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01:07:42 - 12/20/2024
V8 Dakotas
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eddy
Dodge Dakota
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3/14/2004
10:18:46
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 Subject: Already its starting
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Vibration in the steering wheel when braking lightly at about 65-75 mph, now starting to be felt at other speeds when I get on the brakes. Im guessing rotors.
Popping sound in tight turns... Im guessing a bushing or the dreaded ball joints. Though I have a hard time believing my ball joints gave up this soon at only 8500 miles.
IT's an 04 Quad V8 5speed auto 4x4.
I was already at the dealership Saturday but apparently only 'oil change specialist', ie grease monkeys who can't handle anything more complicated, work in the service department on weekends. The guys who actually can fix cars work only weekdays, although of course they didn't put it in quite these words. So now I have an appointment on Wed to check my front end and brakes.
Some young punk with a nose ring jumped behind the driver's seat of my truck and went flying up and down the test strip several times to see how the brakes felt, then measured the thicknesses of everything and told me I was fine. OF course I went straight from the dealership to a mechanic I trust who got behind the wheel and told me within about the first 30 seconds on the highway that I needed new rotors.
I know it's kinda sketchy about the 12 thousand mile warranty, IVe heard on here it's an actual warranty on the brakes, but others tell me Chrysler will write off brake work up to 12K or a year on a case by case basis. What have your brake experiences been like?
I figure Ill get the work done for free right now while it's in warranty, then if/when this happens again in another 6 months or so Ill have my mechanic put on the best brake pads I can buy.
I have their own spec sheets that they printed out when they measured all thicknesses showing that the pads and rotors had thicknesses like they were brand new, so now once they see the rotors are out of round they can't attribute it to normal wear and tear or driving style.
I have the feeling this truck is gonna make me regret getting rid of my 107 thousand mile Ranger. MAybe I should start working to pay it off by the time my 3/36 is finished so I can start budgeting for other problems.
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Sephiroth
Dodge Dakota
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3/14/2004
21:00:27
| RE: Already its starting
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This EXACT same thing happened to my father's '98 4x4 CC 5.2L Dakota. Vibrations when braking and needed new ball-joints. Cost almost $1000 to have repaired. Apparently the ball-joint started going bad and somehow caused the brakes to have a problem. He had to get new ball-joints, pads, and rotors. This is why both of my Daks are prior to Gen3.
If you wish to avoid repeated ball-joint repairs, I'd buy some after-market ball-joints that can be greased and thus maintained. The guys here can help you on choosing a good set.
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eddy
Dodge Dakota
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3/15/2004
01:05:17
| RE: Already its starting
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Im trying to keep an open mind, but its a shame really. This is THE TRUCK that met my needs, wants, and budget best out of anything that exists on the market. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a lemon.
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D-Boy
Dodge Dakota
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3/15/2004
16:55:05
| RE: Already its starting
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I have a 5.9 and I had popping in the rear, it would sort of make the truck jitter when making slow turns (i.e. drive threw fast food). anyways mine ended up being the differential at about 18000 miles. Hope that helps.
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Sephiroth
Dodge Dakota
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3/15/2004
18:33:41
|  RE: Already its starting
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The new Daks are nice-looking, but until they get fixed I don't plan on buying one. I've never bee let down by either of my two Gen2 Daks, and I've been really abusive on the V6 Dak. Well, I was after HS when I was young and stupid. My V8 has been treated like gold, and it acts like it. But still, I won't buy another Dak until these design flaws are fixed:
1) Ball-joints
2) Need grease-fittings on all joints (drive-shaft and steering linkage for instance)
I'd also prefer to get the air-filter back on top of the carb for more room in the engine compartment and so I can use a Tornado, not to mention a putting on a nice chrome open-element filter-housing!
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eddy
Dodge Dakota
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3/17/2004
13:16:40
| RE: Already its starting
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Seems like at Murray Dodge in Norristown, Pa, all they have is knuckle scraping monkeys who can't do anything but oil changes. Sorry, this will be a bit long.
I have an 04 Quad Cab Dak 5 speed auto/4wd/v8. Recently at about 7900 miles noticed steering vibration at highway speeds when braking and popping sound in front suspension when turning. I take it to get it looked at Saturday and the lady tells me nobody qualified to do suspension work is really there on Saturdays. The more experienced techs get weekends off, so they could only look at the brakes, not the front suspension. Mainly they do oil changes and other minor maintenance on Saturdays. I later figured out that she was trying to tell me in a nice way that anybody who actually knew anything about cars other than how to loosen an oil plug was off on Saturdays.
I didnt know when Id have the time to be there again so I said fine, toss her the keys, and go to walk around the lot. 5 minutes later some kid in a nose ring comes out to get in my truck then goes roaring up and down the test strip out back at about 45 miles hitting the brakes repeatedly, turning around, then doing it in the other direction. Then pulls into the service bay and puts it on a lift and I think great, its about to get resolved. 20 minutes later they call me in to tell me he found nothing wrong, and that the thicknesses of everything measured like brand new. So I could come in on Wednesday to have the suspension checked.
I say fine, then take it to a mechanic I trust who takes a 10 minute test drive with me free of charge and tells me within 30 seconds of getting on the highway that my front rotors are toast. Fine, so I call the lady at the dealer back and tell her a mechanic I trust who has no incentive to lie because he knows he wont be doing the brake work told me I need rotors. And she tells me they'll have a second look when I bring it in Wednesday.
Wednesday comes around and I go up there and flip them the keys, another tech gets into my truck goes off to do about 10 minutes of highway driving this time, comes back, puts it on the lift, then of course, 20 minutes later they call me in and try to tell me everything checked out fine. By this time the service lady is looking at me like Im some kind of automotive hypochondriac who must not have anything better to do than pretend things are wrong with his truck when they're really not. Yeah, like its my idea of fun to make up reasons to sit in the Dodge dealer on my only day off all week.
IT was really irritating, because the vibration was pretty bad by that point and I was dealing with it pretty much every single time I got on the brakes. So it was amazing to me that the tech did could not duplicate it in any way whatsoever.
SO this time I tell her as politely as I can Id like the tech to take one more spin with me in the passenger seat. He pulls it out again and the first time he gets up to about 45 mph and goes to brake I see the steering wheel shake visibly in his hands and I put my hand on it too and ask him if he can honestly look at me with a straight face and tell me he doesn't feel it the same thing I do. He finally admits he feels it and my rotors must be bad, and feeds me some line about how the brakes must not have been warm enough on the first test drive to really grab hard enough to replicate the problem. Im thinking 'whatever, just fix it and stop making excuses for being incompetent'.
So they end up replacing both front rotors but find no suspension issues though I know for a fact it's making that darn popping sound. Finally I pull the manager aside and tell him I always believe that being the most profitable customer I can to my car dealeships is the best way to build a relationship with them as a customer, but his techs' inability to diagnose simple things like brake problems was hurting my confidence in the service department. And that was causing me to have serious reservations about doing even my general maintenance there. I pay for the 70 dollar oil changes for a damn reason, because I expect this stuff to be checked and caught at those times and that when I have problems they'll go that extra mile to find them and fix them the first time because Im such a good customer and they want me to come back.
Furthermore if I had to go somewhere else to get somebody to make the sound from my front end stop, whoever figured it out would be the place to maintain my truck from then on. He finally apologized and had three techs run out and crawl all over my truck like monkeys, and they finally greased the steering bump stops, which made it go away. So basically it took two trips to the dealer, a second opinion from an independent mechanic, and me riding with a service tech and FORCING him to notice the problem before they would replace my rotors. IT took me threatening to never come back again for them to figure out what the sound coming from my front end was. Im still willing to give them one more chance because it's where I bought the truck, but Im not enthusiastic about giving my money to a place that makes me jump through hoops just to get their service techs to do their jobs and make my truck drive like a 5 month old vehicle with 8 thousand miles should.
I really am starting to doubt their ability to service my vehicle properly, and was just wondering if anybody has any experience with decent Dodge service departments in the Norristown/Philly/Willow Grove area. Specifically, Im looking for a place where you can bring your truck if it has a problem, and they actually are more interested in diagnosing and fixing it correctly than in running your truck up and down the street a few times then telling you they can't feel it so everything must be fine.
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