99 Dak getting old
 

5.2L 4x4 Sport with 100K miles finally starting to need repairs. Thought I'd join up and draw on the good information and experience from those of you here.

* Original owner - extended cab (no mods)
* just changed rear brakes this week for the first time since purchase new
* original front brakes still have life if you can believe that (14 yrs old now)
* belly pan gasket failed and started burning a quart of oil every week - replaced in a day; sure many have heard of issue
* catalytic converter failed at year 7 - replaced free under federal warranty
* transmission replaced 3mos after purchase due to bad 1st/2nd synchro (there's a TSB we generated due to factory assembly error from this)
* think I did a water pump one morning due to minor leak at 5yr point

I drive through a lot of rivers and deep water but truck is clean and rust free despite paint peeling. Pretty reliable over all aside from troubleshooting current driveshaft issue like squealing/grinding. Hoping to have truck another 5yrs or so.

Greetings!

Welcome to DF! :D Should post up in the Dakota section.

Welcome to DF! Moving this to the 2nd gen Dakota section.

It isn't getting old, it's just getting broken in at 100,000 miles. And from what you've said, it hasn't even needed that much repair. And not having payments and high insurance premiums is priceless, isn't it?

Welcome to the forum, it might be the time to consider a respray for the old babe, doncha think?

It still has the original front brakes at 100k miles? You must never stop. :p

Not sure how I posted in the wrong section but it was late. Definitely time for a spray because it looks like Dodge didn't use any lead in their paint whatsoever. Had a head on collision with a Mercedes at 50mph so the paint in the front is new. ;) The truck was pretty cheap to start with and has been super reliable and cheap to maintain. Pulled the rear drive shaft to troubleshoot grinding noise heard during deceleration and found a messy differential u-joint today... hoping that was the problem. Glad to hear the 100K comment because I'd like to keep this thing running for a lot longer. Ready to put some bigger tires and swap out the useless open rear diff.