing. worst case has been 7.25 best was 11.5. average when not towing 15. mountians no problem. do i try to play crotch-rocket with it no. when gas prices were about $1.50 i was told to figure about 81000 miles as pay back time for the extra cost of a diesel. i dont know what it would be now. just an intersting note. i can leave a diesel in the dust while towing and he is empty. fwiw and i dont have to put up with the god awful smell. been looking at a dodge hemi 2500 quad 4x2 short bed. cant seem to get anyone to give us an idea of the estimated miles per gallon. trying to decide if i should go the hemi or diesel. will be using it to pull a 5th wheel that will weigh about 8500 lbs and general use. thanking in advance.................. .
From : big al
blow by oil on the exhaust i do not think so. wrong side of the engine. face it the smell resulted from a hot autotrans. i installed a bd 2 low kit on mine. this allows me to engage the low range on the transfer case without engaging the 4 wheel drive front axle. this allows for sharp all the way over turns wihtout front axle u-joint hop or binding. using this feature i can reverse under heavy load without getting the trans too hot. maybe it was something as simple as he was back up a hill and some oil went out the blow-by tube getting on the exhaust hi all this is my first diesel so pardon me if this is considered normal behavior for my truck. first ... its a 2004 ram with the 305/555 cummins engine. 4wd automatic. i just purchased two seadoos with a double trailer. total weight is approximately 2500 lbs. i pulled them from lake ozark mo to dallas tx last weekend with absolutely no trouble. in fact i pulled them in overdrive all of the way and the tranny never hunted one time. i dropped them off to be serviced and picked them back up last night. i was backing them into my storage facility which is a complete bitch to do. firstly i am backing them uphill around a corner. i had to start straightening out at which point i have to ride up on a curb with my driver front tire. rpms were up pretty good to accomplish this. i finally got everything where it should be and i smelled a burning smell. smelled like hot oil. i glanced at my temp gauge and it was up a little higher and usual ... just over the halfway mark 200. i unhooked the trailer and went for a spin down the road to cool things back down. my question is what was burning the tranny it might have been. backing up can send the trans temp right off the scale. try useing low range if possible next time. roy craig c. .
From : tbone
jay wrote maybe it was something as simple as he was back up a hill and some oil went out the blow-by tube getting on the exhaust i thought that perhaps that was it but unless i am mistaken the new common rail engine has a redesigned blow-by system where the oil gets recycled back into the oil pan. that being the case is there still a way for it leak out i had a hard time making up my mind on whether to get a manual or auto. since i pull boat/pwc given this stinky situation me thinks i should have opted for the six speed. however it sure is nice having that auto in dallas central expressway 75 traffic ... craig c. craig i have an 04 six speed. driving around empty its a pain in the butt. an automatic would have been a much better choice if that was all i did. i tow a race car all over the place and just didnt trust the automatic. an automatic would have been a hell of a lot easier to find too. had to go 1500 miles to buy mine. al .
From : tom lawrence
i thought that perhaps that was it but unless i am mistaken the new common rail engine has a redesigned blow-by system where the oil gets recycled back into the oil pan. that being the case is there still a way for it leak out there is. theres a black plastic tube about 3/4 od or so sticking down from the engine. this is the vent tube for anything that the new-and-improved blowby system misses. mine emits a fine mist from time to time. not enough to drip on the the ground but enough to ensure nothing in its vicinity will ever suffer from surface rust but that is considered a feature not a problem - -- if at first you dont succeed youre not cut out for skydiving .
From : Annonymous
hboothe@gte.net says... id eyeball the relays that power the auxilliary power and the fuses that supply them. fwiw in my 02 2500 old body style there are two pink wires pink and pink/white that go hot in the run position iirc. there are two wires from the relay pack on the viper that go hot in auto start for auxilliary circuits. if the monkeys who hooked the system up used just one of the vipers supply wires to heat up both of the factory aux wires it could over-stress the viper relay pack and cause it to fail. or if they hooked it up that way it could cause the fuses on the supply from 12v+ to the relay pack to fail. id look at all the fuses on the vehicle and the viper system including all wiring harnesses which should be in a single location i imagine for blown fuses. then if its anything like my 791xv itll have a relay pack basically a long slender black thingy with about 8 or 10 heavy-gauge wires coming from it and id look to it for damage. having the system run the engine but not actually blow the air cold or hot as you choose into the cab is silly thats half the reason for having remote start i think and since this isnt the first time this has happened to you id be wary of the installation. closely checking the installation and maybe finding the problem yourself will help you save time and money in the future i would think. good luck. let us know where that leaves you. --hc i was having a bad day. a man said to me cheer up things could be worse!. so i cheered up and sure enough things got worse. i dont think its the install. the same guy has put all 3 on and he definitely seems to know what hes doing. i watched him put several thousand bucks worth of alarms and stereo stuff into a 99 ram and for the first time i can ever remember watching a system being installed i didnt see anything i thought was something like wtf is he doing it that way for why doesnt he.. he must do several hundred starters a year at least since the store manager claims they do about 1000 every year. i saw a guy drop off 4 vehicles at the same time for remote starter install. thanks for the reply.. bdk .
From : big al
jay wrote maybe it was something as simple as he was back up a hill and some oil went out the blow-by tube getting on the exhaust i thought that perhaps that was it but unless i am mistaken the new common rail engine has a redesigned blow-by system where the oil gets recycled back into the oil pan. that being the case is there still a way for it leak out i had a hard time making up my mind on whether to get a manual or auto. since i pull boat/pwc given this stinky situation me thinks i should have opted for the six speed. however it sure is nice having that auto in dallas central expressway 75 traffic ... craig c. .
From : jay
hc wrote bryan on the manual i mean the factory service manual not the owners manual. i felt like your answer was referring to the owners manual which i dont think explains the adjustment of the transmission bands. not trying to be hateful just trying to be sure were on the same page. and i hate to ask this but i have to since i was involved just yesterday with a you gotta be joking of course i checked that problem with a friends 02 intrepid and some shifing problems...you did check to see that it had enough fluid right we serviced my friends auto tranny on his wifes intrepid and it was slipping; only to find out that the initial read of the fluid level was incorrect and it needed three more quarts i still dont know how we got that wrong. also check the fluid spec on that. i think yours and my old one are atf+3 but make sure theyre not atf+4 i dont know what the difference is...but it cant hurt to be sure you have the right fluid in there. fwiw. --hc ok thanks i was referring to the owners manual........and yes i did check the fluid twice to be sure......as for adjusting the bands is this something i can do as a layman or should i just ask my tranny guy about it the only work ive ever done on my cars/trucks is oil changes and brakes im not what you would call mechanically inclined..... .
From : det
hi all this is my first diesel so pardon me if this is considered normal behavior for my truck. first ... its a 2004 ram with the 305/555 cummins engine. 4wd automatic. i just purchased two seadoos with a double trailer. total weight is approximately 2500 lbs. i pulled them from lake ozark mo to dallas tx last weekend with absolutely no trouble. in fact i pulled them in overdrive all of the way and the tranny never hunted one time. i dropped them off to be serviced and picked them back up last night. i was backing them into my storage facility which is a complete bitch to do. firstly i am backing them uphill around a corner. i had to start straightening out at which point i have to ride up on a curb with my driver front tire. rpms were up pretty good to accomplish this. i finally got everything where it should be and i smelled a burning smell. smelled like hot oil. i glanced at my temp gauge and it was up a little higher and usual ... just over the halfway mark 200. i unhooked the trailer and went for a spin down the road to cool things back down. my question is what was burning the tranny it might have been. backing up can send the trans temp right off the scale. try useing low range if possible next time. roy craig c. .