[:@]I am starting to give up on my D. I bought it at 83,000 last year and put about 25,000 on it so far. I have had it not come out of park twice. I recently had the oil sending unit changed out because of the "loss of oil pressure while driving" problem that I have read about and at the same time replaced the blower resistor because only the highest blower setting was working. Now this morning about two weeks later the resistor must have gone bad again. The oil pressure seems to take longer than it should to come up in the morning when I start it, but havent had the motor blow up yet. I like the D, I have done the 2" Shackle/torsion lift, flowmaster catback exhaust, k&n air intake, and airaid throttle body spacer. It looks and sounds good but it keeps messing with me. Just hope I can get what I still owe on it![&o]

 

Just out of curiousity, how much did these bolt-ons cost?

 

FYI, a throttle body spacer on a multi port fuel injected vehicle will in fact cause you to lose 2-3 horsepower. If you do a search in either this forum, or the dakota 2nd generation forum, you can seeindependent dyno results proving it. I would take it off and gain that HP back, along with 1-2 mpg.

 

Jimwal:
It would help know the year and engine etc of your D. Also 4x4 or 4x2. The oil pressure sender on my 01 went bad at 27k. It was not giving a steady reading,and was bouncing all over the place.

The 98-00 Durangos were known for some oil pump issues with the 318/360 motors, so you may want to have a mechanical guage put on the engine to verify if there really is a problem, or just a faulty guage or sender.

Also, youmight take a good look at the connector for your heater blower resistor as over time they can overheat and melt internally causing a high resistance in the circuit. I think you can buy a new connector kit from your local 5 star if this is the case.
My wife's 97 Grand Caravan had this very issue.

Good Luck Don

 

I'll give you $2500 for the Durango and I'll give you the POS throttle spacer back as soon as I can get it off. Just let me know if you decide to bail out on the vehicle. My son is looking for one.

IndyD

 

Sounds like some minor issues at least you haven't rebuilt the tranny... I would say though that with thehigher mileage it is something that you have to consider. Parts don't last forever and if they did auto manufacurers would be broke.

 

Its a 2001 SLT with a 4.7. Yeah I had considered taking the throttle body spacer off, I haven't heard good things about it since I put it on. Jodan, I spent about 250 on the exhaust, 50 on the shackles, not sure about the air intake and tbs (200? forgot). Intake wasn't cheap I remember that. Anyone ever heard of people swapping the motors in these, possibly for the 5.9.

 

I think I was just venting, I am not quite ready to give up on her yet. But the $2500 offer is a little depressing.

 

Jimwal:
I think Indy was just teasing you, although $2.5k for an 01 Durango would be a pretty good deal. Since we now know you have an 01, describe exactly what you mean about the oil pressure.

FYI, when I first bought my 01 4.7, I had it back to the dealer because I hd never seen an engine where the oil pressure appeared to build up in stages.When you first fire it up, the oil guage goes to the first hash mark, then a second or so later moves over to the second mark which is 3/4 scale.

After checking another D at my dealer, and having several other 4.7 owners tell me theirs works the same way, I stopped worrying about it. No problems as of 57k. One good thing to keep in mind for these engines like all of them is regular oil.filter changes. The owners manual states that you can run up to 7500 miles between oil/filter changes if your mileage is all highway and in warm climates.
I think that is crazy especially if you do not use synthetic oil. I run Mobil 1 and change my oil and filter every 4 months/3000 miles.

Valvoline and Pennzoil are scary in my opinion. A 6k motor is worth the extra bucks 3 x a year for the Mobil 1 (or synth of your choice).
If I was to run regular oil, it would be either Quaker State or Mobil.
Don

 

Well, I was just joking a bit on the $2.5K

If you add a rebuilt trans at 3K+ to the 2.5K and then 1K+ for repairs to the low oil pressure, etc... it's at 6.5K and still may be getting a vehicle with issues beyond repair due to low oil pressure damage. So maybe I wasn't so far off.

Glad to see you are keeping it, so cheer up, get her fixed and enjoy.

IndyDurango