Engine mileage

From : coolmod

Q: anyone have any brainstorms will go to the dealer monday. it does have a pac brake on it... a dodge 1998.5 diesel. five speed manual transmission. on the way back from the beach before the light came on was using the brake extensively as i went down hills. a friend was in an rv behind me and he said he saw smoke. i said... watch and youll probably see more. and... he did. the pac brake worked fine though. roger .

Replies:

From : coolmod

i have had my check engine light on a lot for the o2 sensor but nothing was wrong with it. i have also has catalyst code also. i have heard that changing the oil and other things can make the check engine light go on for those things .

From : dick puter413atyahoo com

thank you all for the great info. don the weak point seems to be head gaskets change coolent at recommended intervals. cam timing chains are another area to watch for. its a mitsubshi engine very good otherwise. im looking at buying a 1997 plymouth grand voyager with a 3.0 liter v6. it has about 100000 miles on it. is this too much for this dodge engine any experience on how long on average they last also any mpg info would be appreciated. thanks don .

From : pj

this has happened to a few of the guys i work with and myself. seems it is possible to activate the lock while getting out of the truck and not notice until the door is closed. now this only happened to us in the company trucks and they were all 04s. -- ken has anybody had this happen....i started up my 04 and went about doing some chores while it warmed up. when i came back the doors were locked. fortunately i had another set of keys available. i just assumed that i hit the lock by mistake when i shut the door. i drove about 100 miles to pick up some farm equipment.....left the truck running while loading and sure enough all doors were locked again when i went to leave. fortunately i had left the other set of keys in my pocket or i would have been stranded. now i am afraid to go anywhere with just one set of keys.... just wondering if this could be caused by the hi-idle feature kicking in and rpms getting high enough to actuate the auto door locks later....... eldon .

From : maxpower

one more thing on the tires. if your speedo drive isnt calibrated for a larger tire then you are going farther and faster than the speedo/odometer indicate. this difference could easily be 10% or more going from say a 29 dia to a 33 dia tire 91 cir. vs 103.6 cir.. the factory speedo drive gear is sized for the original diff. ratio and tire size. ive checked this in the past by a trip on the x-way mile markers or you can do the math. the point is you could be a mpg better than you thought. ld william boyd wrote jbarts wrote hello i own a 1996 ram 2500 v8. this is my first truck and i think its awesome! i want to make sure its running great so i dont mind putting some money into it to make it run better! i just drove the truck 200 miles ski trip i averaged between 70 miles an hour with some stop and go driving in one small town and some mountain driving small mountain. from what ive read i thought my truck would get 14-16 on the highway. the problem is that i only averaged 10 mpg. i know im not driving a compact car but i thought my highway mileage might be a little higher. does 10 mpg seem a little low i think there might be a problem already checked the tire pressure it was good im going to 1 check/change the fan clutch 2 change the spark plugs and wires 3 check the u-joints i do hear something 4 check the calipers anything else to check 1. have front end alignment checked. 2. check each pulley and driven item associated with the fan belt. 3. replace oil with synthetic i used mobil 1 and castrol but stay with the viscosity called for. 4. have a diagnostic test run to include exhaust emission test. 5. if you are not going to tow any thing heavy consider changing the rear end gears to a higher ratio. what you have read about the mileage might not coincided with the gearing of your vehicle. check in the glove box and see if there is a data plate telling you the gear ratio in your vehicle. cheers bill p. the truck does have wide mud type lets just say they arent street tires on it could that also effect highway mileage also is there an electric fan modification for this engine thanks! i forgot to address the tire situation. first normally a stock vehicle does not come with off road tires. check to make sure they are the proper size. so long as you are not going to do off roading i think i would go to a tire that will suite your intended driving and hauling or towing. you did not mention about the transmission. check to insure it is shifting into od if so equipped. compare your rpm and mph with some one with a comparable vehicle. provide a little more data as to what you have and do the test drive to get the rpm/mph figures bring them back here some one will compare it for you. now i at one time was a well known shade tree mechanic in the state of oklahoma with several ohp vehicles under my care for tuning. but technology has stripped all the leaves off my tree hope what i have provided will help if not wwtfo. bill p. .