oh, i gotcha now. by overhead you meant valve adjustment. i thought you meant the overhead in the truck, haha. sorry about that. i need to get a factory service manual, then i would feel very comfortable doing this myself.

if i decide to drop the pan and check the bearings, how does the pan come off? it doesnt look like theres enough clearence. im assuming theres an oil pickup/sump to clear and theres a frame crossmember right under the pan.

 

The best is to pull the motor. you may not have the clearance needed to do it in the truck

 

im not going to pull the motor, the truck is under warranty. if i cant find the noise easily, i will have to wait for it to get worse and then go beack to the dealer. i wouldnt mind checking valve adjustment or dropping the pan to be on the safe side since the dealer isnt worried at this point, but im not doing anything major like pulling the motor or trans or head. besides i use the truck for work everyday. if i cant find where the noise is coming from, and the oil looks ok when i change it, and the noise doesnt get any worse then i will have to chalk it up to my imagination. but i swear the noise wasnt there before the accident.

 

I don't blame you , just make sure you have it documented that they checked it out, Just in case. I hope you won't need it

 

I know - I read you correctly the first time... but we're discussing a Ram hitched with a tag sitting still being rear-ended by an SUV.

Mildly mind-boggling, IMO

 

when he first posted, he said it is loud in the pan area, like bearings.

 

I know , I thought the same thing the first time I had to pull down an engine that had just been running fine till they backed under a trailer in are yard, & trucks involved in an accident with not much more then a bent bumper

 

it is loud in the oil pan when im under the truck listening w/ a stethascope. but its not very loud inside the truck.

im still hoping someone could tell me what a bad or cracked injector sounds like?

 

injectors will sound like a clicking/ticking noise. similar to loose rocker arms(especially since they are in the same area)
tell the dealer it has been hit hard from the back, and now you hear the noise. the insurance co will have to pay them for engine damage/repairs. if you wait, YOU'LL be stuck footing the bill.

 

just an update. the noise is still there, hasnt gotten any worse and i have been running it pretty hard once and a while trying to break it. its been over 1000 miles since the noise started so im just guessing its not a bearing. the trans is acting a little funny though, maybee it was the big smoky burnout i did the other night. oh well, im gonna run it another 4k and then change the oil and if i dont see anything them im not gonna be concerned until something lets go....probably the trans if anything. i will also most likely get a service manual from dodge and check the valve adjustment just to see if its out of spec, although it would be hard to believe w/ only 11,500 on the odo.

 

I got my Service Manual (FSM) off e-bay for ten dollars. It is on a disc and I just print out the parts I need.

 

Sometimes I wonder about the dealerships. The service writers aren't the experts as far as I'm concerned. You should talk to a mechanic. If not from Dodge the go to a cummins dealer, out here it's Cummins West. They know their diesels better than anyone and who knows what they might or might not find. I used to get spooked more when I heard unknown noises from the engine compartment but since owning a diesel I don't worry as much anymore. They are just beasts but if you are really concerned then find a real Cummins dealer. Oh, and be glad you didn't get hurt. At any rate document something with the dealer or insurance company just in case.

 

Yeah, hope it all works out well. It is probably a non-issue and just an annoyance. If a bearing lets go it will do it before 100K just make sure to run it hard. My friend's civic just let a bearing go at 120K... The problem probably started about 20K ago when he shipped it from Germany and he didn't know they drained the oil and went 200miles before it overheated. Now 2 years later it broke down and he thought is was a thousand things, it made a little noise and was idleing low and we took apart just about everything and pulled the cam girdle off and I saw a fleck of copper color. It was all down hill from there.

The funny thing was it threw a code, saying something about the throttle position sensor or something, and broke down. Sometimes cars do funny things. He is a fighter jet crew cheif and I'm fairly mechanically inclined and even though the noise it made might have led to a bearing failure on the bottom end we didn't assume that.

At any length I'll remember this incase I get rearended I'll set up a claim even if it isn't serious. My 04 got sideswiped and after that it "changed" hard to explain. In tx you have 10 days to file a claim and I know it sucks for the other party but... sometimes you get dealt a crap hand.

I'd most definately get an oil sample taken like someone above mentioned just for peace of mind. If there are any problems you can take the results to the dealer.

 

If it is the transmission, it will happen again. I'd get rid of the truck unless you don't mind replacing the transmission several times over the life of the truck.

 

Hope the best for ya!! I too got rear-ended towing a 30' Citation/TT while sitting still waiting to make a left turn on a 4 lane road. Guy put down 75' ft. of rubber before he put the front end of his little Ferd pickup into the master bedroom. The shock was so great that it broke the front window cover right out of it's seal - 30' away from the point of impact. My truck had over 200k on the clock and immediately started to have tranny problems. I have a good relationship with my dealer, they know my truck was a workhorse and any time there was a problem I would immediately bring it in. They dropped the tranny pan and found a couple of pieces of a big snap ring in the bottom of the pan. When I asked them if this had been caused by the accident the tech would not give me a definitive answer due to the mileage on the truck and other wear in the tranny. The best that they could say was that it was "possible" it could have been caused by the accident. Insurance co. didn't buy it, again due to the "high" mileage and I wound up paying the $2,500.00 to fix it.