Polishing a t*rd
From : john corliss
Q: yesterday i took my 1992 dodge dakotas passenger side door apart to see if i could fix it so that my key would work the lock button again. sure enough i discovered that a rod coming out of the back of the key tumbler had become disconnected from a lever which operates the lock button and door lock. it had become disconnected because it was originally held on with a cheap plastic keeper that was doomed from the start to fail at some point due to its inevitable material decomposition. i replaced it with a suitably sized and slightly modified metal throttle linkage keeper and now it will never come apart again. however while i had the door apart i noticed that there are other such plastic keepers used in other places so this is probably going to be an ongoing problem over time with other connections. chrysler could just have easily have used a metal part. that they didnt shows me just how truthful that quality engineered by chrysler label on the floor really is. i know i know i can hear the standard reply now it was done to save weight and contribute to improving mileage. bullshit. the total amount of weight saved couldnt have been more than a couple hundred milligrams. it was done to contribute to planned obsolescence and for no other reason. rant as the friend who traded this thing for my husky dirtbike said when i told him i was repairing such problems john you can only polish a turd so much. he refuses to buy any more dodge products and has moved over to being a ford man. dont know if thats any better but he hasnt complained about either his pickup or his new focus. its doubtful that it will be possible to get the dakotas emissions down to a level that will pass i&m without having to spend several hundred dollars or even over 1k to do so. that being the case i would then be stuck with an immovable white elephant taking up space unless i were able to sell it to a junkyard. i hope dodge is building their rigs a lot better these days. if theyre not theyre going to head the way of the dodo. word spreads and they seemed to have totally forgotten this back in 1992. maybe theyve wised up since. i certainly hope so. /rant by the way i read somewhere that you can reset the check engine light on these particular models my 92 dakota by disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery then turning on the ignition key for 20 seconds. has anybody else heard or done that tia. -- john corliss .
Replies:
From : tom lawrence
well i know that the 12 code battery has recently been disconnected wont light the ce indicator. my haynes manual lists all the fault codes but doesnt say which ones do or dont turn on that light. try the link i posted. it does. .
From : peterd
on mon 03 mar 2008 070028 -0800 john corliss jcorliss@fake.invalid wrote fraid not. i just cleaned and treated the battery terminals and cables the other day. in the process the cables were both disconnected for about 45 minutes. when i reconnected them and started the truck that damned light was still there. because the problem was detected again on the restart .
From : tom lawrence
he refuses to buy any more dodge products and has moved over to being a ford man. dont look now but they use the same plastic clips on their door linkages too... by the way i read somewhere that you can reset the check engine light on these particular models my 92 dakota by disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery then turning on the ignition key for 20 seconds. has anybody else heard or done that just disconnecting the battery for a few minutes will do it but i suppose turning on the ignition circuits will bleed out the capacitors in the electronics quicker. .
From : john corliss
tom lawrence wrote he refuses to buy any more dodge products and has moved over to being a ford man. dont look now but they use the same plastic clips on their door linkages too... yep as i said however while i had the door apart i noticed that there are other such plastic keepers used in other places so this is probably going to be an ongoing problem over time with other connections. that was what i meant. sorry i wasnt clearer. by the way i read somewhere that you can reset the check engine light on these particular models my 92 dakota by disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery then turning on the ignition key for 20 seconds. has anybody else heard or done that just disconnecting the battery for a few minutes will do it fraid not. i just cleaned and treated the battery terminals and cables the other day. in the process the cables were both disconnected for about 45 minutes. when i reconnected them and started the truck that damned light was still there. but i suppose turning on the ignition circuits will bleed out the capacitors in the electronics quicker. i figger the same. then the error codes of which there are some at this point should re-establish themselves once i drive the truck somewhere. -- john corliss .
From : tom lawrence
fraid not. i just cleaned and treated the battery terminals and cables the other day. in the process the cables were both disconnected for about 45 minutes. when i reconnected them and started the truck that damned light was still there. well if the condition still exists that caused it to trip in the first place then its going to come back on. pull the codes and see what its complaining about. .
From : steve lusardi
john we benefit greatly in the price we pay for inovations like these most wonderful plastic clips. they cant be that bad. the vehicle is a 92 and this is the first one to fail i can remember rusty set screws in my fords and oldmobiles in the 50s. dont look now but everybody is using these things not just chrysler. even the exotic and really expensive cars use plastics extensively today and todays cars are better than yesteryears and guess what... ...the number one reason is improvements in material technology. steve yesterday i took my 1992 dodge dakotas passenger side door apart to see if i could fix it so that my key would work the lock button again. sure enough i discovered that a rod coming out of the back of the key tumbler had become disconnected from a lever which operates the lock button and door lock. it had become disconnected because it was originally held on with a cheap plastic keeper that was doomed from the start to fail at some point due to its inevitable material decomposition. i replaced it with a suitably sized and slightly modified metal throttle linkage keeper and now it will never come apart again. however while i had the door apart i noticed that there are other such plastic keepers used in other places so this is probably going to be an ongoing problem over time with other connections. chrysler could just have easily have used a metal part. that they didnt shows me just how truthful that quality engineered by chrysler label on the floor really is. i know i know i can hear the standard reply now it was done to save weight and contribute to improving mileage. bullshit. the total amount of weight saved couldnt have been more than a couple hundred milligrams. it was done to contribute to planned obsolescence and for no other reason. rant as the friend who traded this thing for my husky dirtbike said when i told him i was repairing such problems john you can only polish a turd so much. he refuses to buy any more dodge products and has moved over to being a ford man. dont know if thats any better but he hasnt complained about either his pickup or his new focus. its doubtful that it will be possible to get the dakotas emissions down to a level that will pass i&m without having to spend several hundred dollars or even over 1k to do so. that being the case i would then be stuck with an immovable white elephant taking up space unless i were able to sell it to a junkyard. i hope dodge is building their rigs a lot better these days. if theyre not theyre going to head the way of the dodo. word spreads and they seemed to have totally forgotten this back in 1992. maybe theyve wised up since. i certainly hope so. /rant by the way i read somewhere that you can reset the check engine light on these particular models my 92 dakota by disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery then turning on the ignition key for 20 seconds. has anybody else heard or done that tia. -- john corliss .
From : mac davis
on mon 03 mar 2008 054444 -0800 john corliss jcorliss@fake.invalid wrote yesterday i took my 1992 dodge dakotas passenger side door apart to see if i could fix it so that my key would work the lock button again. sure enough i discovered that a rod coming out of the back of the key tumbler had become disconnected from a lever which operates the lock button and door lock. it had become disconnected because it was originally held on with a cheap plastic keeper that was doomed from the start to fail at some point due to its inevitable material decomposition. only lasted 16 years id be pissed.. mac please remove splinters before emailing .
From : nunya
snip only lasted 16 years id be pissed.. mac the dash in my 91 dakota is starting to crack. recently i had to replace one of the plastic retainers on a windshield wiper mechanism. i think i may just call mopar and give them a piece of my mind. if they had built these parts out of metal they would have been all rusty and i could be having to grind them off or drill them out before i replaced them. maybe ill just go buy a six ohh powerstroke ford instead. my dodge trucks are not breaking often enough to keep me busy. i did have to change the oil on the 97 ram today and decided to grease the front end while i was at it. the only plastic part i encountered in this adventure was the washer on the oil drain plug and it hasnt broken yet but i am waiting for it to so i can gripe about it. ;- michael .
From : curmudgeon
move to nc....nothing older than 95 has to get an emissions inspection. tom lawrence wrote he refuses to buy any more dodge products and has moved over to being a ford man. dont look now but they use the same plastic clips on their door linkages too... yep as i said however while i had the door apart i noticed that there are other such plastic keepers used in other places so this is probably going to be an ongoing problem over time with other connections. that was what i meant. sorry i wasnt clearer. by the way i read somewhere that you can reset the check engine light on these particular models my 92 dakota by disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery then turning on the ignition key for 20 seconds. has anybody else heard or done that just disconnecting the battery for a few minutes will do it fraid not. i just cleaned and treated the battery terminals and cables the other day. in the process the cables were both disconnected for about 45 minutes. when i reconnected them and started the truck that damned light was still there. but i suppose turning on the ignition circuits will bleed out the capacitors in the electronics quicker. i figger the same. then the error codes of which there are some at this point should re-establish themselves once i drive the truck somewhere. -- john corliss .
From : john corliss
tom lawrence wrote fraid not. i just cleaned and treated the battery terminals and cables the other day. in the process the cables were both disconnected for about 45 minutes. when i reconnected them and started the truck that damned light was still there. well if the condition still exists that caused it to trip in the first place then its going to come back on. pull the codes and see what its complaining about. i messed up. its not the engine light on the left its the light that tells you to replace the oxygen sensor maintenance needed on the right. there is only one fault code present at this time and its 12 that the battery has been disconnected recently. ill check the fault codes again after i drive the truck some more. -- john corliss .
From : john corliss
peterd wrote on mon 03 mar 2008 070028 -0800 john corliss jcorliss@fake.invalid wrote fraid not. i just cleaned and treated the battery terminals and cables the other day. in the process the cables were both disconnected for about 45 minutes. when i reconnected them and started the truck that damned light was still there. because the problem was detected again on the restart sorry i was referring to the wrong light. its the main reqd light not the check engine one. -- john corliss bs206. i use nfilter to block all crossposts everything from troublemakers like andy mabbett bear bottoms gavin hummingbird kayman and proteanthread and all google groups posts because of googlespam. no ad cd commercial cripple demo dotnet nag share spy time-limited trial or web wares or warez for me please. .
From : john corliss
mac davis wrote on mon 03 mar 2008 054444 -0800 john corliss jcorliss@fake.invalid wrote yesterday i took my 1992 dodge dakotas passenger side door apart to see if i could fix it so that my key would work the lock button again. sure enough i discovered that a rod coming out of the back of the key tumbler had become disconnected from a lever which operates the lock button and door lock. it had become disconnected because it was originally held on with a cheap plastic keeper that was doomed from the start to fail at some point due to its inevitable material decomposition. only lasted 16 years id be pissed.. mac please remove splinters before emailing ahs disbusted. at any rate i dont expect that metal clip i used to give up the ghost any time soon. -- john corliss .
From : tom lawrence
working on dodges. said that i should clean my throttle body but i see it as some kind of sensor related issue. clean it anyway... cant hurt... will probably help. if the paint never got washed in 16 years just think how cruddy the tb must be. .
From : tom lawrence
thats what ive been doing instructions are in the haynes manual my friend gave me with the truck. but as aarcuda69062 pointed out if the check engine light hasnt been coming on and it hasnt i dont really need to check for error codes anyway. well not entirely true. there are codes that can get set that wont illuminate the ce light. .
From : john corliss
steve lusardi wrote john we benefit greatly in the price we pay for inovations like these most wonderful plastic clips. they cant be that bad. the vehicle is a 92 and this is the first one to fail i can remember rusty set screws in my fords and oldmobiles in the 50s. dont look now but everybody is using these things not just chrysler. even the exotic and really expensive cars use plastics extensively today and todays cars are better than yesteryears and guess what... ...the number one reason is improvements in material technology. steve steve youre right. the rig is 18 years old! guess i should be more tolerant. after all merle haggard sang i wish a ford and a chevy would still last 10 years... like they should. that metal throttle linkage clip i used is a better idea though. i dont expect it to fail any time soon. yesterday i took my 1992 dodge dakotas passenger side door apart to see if i could fix it so that my key would work the lock button again. sure enough i discovered that a rod coming out of the back of the key tumbler had become disconnected from a lever which operates the lock button and door lock. it had become disconnected because it was originally held on with a cheap plastic keeper that was doomed from the start to fail at some point due to its inevitable material decomposition. i replaced it with a suitably sized and slightly modified metal throttle linkage keeper and now it will never come apart again. however while i had the door apart i noticed that there are other such plastic keepers used in other places so this is probably going to be an ongoing problem over time with other connections. chrysler could just have easily have used a metal part. that they didnt shows me just how truthful that quality engineered by chrysler label on the floor really is. i know i know i can hear the standard reply now it was done to save weight and contribute to improving mileage. bullshit. the total amount of weight saved couldnt have been more than a couple hundred milligrams. it was done to contribute to planned obsolescence and for no other reason. rant as the friend who traded this thing for my husky dirtbike said when i told him i was repairing such problems john you can only polish a turd so much. he refuses to buy any more dodge products and has moved over to being a ford man. dont know if thats any better but he hasnt complained about either his pickup or his new focus. its doubtful that it will be possible to get the dakotas emissions down to a level that will pass i&m without having to spend several hundred dollars or even over 1k to do so. that being the case i would then be stuck with an immovable white elephant taking up space unless i were able to sell it to a junkyard. i hope dodge is building their rigs a lot better these days. if theyre not theyre going to head the way of the dodo. word spreads and they seemed to have totally forgotten this back in 1992. maybe theyve wised up since. i certainly hope so. /rant by the way i read somewhere that you can reset the check engine light on these particular models my 92 dakota by disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery then turning on the ignition key for 20 seconds. has anybody else heard or done that tia. -- john corliss -- john corliss bs206 .
From : john corliss
john corliss wrote yesterday i took my 1992 dodge dakotas passenger side door apart to see if i could fix it so that my key would work the lock button again. sure enough i discovered that a rod coming out of the back of the key tumbler had become disconnected from a lever which operates the lock button and door lock. it had become disconnected because it was originally held on with a cheap plastic keeper that was doomed from the start to fail at some point due to its inevitable material decomposition. i replaced it with a suitably sized and slightly modified metal throttle linkage keeper and now it will never come apart again. however while i had the door apart i noticed that there are other such plastic keepers used in other places so this is probably going to be an ongoing problem over time with other connections. chrysler could just have easily have used a metal part. that they didnt shows me just how truthful that quality engineered by chrysler label on the floor really is. i know i know i can hear the standard reply now it was done to save weight and contribute to improving mileage. bullshit. the total amount of weight saved couldnt have been more than a couple hundred milligrams. it was done to contribute to planned obsolescence and for no other reason. rant as the friend who traded this thing for my husky dirtbike said when i told him i was repairing such problems john you can only polish a turd so much. he refuses to buy any more dodge products and has moved over to being a ford man. dont know if thats any better but he hasnt complained about either his pickup or his new focus. its doubtful that it will be possible to get the dakotas emissions down to a level that will pass i&m without having to spend several hundred dollars or even over 1k to do so. that being the case i would then be stuck with an immovable white elephant taking up space unless i were able to sell it to a junkyard. i hope dodge is building their rigs a lot better these days. if theyre not theyre going to head the way of the dodo. word spreads and they seemed to have totally forgotten this back in 1992. maybe theyve wised up since. i certainly hope so. /rant by the way i read somewhere that you can reset the check engine light on these particular models my 92 dakota by disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery then turning on the ignition key for 20 seconds. has anybody else heard or done that tia. 1. i was cranky and it was too early. 2. the truck is 16 years old. 3. i was able to get the door apart very easily and do the repair. 4. when my friend said john you can only polish a turd so much he was mainly referring to me beating out a dent on a vehicle with a very bad looking paint job. 5. the paint is bad because my friend never ever washed the truck in the whole time he owned it ttbomk. when you do that and the truck sits out in the oregon rain all the time the paint is bound to go bad. the truck starts and the motor runs well. only real problem is that the motor races a little for some reason when i coast down the hill with my foot off the gas or roll backwards again in neutral and with my foot off the gas. i talked on the phone to a lithia dodge service tech today and he said that hes never heard of such a problem in over 20 years of working on dodges. said that i should clean my throttle body but i see it as some kind of sensor related issue. -- john corliss .
From : aarcuda69062
john corliss jcorliss@fake.invalid wrote tom lawrence wrote fraid not. i just cleaned and treated the battery terminals and cables the other day. in the process the cables were both disconnected for about 45 minutes. when i reconnected them and started the truck that damned light was still there. well if the condition still exists that caused it to trip in the first place then its going to come back on. pull the codes and see what its complaining about. i messed up. its not the engine light on the left its the light that tells you to replace the oxygen sensor maintenance needed on the right. youll need a scan tool to turn that light off. there is only one fault code present at this time and its 12 that the battery has been disconnected recently. ill check the fault codes again after i drive the truck some more. if the check engine light wasnt on before why would you expect new fault codes .
From : tom lawrence
i messed up. its not the engine light on the left its the light that tells you to replace the oxygen sensor maintenance needed on the right. that lights got absolutely nothing to do with the o2 sensors nor any other part of the emissions system. its triggered by time and it just a dumb reminder to bring the vehicle in for service. its pretty much useless. if an o2 sensor were failing that would indeed light up the check engine light. iirc those codes are somewhere in the twenties on the obd-i systems. .
From : john corliss
much junk going in the oil if i did. im sure ill have the same problems in another 75k or so. jack . 222 343155 13sqa9kme9h3671@corp.super.com aarcuda69062 wrote john corliss jcorliss@fake.invalid wrote tom lawrence wrote fraid not. i just cleaned and treated the battery terminals and cables the other day. in the process the cables were both disconnected for about 45 minutes. when i reconnected them and started the truck that damned light was still there. well if the condition still exists that caused it to trip in the first place then its going to come back on. pull the codes and see what its complaining about. i messed up. its not the engine light on the left its the light that tells you to replace the oxygen sensor maintenance needed on the right. youll need a scan tool to turn that light off. there is only one fault code present at this time and its 12 that the battery has been disconnected recently. ill check the fault codes again after i drive the truck some more. if the check engine light wasnt on before why would you expect new fault codes thanks for that. sometimes the obvious eludes me. bear in mind though im a total newbie at this computerized vehicle stuff. up to now the newest rig ive owned is my 81 ford f-150. and youre right the check engine light wasnt on before. -- john corliss .
From : john corliss
tom lawrence wrote i messed up. its not the engine light on the left its the light that tells you to replace the oxygen sensor maintenance needed on the right. that lights got absolutely nothing to do with the o2 sensors nor any other part of the emissions system. its triggered by time and it just a dumb reminder to bring the vehicle in for service. its pretty much useless. if an o2 sensor were failing that would indeed light up the check engine light. iirc those codes are somewhere in the twenties on the obd-i systems. thanks tom. thats good info to know. and the obd-i system is what the truck is running then. too bad because harbor freight has an obd-ii code reader on sale for $40 right now. but i expected that since obd-ii dates from 1996 and on i believe. an obd-i code reader is mighty spendy. and im not even sure theres a generic version of them or is there might be that the 92 dakotas ecm has a proprietary plug. however since there are no fault codes present at this time i guess my concerns at this point are limited to figuring out why the motor races whenever the rig is rolling downhill either direction and i have my foot off of the accelerator. when i come to a complete stop the motor races a second and then suddenly starts idling at a normal rate. that and the weird way that my friend was dealing with the radiator and fan. im going to get some more info from him and see if i can figure that one out though. -- john corliss .
From : john corliss
tom lawrence wrote working on dodges. said that i should clean my throttle body but i see it as some kind of sensor related issue. clean it anyway... cant hurt... will probably help. if the paint never got washed in 16 years just think how cruddy the tb must be. ive run some injector cleaner through it and my friend did so regularly. this helps but of course taking the tb apart and cleaning it is probably a good idea. and i *did* wash it but the paint is so course in places that it shredded my cotton wash pad and left lint all over the rig. no biggie though i found a can of acrylic enamel at the local napa. it matches the colorado red color almost exactly. will be sanding the bad spots down rattle can primering them and then touching them up with that can of red ae. if that doesnt work and im very good at rattle can painting then ill get a spray gun some paint and spray the truck myself. now thats how to polish a turd! -- john corliss .
From : john corliss
john corliss wrote tom lawrence wrote working on dodges. said that i should clean my throttle body but i see it as some kind of sensor related issue. clean it anyway... cant hurt... will probably help. if the paint never got washed in 16 years just think how cruddy the tb must be. ive run some injector cleaner through it and my friend did so regularly. this helps but of course taking the tb apart and cleaning it is probably a good idea. and i *did* wash it but the paint is so course eh... make that coarse not course. in places that it shredded my cotton wash pad and left lint all over the rig. no biggie though i found a can of acrylic enamel at the local napa. it matches the colorado red color almost exactly. will be sanding the bad spots down rattle can primering them and then touching them up with that can of red ae. if that doesnt work and im very good at rattle can painting then ill get a spray gun some paint and spray the truck myself. now thats how to polish a turd! -- john corliss .
From : tom lawrence
an obd-i code reader is mighty spendy. and im not even sure theres a generic version of them or is there might be that the 92 dakotas ecm has a proprietary plug. yeah but theyre pretty much unnecessary - you can just cycle the key and count the number of times the check engine light flashes. this procedure should work on your truck if it becomes necessary http//www.dodgeram.org/tech/gas/trouble/pcmfaultcode.htm .
From : john corliss
tom lawrence wrote an obd-i code reader is mighty spendy. and im not even sure theres a generic version of them or is there might be that the 92 dakotas ecm has a proprietary plug. yeah but theyre pretty much unnecessary - you can just cycle the key and count the number of times the check engine light flashes. this procedure should work on your truck if it becomes necessary http//www.dodgeram.org/tech/gas/trouble/pcmfaultcode.htm thats what ive been doing instructions are in the haynes manual my friend gave me with the truck. but as aarcuda69062 pointed out if the check engine light hasnt been coming on and it hasnt i dont really need to check for error codes anyway. -- john corliss .
From : beryl
john corliss wrote tom lawrence wrote i messed up. its not the engine light on the left its the light that tells you to replace the oxygen sensor maintenance needed on the right. that lights got absolutely nothing to do with the o2 sensors nor any other part of the emissions system. its triggered by time and it just a dumb reminder to bring the vehicle in for service. its pretty much useless. if an o2 sensor were failing that would indeed light up the check engine light. iirc those codes are somewhere in the twenties on the obd-i systems. thanks tom. thats good info to know. and the obd-i system is what the truck is running then. too bad because harbor freight has an obd-ii code reader on sale for $40 right now. but i expected that since obd-ii dates from 1996 and on i believe. an obd-i code reader is mighty spendy. and im not even sure theres a generic version of them or is there might be that the 92 dakotas ecm has a proprietary plug. should be cheaper than obdii. my equus obd-ii reader was around $100 works decent so i checked their site to see what they might have for you. http//www.iequus.com/products.phpcategoryid=1103 theres a reader for gm one for ford one for imports and... the one for chrysler isnt merely a code reader its a code reading system! oh boy. http//www.iequus.com/productinfo.phpproductid=3165&categoryid=1103 i clicked enlarge image zoomed in on that some more and could read on the packaging that the procedure is to cycle vehicles ignition key then read fault codes then refer to booklet to pinpoint problems theres no code reader at all its just a pamphlet with the codes listed. and you can find that info for free. however since there are no fault codes present at this time i guess my concerns at this point are limited to figuring out why the motor races whenever the rig is rolling downhill either direction and i have my foot off of the accelerator. when i come to a complete stop the motor races a second and then suddenly starts idling at a normal rate. that and the weird way that my friend was dealing with the radiator and fan. im going to get some more info from him and see if i can figure that one out though. .
From : tom lawrence
wow you were the one that told me how easy is was to change my drivers side mirror and it was. that same procedure drops the switch panel in your hands. so access is 10 minutes no more and this problem can only be a flaky switch or a flaky switch connection. yeah... pathetic of me isnt it i know i know... i really should just go out there and fix it. but... its cold and rainy outside - nice and warm in here. plus im lazy. maybe one of these days... too bad it is sunny about 78 here top is off the jeep life is good. .
From : john corliss
tom lawrence wrote thats what ive been doing instructions are in the haynes manual my friend gave me with the truck. but as aarcuda69062 pointed out if the check engine light hasnt been coming on and it hasnt i dont really need to check for error codes anyway. well not entirely true. there are codes that can get set that wont illuminate the ce light. well i know that the 12 code battery has recently been disconnected wont light the ce indicator. my haynes manual lists all the fault codes but doesnt say which ones do or dont turn on that light. -- john corliss .
From : john corliss
beryl wrote john corliss wrote tom lawrence wrote i messed up. its not the engine light on the left its the light that tells you to replace the oxygen sensor maintenance needed on the right. that lights got absolutely nothing to do with the o2 sensors nor any other part of the emissions system. its triggered by time and it just a dumb reminder to bring the vehicle in for service. its pretty much useless. if an o2 sensor were failing that would indeed light up the check engine light. iirc those codes are somewhere in the twenties on the obd-i systems. thanks tom. thats good info to know. and the obd-i system is what the truck is running then. too bad because harbor freight has an obd-ii code reader on sale for $40 right now. but i expected that since obd-ii dates from 1996 and on i believe. an obd-i code reader is mighty spendy. and im not even sure theres a generic version of them or is there might be that the 92 dakotas ecm has a proprietary plug. should be cheaper than obdii. my equus obd-ii reader was around $100 works decent so i checked their site to see what they might have for you. http//www.iequus.com/products.phpcategoryid=1103 theres a reader for gm one for ford one for imports and... the one
From : john corliss
i just replaced the rotors and pads on my 01 dakota quad cab 3.9 last summer.i noticed it beforebut even more since i changed them that there seems to be no gradual brakingits all at the end of the pedal travel and it grabs hard on both sidesnot just one. i havent checked the rears yet as we had a ice stormbut i really noticed this in the snow lol. is this just how the dakota stops or is this a sign of a bad master cylinderetc its like the first 90% of the pedal travel doesnt do much and then when you push harderthey lock up. .