I picked up the truck tonight from the dealer. They ended up replacing the pinion bearing and supporting bearings in the front differential. They also replaced the front left wheel bearing and all 4 ball joints. The total was $2079.

Why couldn't Dodge make their parts as durable as the Cummins???

 

that had to hurt...ill trade in before taking a beating like that...sorry to hear about your luck...dont you wish that money couldve been spent on the fun stuff!!!

brett

 

How many miles did you have on your truck? Did you have a lift? Just gotta start getting ready for all my stuff to start failing... I guess?!?!

 

thats why they don't make trucks duarble and easy to repair... no one whats to maintain an older truck, just get new every few years.

 

OUCH, that bill hurt I beat. Hopefully it's paid for and if it is that bill is nothing.

 

Well, I have 120,000 miles on it and it is NOT paid for yet. Close but not quite there. $2k certainly will hurt. The good side is that I hopefully don't have to worry about it for a while. It seems like a lot of trucks are having ball-joint, u-joint or other repairs that we shouldn't be having.

It's sad that American's have become so greedy that we practically demand a maximizing of profits so we can get good returns on our stocks and IRA's which results in company's making cheaper products or outsourcing to other countries. We are doing it to ourselves! Sorry for the rant...

This truck is a keeper for a while. I just finished putting raammat in all of the doors. It does make a difference by muffling the outside noise. Now I hear more of the engine only. Next summer I'll buy some more and do the floor; I already did the back wall of the cab.

 

No lift on the truck. Pretty much stock except for egt gauge and VA3.2.

 

Ball joints on my truck were replaced under waaranty at 26k. I have stock lift and 285 BFG's. I wanted to go with 315's but stuck with the 285's so if something like this happened. I have some kind of argument that those are the same size tires they put on their Power Wagons, so they couldnt blame non-stock oversized tires for the failure.

 

Just had a buddy with an 04 with 34,000 miles just about lose it on the highway. Found the ball joints were all shot... Of course he was swinging 37s with a 6 inch lift, so I think that goes with the territory. Seems the ball joints are suspect in these Dodges...

 

I just hit 70k, and now I'm on my own. Dodge fixed the following under waranty:

1. Driver's side visor.

2. Water leak on the passenger side showed up at about 36k miles. It took them four times but they finally fixed it.

3. Yoke on the tranny. It was spraying a fair amount of oil around.

4. At 70k the right rear axle seal, as it was 'lubing' the brake for me.

5. Valve cover gasket, as it leaking oil onto down the back of the engine.

6. Alternator bracket early on on a service bulletin.

I think that's it. In any case look your truck over carefully, at least before the 36k and the 70k warranties expire.

 

What year is your truck? 26K seems really early for ball-joints. Smart that you kept the 285's on.

Each time I took mine in, I removed the VA box, just in case. Now that the warranty is out, I don't mess with removing it.

The cost is part of maintenance I guess. I wish they made them with the greasable fittings so we could blame ourselves when they failed.

 

Ouch, im guessing more then half of that is labor.

So how did you go about this?

Did you take it in there with complaints of sloppyness and bad ride and told them to make it better?

There's no way I can afford to pay the dealer out of my own budget. There are about as high as it gets for repairs and good luck disputing something.

I was like you and was scarred that i'd mess something up and always took it to the mechanic to get the brakes done. That was until I broke a axle shaft, and knuckle. Dealer wanted $900 for the inner shaft and another $600 for the knuckle. So I went to the local truck wrecker and bought the parts and did it myself for under $200.

Its a real simple job once you get in there. Not too much to mess up.

You'd be surprised what you can fix if you have to. I was flat broke and had to borrow the $200 to fix it but everything worked out and told the dealer I wouldnt need the $2,000 in repairs since I did it myself for $200

I know I could probably use new balljoints but im holding out for thoes BEEF ones that should be out in a few months.

Ive come to learn that the dealer is more clueless then I am. All they do is replace stuff and hope that fixes the problem.

The $2,000 sux but atleast your truck's front end is all freshened up, and should last you another 120K

How does it drive now?

100% like stock or 70% like stock.

 

It drives fine now. It used to pull to the right but now tracks straight. What made me take it in was the noise the bearings were making; not normal at all. The parts on the bill were $1300 and the labor was $800. I know they set their parts pricing but I was expecting a reversal of those. $800 is a lot for labor but I would have had to take some time off of work and would have been more aggravated than the $800 cost.

 

They hit you pretty good on the cost of the parts. Why didn’t they do both wheel bearings? Those wheel bearings are a bear to get off and sometimes split in the process.

Tell me they did the U-joints as well?

I wonder what happened to the bearings in the diff? Did you buy the truck new? Has the front end ever been submerged?

 

They said the right bearings didn't need changing. I did both u-joints in June (2nd for the left side). I bought the truck new and it's never been submerged.