Hello all. A first time Dodge owner here. Couple weeks ago my I took my daughter out driving my Grand Cherokee on her shinny new permit. Light turns yellow about 30 feet from it and guy makes a shot at a left cutting in front of us. Well the Jeep was totaled and no one hurt.

So yesterday I went to dealership to check out a replacement Jeep. While waiting around I asked to drive this beautiful black durango RTjust out of curiosity. Holy mother of god..... I feel instantly in love with this thing. I was going for a newer model Jeep but this Dodge blew me away. I got the truck for $13500. Previous owner must have kept it in garage. This is absolutely NO rust, dirt or anything on this truck anywhere. Interior looks so close to new I couldnt believe it. It has 57k miles on it. Thing runs flawlessly. They put new brakes on for me before I drove it home. Also talked him into brand new tires. They put on some Goodyear wranglers. Very nice wide tires.

My questions for you is; What should I do first thing in next couple weeks owning this truck?

I don't know what type oils and fluids was used previously. Should I take it to a shop and have oil drained and replaced with a Good Synthetic oil? Same for trans?
Should I replace the air filter with one of those K&N ones? If so, where can I buy one? Napa?
Should I throw away the plugs and wires the dealers install and get some high performance ones?
Or even a complete tune up from a good specialist shop?

Any other things I should do right away to get best performance/mpg out of truck?

They did give me a 2 year limited warranty. So I'm not sure what I can do to not screw up my warranty. It was from a local 5 star chrysler dealer.

I dont have a picture to show you but I can incluse the link to dealership showing the truck. Until the remove it that is.
http://www.telegraph.fivestardealer...index.cgi?dc=1a

sorry cant link directly to the truck but its under used vehicles. The black 2000 durango RT

 

congrats on the new ride and welcome to DF, the link doesnt seem to be working

 

Congrats on the RT. Yes, definately have all fluids replaced, transmission, oil, brake fluid, etc.


-Matt-

 

I will go ahead and get all the fluids replaced. Should I have the tranny filter replaced also?
Any suggestions on oils and fluids to ask for?


p.s. Does the K&N air filter help performance and mpg by itself or only if I went with a CAI? I will eventually get the CAI but hoping for a little improvement with better filter.

 

The K7N will help the truck breath better, but you're going to spend around $50 for the filter and If you get a CAI you're looking at $185-$300 depending on kit and retailer. Personally I'd run it as is until I could put the kit in. In fact I just bought my 2000SLT 4X4 about 6 weeks ago and am planning on doing the Airaid CAI and the Throttle body spacer which will run right about $300. Need to get my rig back from the body shop though s I crunched it 3 weeks ago. You may want to look int o a Magnaflow Cat back exhaust to finish out the breathing improvements for the motor. I'd probably hold off on plug ans wires until tune up time and take a look at what's in it and decide from there. Most likely a thicker wire will ab performace as will several types of plugs. Congrats on the new ride and sorry to hear of the Jeep crash. Glad you're all uninjured.

 

I would change all fluids, just to be sure. Also, I have the K&N CAI and Flowmaster 40 Series exhaust which really lets her breathe well. I would advise these two most over any mods for starters.

I also have that nifty little gadget called the Tornado. It is a fuel saving device that is installed in your air intake and has risen my gas mileage from 12-13 to around 15 mpg city.

 

Thank you for replies guys. Wont be able to get filters and fluids done until next week. Today I removed that plastic panel on the pass side of rad. to get more cool air flow in there. I'm thinging about just pulling that plastic elbow that points towards wheel well off also. Until I get a K&N CAI.

Cool thing. I went to dodge.com and put my VIN number in and found it hasnt had the ball joint recall done yet. So along with those brand new goodyears and breaks... I guess I get some new ball joints as well .

So far here is my list of things I decided on getting.

Use royal purple oil and greases.
K&N oil filter
K&N air filter
Bosch plat. +4 plugs .40? (confused on that)
MSD 8.5 mm wires (is bigger better?)
180 high-flow thermostat
some brand of good distributor (brass maybe)?

in next 6 months;

K&N CAI
Mopar Performance PCM
exhaust maybe? no idea what type. I would like to retain the low profile but badass sound the stock RT has.

 

I have a 2000 Black R/T near mint condition. Bought it back in 2001 when it had 21k miles on it. Now approaching 61k as of today. I try not to put too many miles on it. Strictly drive it to work and home. Weekend, drive my wife's car. Save gas mainly!! Luckily my workplace has a underground garage so my R/T is always garaged whether at home or at work. Asked the same questions as you did. Had all the fluids changed, changed out the cap-n-rotor, plug wires and plugs as 2 of the 8 plugs I pulled out were fried. Later bought a K&N stock filter replacement which gave me about a 1-1.5 mpg improvement.

Did the ball joint recall and such. But on the 2000 R/T, I would monitor your cruise control if you use it. If it randomly surges and at times if you have idling issues, you will need to change out your TPS sensor. Bought it from NAPA for $36+ and it was a easy 5 minute fix. Dealer tried for 2 weeks to solve my surging problems and nothing came up on diagnostics. Found this fix from this forum so I gave it a $36 try to see if it fixes it and it did. Went back to Dealer and told them what I did and they credited me the $36!! Talk about superior service! This was still within my extended warranty so I guess that helps.

Now my tranny is acting squirrelly sometimes. Tranny will slip between 2nd and 3rd gear under full throttle so it really sux! Luckily when my engine tagged redline, I did not know the pcm have a rev limiter preventing the engine from going way past redline! Don't know what the cause of the slipperage as I kept maintenace on the tranny.

I would problaby love to get a PCM programmer like "Hypertech" to reprogram my R/T. Hopefully change the torque management so I can get better take offs. At times it moves like a whale, and other times, it really moves so go figure.