I've noticed that when my front wheels are fully locked while doing a mild turn into a shopping center driveway or of going over a mild bump with full wheel lock, that my stock wheels sometimes rub the front fender well at the top of the opening. I don't remember this when we first got the truck back in August. It now has about 8,000 miles on it.

Now, here's my question. Since that Cummins weighs almost twice as much as a Hemi, could the stock front coil springs we defective and possibly be sagging a bit. Might there be a Dodge TSB on this? This is a stock 4x2 front end. I noticed that there's a pretty good "rake" to the stance of my struck with the rear being higher than the front end of the truck when you look at it unloaded sitting on flat ground.

It seems that I heard of this problem in the past with some fairly new trucks having front springs that were defective and were letting the truck sit lower in the front than factory spec.

A factory-stock wheel shouldn't rub/bump the upper part of my wheel-well/fender-edge when making a tight slow turn.
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You Dodge Truck experts........help me out. I don't think a bad shock would do this.
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Other than this, the truck has been flawless.

I have run my finger along the edge of both front fender-wells and I do feel a little bump where I believe the tire on each side is rubbing/contacting the fender momentarily, and pulling the sheetmetal out.

 

A few were made with wrong or weak front springs.There is a TSB on this.D.C,sent notices out to affected trucks.Maybe it was a voluntary RECALL and not a TSB.Shocks do not affect ride height.

 

Somthing isn't right. Possible bad springs or the wrong ones installed (from a Hemi version).
Take it back to the dealer and have them look at it.

MikeyB

 

Defective.If Hemi springs it would have been on the wheels from the get go.I put diesel springs in a D350 with 360 and it looked like on stilts!

 

MikeyB

 

Never drove it.It kept sagging springs and the diesel springs were a HUMM these might work.NOT!

 

Hounddog:

Could you dig up the TSB number?

 

Any one link him to tsb's? Geno's garage list Tsb's on their site.

 

Got my baby(truck) back from the service department this afternoon.

Thankfully they did reproduce the sound that I was hearing in the front-end.

It wasn't tires rubbing a fender-well according to them, but apparently the steering components when in the full turned/locked position when turning were rubbing against the "stop" which the service advisor told me was just a bare metal surface being rubbed. It needs periodic lubing, or it will make that metallic rubbing sound that I thought was fender metal.

Actually when inspecting the upper edge of the two front fender wells there wasn't any tire rubbing marks, as pointed out by the advisor. I guess the edge wasn't being hit by front tires.

They lubed the stop and other components, and feel that this will take care of it. Apparently winter-time is a more common time for this as moisture from rain/snow washes away the lubing on the steering/stop.

Seems quiet so far.

 

you mean that loud clunk sound when you are steering hard right. I have that also with my 4x2. I have a dodge ram van at work and it does the same thing. I hate that sound. I havnt brought it to the dealer yet, i dont have the time to drop the thing off.

 

Mine does the same pulling out of the driveway with the steering turned all the way to the right. I feel a clunk through the steering column and hear the noise. Guess I'll get under the truck this weekend and put some grease on the steering stops.

MikeyB

 

Mine does it too. I'm glad somebody had it checked out and that some grease will take care of it. The noise sounds pretty nasty when it happens!

 

To be more specific, here's what my service receipt said.

"Customer advises to check a noise when turning full, tight turn. Noise in right side wheel area, found noise coming from steering stops on full turns., Lubed stops and knuckle. 99"

We'll see if this takes care of it.

Maybe if more of you folks who seem to have the same noise will bring your rides in to be checked/fixed, we'll get a TSB out of this.

 

Not on lubing steering stops.Who does the oil,lube and filters on the truck? All it is a finger with a blob of grease rubbed in the depreesion the stop hits.Been on vehicles for decades.