Hey guys.

I just upgraded from a 1992 dakota 318 to a 2004 dakota with the 4.7, and love the truck.
The 1992 had over 180000miles and ran like a top, the new truck has just over 60000miles.

The reason is a good firend just got rid of his 2003 dakota with a 3.7 he bought used, got rid of it cause it ran rough and burn lots of oil, when he took it to the dealer they told him rings and pistions shot, because high mileage, just over 200000miles.

I am more inclined to say it is poor maintence that caused this, just curious to what you guys think and what kind of mileage is expected out of these trucks?

Thanks for all the help.

 

im pushing about 195000 miles on my 4.7L and i know for a fact that my truck has had the **** wore out of it...

i notice from dead stops that a lil blueish smoke pops out....but not al the time......im very happy to say that this is one of the more reliable trucks ive drivin(completely stock)

 

always about preventive maintenance, goes a long way. good looking truck, sucks to hear about another 2nd gen getting shafted

 

I have 2003 and it has 140,000 miles on it and it still gets 16.5 mpg in town and almost 21 mpg on the highway. I love my truck.

 

My '97 has 181,000 KILOMETERS on it (112468 miles, for my friends south of the border), I get about 16 MPG city and around 19 MPG highway. The thing is, I've only put on 30,000 kilometers (18641 miles) on it in the last 3 years that I've had it. The dealership I bought it from had it traded in from an older guy, and he didn't drive it much (it so happens that I knew the guy fairly well, it was a small town). So mine runs fairly well. I expect to get about 250,000 miles out of mine, with proper maintenance, that is very possible. Just make sure to do the things that are recommended you do in the original vehicle's User Manual, and you should be fine. Oil changes, fluids, all the basics. If you're in Canada, look at having some kind of rust preventative measures such as Rust-Check or that new electronic rust proofer (dunno if that works or not). Just have common sense and take care of your truck and it'll reward you with a LONG life! Cheers! Welcome to 2nd Gen heaven.

 

^ I'd just like to point out, that even though we in Canada use the crappy metric system, we all still use BHP, MPG, etc. Who cares how much "kilometer-age" per Litre you get...... LOL!

 

What do you guys think about synthetic oil?

 

Nice truck I have the same one color and all. Is it an auto or manual?

I would say def change all the fluids to synthetic. at 60k it would help make it last a long time.

 

yeah i changed all my fluids to synthetic as well and still change it every 3K miles. mine has 92000 as of today and still runs great. if you treat it right, it will run 350000 miles easy... chaging to synthetic fluids probably will help prolong the life of the vehicle IMO

cheers on a good looking truck!

 

Yeah my truck is automatic.