Guys This is my first dodge. I have had Fords for many years the first diesel was back in 1988 and it was a piece of junk then my next diesel was the Ford superduty 7.3 Now this was a great truck and sure wish I would have keep it. 200,000 miles and never a problem NOT ONE!!!!
My last Ford was a 2005 6.0 piece of crap!! At 45000 miles the motor south to put it mildly!!!!
Now I have this 2007 Dodge 5.9 with only 13000 miles with no problems as of yet but now I am beginning to wonder if I made a bad choice.... But did not have a lot to chose from! I have seen where Chevy has had there problems as well...
I really think that they put just way to much junk on the trucks with all the computer controls and such.....

 

The more I read in these forums, the more I think it's either hit or miss. It seems 85% of the time, the big 3 put out a decent heavy duty truck, but then there's those of us in the other 15% who get stuck on the luck of the draw with a truck full of bugs and gremlins. I must have been extra lucky in the past because I've had a lot of new, trouble free vehicles before this one.

Now, if either Chrysler or the dealership would step up and make me a good faith offer to get me out of my piece of crap and into a new truck, I'd be a true blue Mopar man all over again (with a maximum extended warranty this time of course.)

 

the real problem is the these parts are sourced out, and the company that supplies them are maybe importing them from china. Nothing good that I have seen comes outa china. but we used say Japan made junk when I was a kid. Now who builds stuff right? The big 3 still have the same mentality they always have had, Make it last a couple yrs and then sell em another one.

 

DeerFarm..... My truck is having the SAME interior light issue. Have had it at the shop twice for this same problem. Both times, they have hooked up the electronic tool and found the timer mysteriously set to zero. Needless to say, I'm NOT going to continue like this. It will be fixed or I WILL invite the dealership AND DMC to have a sitdown with a judge. Granted, its not a really big issue like an axle falling out or a windowed block..... BUT my wife might drive this truck after dark one night and to me its a SAFETY and SECURITY issue. Needless to say, for what we all paid for these trucks, the stupid thing ought to work as the owners manual says it should!!!

 

The auto tranny blew up in my wonderful late 99 F-350 CC Lariat 4x4 Dually PSD at only 63K, with no power mods having been added at all, and with very little towing. Cost $3300 to replace. Doors were rusting when it was 4 years old, tie rod threads got rusty and stripped out (real fine threads, they later updated to a coarser thread) and on my way to work one day they came loose and the front tires were sitting there pointing towards each other, lucky I was going slow around a curve, or I would have been in big trouble.

Truck had a shimmy at highway speeds that no alignment/ball joints/tie rods/tires could fix, and it ate front tires really bad no matter what we tried. I did add power once the new tranny was in, but only had it that way for another 8k or so before I punted it and got the Dodge.

Now I am at about the same miles my Ford had on it when I got rid of it, have pulled the crap out of it, put oversized tires on it, added power, etc. and have had virtually no problems except for a u-joint, and my ball joints MIGHT be starting to go. I can replace a lot of u-joints before I come anywhere close to the money I sank into that Ford in the same mileage.

Sometimes you just get a truck that was built when the workers were thinking about beer thirty. Happens no matter the brand.

 

A $3 grease needle from autozone and some shots of grease through the seals into the u-joint cups every oil change would go a long ways towards making those a non-issue with regards to premature failure. Ball joints on the other hand seem to be a design flaw just not capable of withstanding longterm use with that heavy 1100 lb engine up there.

 

Wow is all I can say after reading this thread.

I have just been very lucky! I have owned (new vehicles) 2 Nissan Hardbody trucks, 1 Ford F150, 2 Chevy Silverado's, and NOW my 04.5 Dodge Cummins. I haven't had a problem worth mentioning on any of them.

My current truck has 83,000 miles on it and has only been to the dealer for the weather strip on the doors TSB and a replacement of my factory Cd/Stereo that ate a CD. My A/C is not the best.

But I can't complain about the rest of the truck. I expect that ball joints and U-joints will eventually have to be replaced.....and I will upgrade to better if I can.

Whatever this current truck needs...im going to give it. I want to drive it for a half-million miles (or more).........even bombed, towing, and occasional playing at the track. Im scared to trade it off now...im afraid my next truck might be a real lemon.

..

 

I agree, these "greased for life" bearings and joints they use now a days are junk. What ever happened to grease fittings, probably were not buying enough replacement u-joints and bearings so the manufacturer eliminates the long life capable grease fitting outfitted stuff. I've seen my share of these things that are "greased for life" with not a lot of hours on stuff and just be burnt up from not having grease and no real way to grease them.

Dealers can do more than they let on, don't let them fool you. I've seen the dealer I used to work for "good will" all kinds of repairs and some were way more than $390 maybe triple or way more than that.

 

Sitcking a grease needle through the seals is a pretty sure-fire way to get a bunch of dirt/water and other debris into the needle bearings, to each his own but I wouldnt do it on a sealed unit.

Why they ever stopped using the greasable u-joints is beyond me, I guess they thought it would cut down on maintenance costs?? Last time I checked a tube of decent grease and a grease gun sets you back 30 bucks and my most recent discovery shows that a new u-joint installed is close to $400 bucks...some maintenance program

Poor Mans Cat:
I think that is what upsets me more. Chrysler builds these POS's, they break, and the dealer cant even fix them Very much like my situation, the dealer doesnt have a clue what is wrong with my truck, he even admitted it! Heres the kicker, the SM even told me that the truck was safe to drive and not to worry about the sound, he said all of my u-joints, etc on the driveline are within tolerance...ok, then WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY TRUCK that makes it sound like the rear end is going to drop out from underneath the truck going 65 down the hwy?!?!? I guess when that actually does happen and I lose control of the truck slamming off the jersey barrier and 4 other cars like a pinball machine, killing someone, perhaps myself I can go back to the dealer and say "you said it was safe to drive!"

Its not about the fact that I had to fork out my hard earned money for parts that shouldnt have failed in the first place, its about mine and my family's safety and that Chrysler just simply doesnt care about it.

 

$390 for a U-Joint? I was under the impression that an entire front diveline was only $250 or so?

 

$110 for the joint and $284 for labor...+tax

 

Nah it won't get in there. The guy on here that gave me this idea uses a needle on all his non-greasable u-joints and hasn't had a factory one fail on his truck in almost 100,000 miles. If it makes you feel any better wipe the puncture hole on the seal with mineral spirits let it dry then put a little dab of silicone over it

 

these trucks have their share of problems, no worse than the competition, anyone is going to worry if all they read is bad press. no problems you say? drive my 6.7 for a day. I envy you.

is anyone aware of a greasable u-joint replacement? that would be nice.

 

Not very serious, just a thought. I have had problems with my truck, tranny, etc. I got 29,000 miles on my truck and my front passenger tire kept going low. Checking for the tire I came across the problem, valve stem was defected, I take it in to get replaced, and they charge me 30 dollars. The guy at the service dept said they would hook me up. So much for that. You can believe how mad I was. I guess from all the other warranty work they had to hit me a little in the pocket. From now on I will make sure everything is done by myself. Forget the dealers.

 

toyato hehehehe hey i used them in iraq beat the snot out of them had many ak rounds punched threw them even had a few blown up under me and they always got me back even when we had a enemy round in the cyclender it ran good enough to get me out of the kill zone.