Ol-dodge 1992

Hello fellas... it's been a long winter!!

Got a quick question about a 2003 dodge ... 5.7 gasser.

My son is looking for his first truck... found this one on Kijiji. The exterior is almost perfect only one little dent on drivers side of the bed. Interior is just as nice!

I texted the owner about having a test drive... they told me that the truck is drivable but 2nd gear is slipping !?!?!

I honestly don't know what that means or what to check ... could it just be low on fluid? I'm really not familiar with transmission work ... if the fluid smells bad or looks bad then I figure something is bad!

The truck is 3 hrs drive from us and I really don't want to sink a whole day in to a round trip only to find big transmission problems.

If we can get the price down because of the transmission problem, how big of a job to pull out and have it rebuilt... then put it back in?

I know this is a diesel forum... just asking for some advice and a little insight

SD

Mikeske

16 year old gasser. I would not even bother as that is going to be a expensive repair with 2nd gear slipping. NO IN FACT RUN from that. EDIT. I have a 23 year old Gen 2 V10 and that thing is only worth about $3500.00 and that is without dents, mine has a right hand side dent and might fetch only a couple US grand at best. I just keep it as it is a perfect ruck to haul junk and garbage.

torquefan

I would assume it needs a complete rebuild. You might want to call a transmission shop and ask what a typical rebuild might cost on one of those; I'd guess it could exceed three or four thousand including labour to remove and install.

Ol-dodge 1992

Thanks fellas

Both of you have confirmed what I was thinking in my gut the whole time... we will just keep looking for a decent first truck for my son

Mikeske

Dodge Ram trucks with the automatics are a known weak link to these trucks. With also in that era also have a known rust issue in the snowy areas if salt is used on the roads. My old 2nd generation truck and my 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 have a known weak transmission and buying a used older Dodge Ram is a crap shoot at best. I knew going in with both my trucks that the transmissions were that way so I have done the only thing I can to preserve the original transmissions on both these trucks. First off they both get yearly servicing of the transmissions with a filter and a flush then I added a larger transmission cooler to both trucks. I have also added temperature gauges to the transmissions and when towing I do monitor the temperatures closely.

One of the biggest thing to preserve the transmissions is not to modify the factory settings. These transmissions are for the most part fine with the factory calibrations but the instant you change the factory settings you are asking for a failure. I bought my 1998 Dodge Ram 2500 V10 gasser new and the 2004 Dodge Ram Cummins as a used vehicle. I know the 1998 since I had it since new, but the 2004 I went off the fact that the truck was clean used vehicle and the trade in to the dealer was also the original selling dealer and I got it entire maintenance history before I even consider it and I saw that the trans was serviced regularly. The only thing I did not care about with both of my Dodge's was the color as both of them are in black.

The other brands of pickup trucks with diesels all have issues of the same era, Ford 6.0 liters come to mind as they have a terrible reputation and the GM's also had engines that were not the best effort. The only reason I went with a Cummins powered pickup truck is the engine is really much easier to service and transmissions are a whole lot cheaper to replace then a engine.