I really hate for my first post here to be about getting help, but i really need it.

Bought a Dakota about a year ago. its a 2000 2wd V/6 I did an oil change last month and last week when i started it up, it was making a grinding noise. Not bad but enough to cause some concerns. I checked the oil level and it was extremely low. I quickly added some new oil and it and it seemed to run fine.

That was problem number one.

Problem 2 was that the transmission level was extremely low as well. WTF...
I noticed that when i took off, it struggled, again i topped it off with atf fluid and it ran fine.

Problem 3........... yeah it gets weird.
The power steering fluid was almost low to non existant.. topped it off as well.

Problem 4 smelled what seemed to be coolant while driving (double wtf....) the other day. looked under hood and saw water coming from the radiator cap and belt looked wet. Grinding noise returned and has not gone away.

Problem 5....... Ill get into that later Brakes..


I uploaded a youtube video with the noise. I'm hoping someone can recognize it and tell me what i may need to do or even have some helpful hints.

I'm no mechanic by any means, but i know enough to be dangerous if someone points me into the right direction.

Here is a link to the video i took.

Thanks a bunch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU3j0...ature=youtu.be

 

It sounds like a bearing, maybe in the alternator or the water pump. I'd probably check the water pump first if you're leaking. The shaft seal may have failed and the bearing.

Pull the belt off and try to spin them by hand. They should spin smoothly.

 

+1

Could also be the idler pulley. Mine made some odd noises around 70,000 miles. I replaced it with a Napa pulley and it has been fine ever since. All pulleys should spin easily, quietly and freely. My idler pulley felt like it was full of sand and grit when I spun it by hand.

The radiator cap is not a likely cause of the grinding noise but you may have a bad radiator cap too. Those are pretty cheap at most any parts store. That video to me sounds like a bad pulley or bearing some where.

Jimmy

 

take the belt off check everything especially the water pump if it howls check to see it has play in the bearing go from there

 

Thanks for the responses. I replaced the idler pulley and the belt tensioner.
I guess I should have checked the water pump while i had the belt off since its still making that noise.

Ill do that this morning and let you know what i find


Thanks

 

Took the belt completley off and I checked the fan. When i grabbed it, it was very loose and i spun it and it made a noise like it did when the car was on.

Question is, is it the fan or water pump.

Enclosing another quick video because videos say a thousand words

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-NbD...ature=youtu.be

 

Not sure if this is your issue, but on my dad's V8 dakota, the fan clutch went bad and made a pretty bad-sounding grinding noise.

 

Your water pump is shot. Even with a bad fan clutch there should not be anywhere near that amount of play in the water pump shaft. Yours is so bad I can see the water pump pulley moving as you are moving the fan back and forth. You can be sure by grabbing the water pump shaft and/or water pump pulley, not the fan and move it back and forth. Any play or movement at all in the water pump pulley shaft and the pump is bad. That is where the noise you are hearing is coming from. There is a bearing in the water pump that will make a loud noise like that when it goes bad.

You can check the fan clutch too, when it is on the engine with the fan, have the engine off and try to spin the fan by hand, give it a good push toward the passenger's side of the truck. If the fan spins fairly easy but the fan itself only moves just a few inches, it is OK. If it spins freely or is real hard to turn, the fan clutch is bad. Some say it is best to replace the fan clutch and water pump both at the same time, because they both last about the same amount of time and mileage. I agree with that, I replaced my fan clutch and left the water pump alone, I had to replace the water pump less than a year later.

The water pump also has a weep hole in the bottom of it, under and behind the pulley shaft. When the bearing in the pump goes bad, coolant will weep or drip out of the weep hole. Look for coolant on the ground under the truck or collecting in the lower half of your fan shroud.

It is also a good idea to replace your upper and lower radiator hoses and the bypass hose while you are doing the water pump job. Also, I learned the hard way it is best to buy both the new fan clutch and the new heater hose inlet tube at the Dodge dealer. The aftermarket ones do not work very well, at least in my case they didn't. My water pump itself came from Autozone, it is doing fine though.

Jimmy

 

Agreed, it's the water pump. I can see the pulley moving too.