Warranty Information

From : paul jensen

Q: kevin wrote ball joints and steering linkage is most likely your problem. my truck is a year old 4.7 4x4 club cab dakota and i have had to have all of the above replaced. the dakotas are known for having weak front ends. i your truck is not under warranty heave the aftermarket ball joints put on they have grease fittings on them. kevin campbell you just have to get underneath the truck and have someone turn the steering back and forth. you should be able to determine which steering componet is worn out. sometimes youll replace one piece only to find out there is another clunk down there to repair. then get a front end alignment. hope it never came about because of the accident your truck isnt that old. hey guys i have a 2000 dodge dakota sport 4.7l v8 4x4. about a year ago i was involved in a 3 car pile-up..i was the last to hit and my front-passenger side got smashed...the body shop did a superb job of fixing it and all has been well since then. recently in about the last 2 months my truck started feeling a bit strange. the front end almost felt a little loose but not loose in the steering wheel. its hard to explain..almost like the suspension in the front loosened up. at times its almost unnoticable but for example when im on the freeway it will very slightly pull to one side..and its not the slope of the road. another thing i noticed is in the morning when i start it up and make a u-turn in the street the sharp turning causes it to make sort of a clunk sound as if something was shifting underneath. after a while i got used to this and somewhat forgot about the oddities that my truck had acquired so last night i thought it would be funny to run one tire over a small mound of dirt maybe a foot high. as i was driving back to town it seemed fine but suddenly i noticed that when i would take slow turns the power steering was sort of go out. i tried pulling into a parking lot and while making turn the power steering was totally out. i rolled over to a parking lot lamp and popped the hood and noticed absolutely nothing. my friend was turning the wheel back and forth hoping i would possibly see something...nothing. he said it seems fine to me. i closed the hood and got back in the truck...the power steering was back and worked perfectly...although the drive home yielded some strange feeling in the wheel it worked fine. do you guys have any idea what could be causing my problems thanks for the help!! kevin you sound like you know what the hell youre talking about. i think im going to do what 600 xcr said and get under there and look but ill be looking closely at the ball joints and steering linkage. you guys are awesome and thanks for the help! brian .

Replies:

From : jerry

james1549 wrote hy dont you get a transmission temp gauge and put the sender where it will do some good. in the line going to the cooler. no put it in the transmission pan as originally planned. you are concerned more about the temperature that the cooler can maintain than the hot temp coming from the outlet. any electronic controlled transmissions i have delt with all have the temp sensor in the pan. james1549 you couldnt be more wrong if you tried. you want to know what your transmission is doing not what the cooler is doing. as suggested if you want to know what the operating temperature of your transmission really is put the sender in the line going to the cooler. but then again when you fry the trans at least you will know that the cooler is working. jerry -- character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking. .

From : mike simmons

james1549 wrote nate typically transmission temperature should run about 10% hotter than engine temp. under towing conditions it may go higher but should come back down quickly once you get back on level ground. james1549 want to explain why the transmission would run the same or higher than the engine temperature the ideal temperature would be around 170-175 and below at all times. constant temperatures of 220 as the poster mentioned would certainly shorten the life of a transmission and the answer to his question is yes the 220 reading he is getting is not good period. jerry -- character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking. .

From : denny

paul by recent purchase i presume that you have just purchased the dak as a used vehicle correct the term on the warranty begins on the first day the vehicle was placed in service by the original owner. if you call your local dodge dealer and furnish them with your vin they will be able to look up the in service date for you. they can also check for any outstanding recalls at that time as well. hope this helps. chryco service manager member sae i recently purchased a 2001 dakota and absolutely love it. i am finding this group to be very helpful. how can i find out what date the warranty expires it has 26k miles so im alright there. i may get to 3 years before i get to 36k miles so i need to know when the 3 years are up. .

From : paul jensen

on 7/3/03 1508 remove spam from address to reply wrote on 7/2/03 1352 remove spam from address to reply wrote here are some numbers to ponder a 3500-lb car being raised 5400 feet = potential energy increase of 18900000 foot-pounds. assuming this occurs over a 10-hour time span it requires an average work of 525 foot-pounds per second. ok this is good. i like a real analysis. thats basically a one-horsepower engine running full open at max load and thats at least doubly redundant dont spoil this with exaggeration. wrong ... if its a 1-hp engine it will produce 1 hp and consume appropriate fuel only when operated full-bore and properly loaded. horsepower is proportional to the product of rpm and torque; torque requires load. you dont think your lawnmower does work at the rate of 5 hp when its running full speed but not also loaded by high grass do you is that why you dont feel that the hypothetical engine would drink noticeable fuel a one-horsepower engine already says it all full open at max load is in there. drinking from your fuel tank without adding anything to your forward progress. but i still dont think its detectable. the wind factor w

From : jerry

my understanding about gvw is the total combined weight of the whole rig truck trailer wife kids beer beer beer did i mention beer.am i correct not quite... gvwr gross vehicle weight rating is the maximum amount of weight that your truck can carry. its the weight of everything you mentioned except the trailer. while the tongue weight of the trailer is technically included in the gvwr calcuation the entire weight of the trailer is not. your owners manual should also list your gcvwr or gross combined vehicle weight rating. this is how much total weight truck+trailer you can safely operate. now - dealing with gvwr for a minute while this is the maximum weight the truck can carry theres also other considerations. each axle has a weight rating as well. lets assume your truck has a gvwr of 5600lbs. the front axle has a gawr of 1600lbs and the rear axle has a gawr of 4000lbs. you can see the weights of both axles total up to the gvwr of the vehicle. however you can still overload the truck with a large amount of weight 4000lbs placed over just the rear axle. as with anything else proper balance is important. now beyond axle ratings are the weight ratings of your tires. look on the sidewall - they will indicate their maximum weight capacity at a certain psi. if its a light-duty tire it might have a weight rating of 1900lbs. even though your rear axle is rated for 4000lbs. with these tires it can only safely carry 3800lbs. so when considering loading up a truck with people gear tools and trailers its important to know all the weight ratings and make sure youre under the maximum for all of them. .