Marty86

I've been slowly on the hunt for a 24v the last month or so. I've got a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500, v6 5spd single cab, that I picked up cheap from a friend to replace my 97 1500. At the time, I couldn't find any 24v or Common rail's in my price range. Now I'm planning on trading this in on one or the other.

I found a 24v that I am looking at, and it drew some questions.

First, whenever I turned the truck off it make this squeak noise. Not tire squeak, but similar. It came from the engine. Anyone ever heard this? My father-in-laws 04 common rail does this occasionally too whenever he shuts the truck down. Valves maybe?

Next, at 99k, the truck has only been used for daily driving. Should I just save $1000 to replace the vp44 before it goes out? The dealership said they asked the owner (it was a trade-in vehicle) about the pump, and he said it was original. They didn't ask about the lift pump.

This is a 2001, can a programmer reprogram the speedo? Its got 33" tires on it right now, so that means the speedo is off just a bit I'd assume.

Before anyone asked, its not a 53 block. That was the first thing I checked.

Mike D

The squeak is the belt, nothing to worry about.

Have them check the fuel pressure to see if the lift pump is good, should see around 12-14 psi at idle, no less than 6 psi underload. Don't worry about the injection pump until it goes out.

How about sticking a nice 12 valve in your 1500, would be a lot of fun to drive on the street.

jj3500

That squeek is somewhat common in these trucks. It is the serpentine belt. I have read that its the motor stopping too quick for the belt. My truck did this too. I replaced it with a new one. I still on occasion get it. Just make sure it isn't dry rotted and ready to fail.

VP44...mixed reviews. There are guys with a lot of miles on their original and some with not so many miles. Me, I'd wait till it poops. Get a FP guage, take a look at it.

Programmer....no input on that.

Marty86

Well, I'd do that if it was a quad cab, but its a single cab, and I need more interior space.

Thanks for the input on the first two questions, any one else know about the programmer question?

Dr. Evil

yes you can do that - you can get a dealer to do that for you for $50-100 of you can buy a Smarty for $500 or so.

Dont worry about stuff like this - I would get them to come down at least $1 k so you can put an Air Dog on the truck. Also, make sure you check fuel pressure - minimun 10 psi at idle and 5 psi at wide open throttle. This is from the Dodge Service Manual:



and make sure you scan for codes to make sure the injector pump is not dead. Its all too common for people to take these trucks in for repair because they arent working, then the find out what the repair bill will be so they trade it off.

Marty86

Will do, I'll have it run. Another guy put money down on it already, but they said he was being real flakey. He had until tomorrow (a week from when he put the money down), or they were sending the money back and I could jump on it. They wouldn't let me drive it since money was already put down on it, but if his stuff falls through I'm next in line, so I'll report what I find.

SIXSLUG

Get a warranty. I paid $1500 for mine and it has already saved me about 7 grand....front end rebuild, transmission replaced, ECM replaced, LP replaced. They will really try to make you happy right now. If your holding the money, leverage it, they are hungry! Luck

Kurt

Tate

If you get that truck, keep $1500 saved incase the VP, or anything else for that matter, fails. These trucks are for the most part very reliable, but repairs are expensive, so having money saved for any repair is just a good idea, no matter what you drive.

Dr. Evil covered the speedo.

You can check the codes by turning the key on-off-on-off-on and reading what comes up in the odomete. 0216 is the common death code for the VP, although there are others. If 1693 comes up, just ignore it, its a companion code saying there are codes in the PCM.

Another vote for a 12v in the 1500. Being a reg cab is more reason to do it, small the package, the more fun.

67HotRod

I've got over 200K on my original vp44, just make sure you have decent fuel pressure.

Busboy

I think that's an excellent idea on trucks like ours.... (the warranty)

Ron R

There are other cheep programgers out there that can redo the speedo.
I think superchips has one. most of the 4x mags also have one that will do just the spedo for like 80.00

Silver R/T

who's your warranty with, which company?

rebal

its a 2001 truck ,you can cycle the key 3 times and get the codes from the odo