Hey Fellas! Long time no see! It's been a long time since I've been on what with going to college full time I just haven't had a moment to breathe. That being said, I just realized that I've been neglecting the baby. We bought the truck a year ago and put 10K on the clock. It's sitting at 190K. I did an oil change about 2 months ago before our second trip from Springfield, MO to lower East Texas. It's been our daily driver as I found out my '78 Bimmer needs all new bearings so I'm going to tackle that as soon as I'm out for summer vacation.

Here's where I need your help though. I know nothing about the 5.2L in this 1999 Durango. How tough it is to get at the plugs and replace them? I'm also not familiar with the wires to the plugs. Is there a special tool to remove them? What should I look out for? I DID read the FAQ's on plugs but most of it was about the 4.7 and 5.9 engines. Talk to me about plugs options and what the best gap for them? I'm thinking cap and rotor replacement at the same time, same as I do in my Bimmer. Anything else I should know?

When I bought it a year ago supposedly he put new seals on the transfer case but I'm leaking tranny fluid on the driveway at an alarming rate. As I said we've put 10K on it in just a year so it get driven a lot both in town and on the highway.

For now I want to focus on getting the tuneup done right. I just don't want to spend 2 days fighting to get at the plugs and such. If it's pretty straight-forward then I'll be a happy guy. Last summer I had the filter replaced or cleaned in the tranny. I don't remember which. I just know that it shouldn't be leaking like it is.

My last bitch are the brakes. MIDAS replaced both the front and rears. Within a few months the fronts started feeling warped so I had them replace them again. Now they feel warped again. They squeal like a pig even if there's just moisture in the air and they grab like a son-of-a-bitch! Anyone else have the same issue? Also the fronts have brake dust constantly. The rears are nice and clean but the fronts look downright embarrassing and I can hardly get the rims clean. I'm beginning think MIDAS was a HUGE waste of a LOT of money!

Ok, I'm going to stop ranting and wait to hear back from you guys.
Thanks in advance!!

 

First off, I'd add that my first priority would be figuring out that tranny leak, could be a simple loose line or something.

The plugs are just like the 5.9, it's easy to do. Doing the cap, rotor, wires and plugs your looking at an hour or so.

Which brake is grabbing? It's pretty common on Dodges to have grabby rear brakes IMO, and usually the cure for fixing that is to make sure everything in the drum is clean. The brake dust is from them using cheap pads and possibly excessive braking. If the front is grabbing, then u might have a caliper problem

 

Also I'll add, doing maintenance and general work on these D's is not as hard as you may think, with a little patience and some research and a good basic tool set, you could probably do a lot of the work yourself! We're always here for help

 

a couple of things here, 10k in a year is pretty close to the accepted average of 12k a year (i do the equivilant of 15k a year when im living at home)

the 5.2 is EXACTLY like the 5.9 for doing plugs and wires, use champion copper core plugs (or truck plugs) and gap to .040, definitely do the cap, rotor and wires at the same time, make sure cap and rotor have brass contacts.

you need to figure out where the tranny fluid is coming from before we can help you on that.

as stated above plugs are easy to get to simply tug on the boots and they should pop right off (do it with a cold engine or else you will get burned)
also i hope the filter was replaced, and the bands adjusted in the transmission, and that they put in ATF +4 ONLY anything else will kill the trans in pretty short notice.

the brakes, the fronts on these trucks are very small for the size of the truck, and they DO warp very often, especially if you do alot of hard braking from high speed (or you tow, or use them to hold speed down a lot of hills), the fronts also throw alot of dust, the best solution to this is to use a higher quality pad, i would make a guess that midas did NOT do that. the rears throw no brake dust because they are drum brakes, all the dust is contained inside the drums, take a drum off and see how much dust is in there, i bet its alot more like the front after doing t his.

the brakes will grab much harder after a rainstorm, or after sitting out in the wet for a night because the surface rusts a little bit, this increases the friction between the rotor and the pad and the first time you touch the brakes they grab much harder than normal, as for the squealing im not sure, mine have never squeeled on me on this truck.

if i missed any thing let me know

 

I've had this problem since I have owned my D. Mine feel really weak, and I clean them once a week at least because of the dust. Mine had brand new brakes put on when I bought it so I am just trying to kill these and then I will be replacing with either top of the line napa pads or some green stuff pads. Then some drilled rotors(mostly for looks, but you never know) and if I can get it to work some SS brake lines as mine are starting to get old...
I would get them cleaned if you don't know how. Les Swab does it for free where I live...
Also I would check your calipers out. See if everything is good there as well.
And finally I would check the E-brake line. Make sure it is retracting all the way...
Can you tell I have been having problems and working to fix them as much as possible...haha

 

Thanks Mike! Not having really worked on domestic vehicles in several decades, I thought I'd ask about little things that I wouldn't be aware of. I'm very mechanically inclined and I have quite a few tools. My restore project is a 1978 BMW 320i. No asphalt burner by any means but I love the body style and its cornering. I've done all the work to it myself including rebuilding the engine from the bare block, replacing the tie-rods, control arms, front and rear suspension, the clutch and all the front bushings. Working on my cars is a hobby to me. I love tinkering.

 

Shrpshooter325 and Red, the brakes were replaced a year ago, front and rear. This included the rotors. I was told the calipers were fine. As far as E-brake? I nearly never use it. It's pretty flat here in Springfield. We did get a smal 16-ft fishing boat last year so I use it when launching and loading the boat of course. I have a utility trailer that came with the Durango when I bought it that we use quite a bit. I used it two weeks ago to haul a hot tub from 3 hours away (it was an awesome deal). We moved a month ago so it's seen some use as far as hauling but nothing consistently heavy.

As far as grabbing it's definitely the rears. I've lived all across the country from N. Cal to Seattle to Minneapolis and I've NEVER seen worse drivers than right here in podunk Springfield, MO. Clearly the worse. That being said, I do brake often so it sounds like I will be replace those front disc pads with top quality ones.

Thanks for ALL the input fellas! This helps me greatly!