1999 Dakota 5.2L 4x4 Sport 79,128 miles

Just received bad news.. I've been chasing a hesitation/misfiring for a while now. Replaced TPS.. No luck. MAP Sensor replaced.. No luck. New fuel pump.. No luck. New plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor button.. No luck. New plenum gasket.. No luck.

Well took it to a mechanic today and finally found the solution. My engine is sucking air from the rear of the intake. Diagnosis: either bad gasket, warped or cracked intake :/

On top of that also found out that basically the entire front end needs to be replaced, which in all fairness I knew it needed some work, but didn't know it was as bad as what it is.

Also found my Transfer Case was leaking. Pretty bad actually.. I've had a grinding noise coming from what I thought was the rear end. Actually it's coming from the transfer case. Diagnosis: Recommends buying new or refurbished case. Also a U-Joint needs replaced.

It's bad when your mechanic (trusted mechanic may I add) looks at you and says, "how much money you got in this truck?" Lol

Worst case scenario: est $2000 in parts and labor.

I love my truck and I'm going to get her fixed but didn't realize it was in that bad of shape.

 

intake, u joints, AND a t case plus labor for everything for 2k? Id say thats a good deal especially with your low miles. If you want to sell it and are near Idaho I am looking for another dakota if urs is a ext cab and green blue or black. (i wish the other half would kill me)

 

Well 2k was an estimation and like always I'm pretty sure it'll be more. My mechanic did change my fuel pump for free the other day so maybe it won't be as bad as what it could be. It's yellow extended cab lol and I live eastern part of the US.

 

Sorry, I'm not buying this story.

Sounds like you need to sell it to someone who can work on it themselves. I haven't had the luxury of paying someone to fix my stuff, maybe you need to consider getting some tools and doing some of the work yourself. Not much of it's rocket science, not even front end steering gear and suspension repairs.

If you have a new plenum gasket, the intake's been off recently. Did your "trusted mechanic" do the work? If so, he should do the work again for free, because he didn't get it right the first time. Intake manifolds (plenums) don't crack unless they've been over tightened by a lot. Gaskets don't leak unless they've been screwed up during replacement. And only replacing the plenum (valley pan) gasket is kinda doing half the job (you can get a clone of the Hughes Plenum plate on Ebay for about $60.)

Your 5.2 is so low mileage, most of us would salivate to have it to put in our trucks.

You don't need a new transfer case, you need one that works right. So hit the wrecking yards and look for a similar aged Dakota or Durango & buy a second hand one. Used parts come with short guarantees, so get a transfer case, get it in (I'd find another mechanic to trust, tho,) and make sure that it works.

Or use the $2 Grand as a down payment on something newer and less needy.

 

No my mechanic did not do the work the first time. The day after I bought the truck is when I noticed the manifold sucking air. I order the plenum gasket kit from Hughes engines. It came with the gaskets and plate. It was installed and I'm still having the same problem. When I took it to my mechanic he sprayed ether in the back driver side of the engine. Sure enough the rpms surged meaning the was leaking in that area. He said either the gaskets are blown or was never installed right or the manifold is cracked/warped. We followed all the vacuum lines and replaced them as needed.

I've ordered all the front end parts for $450 off eBay.
Bought new intake gaskets $25
Used transfer case $350 with 6 month warranty

I should of clarified a little better. He actually recommended a used transfer case from a salvage yard not a new one.

Hopefully this week we'll get the intake gaskets on and keep or fingers crossed it solves the problem. Best part about it is he is doing all the work for free. He said he wants to teach me how to do it so he's going to walk me through it. I'm thankful for that. He said if I had taken the truck to someone I would be facing approximately $2000 for parts and labor. It makes sense because I've order all the stuff for it thus far and it's close to $1000 just for parts. So yeah all the work that needs done it's reasonable to expect a mechanic to charge $1000 for all the labor.

 

I forgot to mention, a friend of mine done the work for me the first time. He's always done his own mechanic work and said the gasket replacement wasn't hard. I gave him a $200 icon leather jacket to do the work. I just took the truck to my mechanic after the problem wasn't solved. I should of just took it to my mechanic the first time :/ . I'll keep you guys posted on the condition of it. I may even take some photos as well