Took the truck in this morning and left it with the dealer for the " infamous 68 mph vibe " along with what I perceive to be an " out of the ordinary sounding diesel clatter or tapping sound ".

Got the " what I expected " phone call from them about 2:00pm today saying that after extensive test driving and inspection, it was determined that the vibration was from the wheels & tires needing balanced and rotated at the rediculously low price of $125.00 dollars. The engine clatter I was hearing is a normal thing for the common rail injection system, but a 3 step injection cleaning process with diesel additive should make all the difference, also at an unbelievably underpricing of $152.00 dollars.

Also wanted me to know that the radiator was found to have " corrosion " in the system and suggested a complete flush and change of fluid. Due to this being the same antifreeze for the past 31k miles, I decided what the heck and had that done for $52.00 and thanked them but passed on the two other offered bargains.

Does anyone reckon that DC will ever own up to the vibe and clatter problem or, or we just stuck with it ?

 

stuck with it.

 

My dealer has attempted to fix the vibe 3 times. Visit 1 and 2 was the shimming and un-shimming of the carrier bearing. Visit 3 lasted a week and resulted with both driveshafts and u-joints being replaced. Visit 4 was not good. Dealer service mgr., DC warranty person, and DC field service rep drove the truck and reported that a vibration could not be found. Said it was an exhaust drone. I have stock exhuast and wondered out loud why the "drone" was still present when coasting at 65+ MPH in neutral. They could not give me answer to that but did say that DC was working on a fix for the drone. Good for DC I said. When are you gonna fix the vibe? Was told that no more work on my driveline will be done since the truck does not have a vibe. I was mad as hades. Everybody who rides in the truck can feel it above 65+ mph.

Svc. Mgr. did say that he felt a wheel out of round. HUH, I asked? Exhaust drone.....now you say a wheel out of round? His reply...no, no, not a wheel, maybe a tire. This will likely be the last DC product I buy. Five DC vehicles in 10 years....this 03 has had more warranty claims than the other 4 combined.

 

Rico, you must have a very high cost of living down there. Those prices are robery. As for the vibration. Dodge will do nothing till you do something. Hire a Lemon Law attorney. Dodge is hoping you do one of two things. Live with it like the last post said or get fed up and sell it. Either way they win. I have hired an attorney and will follow it through till we got to court if need be. If more owners would do the same they would be forced to fix the problem. They will always do what is the cheapest.

 

You know why they most likely did that on your 4th visit I6DZUL? Because if they service it 4 times for the same thing its eligible for a buyback if you wish.

No surprise to me that they are now saying it doesn't even exist.

 

Well I have to through one good one in here. My dealer fixed my vibe, took a couple of times but they put a new rear drive shaft on and all is fine now. Actually with the new shaft it is smoother at all speeds. You can still some times slightly feel that vib/drone at 68-70, but if you didn't know it did it to start with you would never know it.

On a side note my truck never had a vibe when new, it started around 20,000 or so. Now I'll see if it comes back.

 

that really sucks, my truck had the vibe when i bought it new, at 67-71 mph.

brought it in to my dealer and they fixed the problem by the next day, they said the driveshaft had to be replaced

but i guess it took them alot of tries since they gave my truck back to me with a quarter tank of fuel when i brought it in with 3 quarters!!!

I really yelled at them for that

 

You would be correct on that Doom. I'm exploring the alternatives now. Not sure which way I will go. The vibe was not present until about 12k miles. Truck now has 18K. If I didn't like this one so much the decision would be easy. But I really enjoy driving it...even with a vibe.

 

Yours sounds just like mine. Did they try a new rear shaft?

 

Took mine in last Thursday, handed them copies of some of the posts on this site and on the other site, Reps were scheduled to look at mine. One day in the shop and the Vib is fixed, they spend several hours indexing the rear shaft. Truck has no vibration at all. it had the vibration from day one, truck has 9000 miles on it now and its perfect, this is the third one they have fixed the Vib on. Its up to the dealer, I have found a good one.

 

I think you only have to take it in and REPORT the problem 4 times.

Their refusal to service it would count as the 4th time, I think. You might need to take a witness in to sign an affidavit that you took it in and they refused to take it. That would be obviously avoinding the Lemon Law and not only get your your truck dealt with, but very likely get the dealership in trouble. Possibly criminal trouble, too, for trying to thwart/avoid complying with the law.

Sounds like they just gave you the ultimate barganing chip!

 

What's indexing the rear shaft?

 

Yep, sure did, Mopar_M. Replaced front and rear driveshafts and the u-joints. Carrier bearing and the rear end are original. The mechanic who works on it was nice enough to give me five different carrier bearing brackets or shims, if you will, to "experiment" with. Over the years, I've grown to old and fat to crawl under vehicles and turn wrenches. Thats why I like warranties, although it's not doing me much good now...

 

Indexing of rear driveshaft, some of this was taken from another post, I printed it and after several months discussion with my dealer, it was set up and the reps came down, I gave them this info, they tried it, and its fixed....................
Removing the rear shaft from the differential yoke, carefully sliding it off the splines on the front end and rotating 180 then reinstalling on the same location on the rear yoke (park brake, truck in neutral, remove yoke, truck in park to lock transfer case position, pull shaft off spline, rotate 180 and slide on spline, truck in neutral to release transfer case, rotate shaft to realign on same location of diff yoke, reinstall bolts on yoke) produced less vibration, but still existed. Back in the garage, repeat the procedure and rotated an additional 90 degrees CW (facing FWD). Test drive and I feels like a new gasser! No vibrations . Note, the first 180 may do it, or a 90 CW or CCW, you will just have to experiment.