Hello, I bought my Dakota today and I have a couple of issues that need immediate attention.

1. I need to replace the driver side wheel bearing/hub assembly.
2. I have the P0455 large leak detected.

Also, mine looks OK but I read a scary post about the upper control arm mounts having corrosion issues. Mine look good but there are pockets on both sides that are full of wet gravel/muck, intend on cleaning those out and getting a better look. Any tips on addressing the above two issues would be appreciated. I am attaching the build sheet, appreciate any advice.

 

Get a good quality hub/bearing. Timkin, National, are both good brands.

Large leak is probably a busted hose somewhere. Gonna have to crawl around and look.

 

Thank you, the next house I buy is going to have a garage. Crawling around in the dirt is getting old.

 

Gets old quick, even when you are still young and healthy.

I passed up some REALLY good deals on potential houses, simply because they did NOT have a garage. Two car garage with concrete floor was a requirement. I am just too old and beat to crap to do that crawling around on the ground, outside... thing any more. I don't even really like doing it in my garage......

Now, a HEATED garage would be even better. My garage is insulated better than the house, so, even without it's own heat, it rarely gets below freezing in the garage. Regardless of how cold it is outside. Which is rather nice..... but, that concrete still gets really cold, and will absorb body heat right quick. If I could build myself a garage, I would do the radiant floor heat. That would be VERY neat.

 

I replaced the wheel bearing today. There were a couple of videos on youtube that really helped. When I went to stand up I pushed on the upper control arm to leverage myself up and felt the ball joint move a bit. The boot looks good but how much movement can you expect to feel in a good upper ball joint. It seemed to move up and down, not side to side.

The video I watched was for a non-antilock vehicle so I had a couple of other things to figure out, like unbolting the dust shield long enough to run the sensor wire.

 

I think you can find a video on youtube for just about anything at all these days. (I go lookin' for em to disassemble laptops on a regular basis.)

I think up and down is ok, side to side is not. Jack up the front under the lower control arm, grab the tire at the top, and give it a shake, if it moves, bad balljoint. If it don't, you are all set.

 

Thank you. It passed that test. Also, the truck must have lived on the highway, it is pretty clean underneath wich is pretty cool since it has 3.95 gears with limited slip. I think the noise from the bearing and the large evap leak scared them into selling it. The worst thing they did to the truck was blow the speakers.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated. I do believe the ball joints have been replaced as they are bolted, not riveted.

 

Ordered and installed a set of these (amazon link below), cleared the codes for large and small leak and went on a twenty-mile test drive. Seemed a bit smoother but I really hadn't experienced any driveability problems.