My mother bought me what turned out to be my Dodge Dakota 00' Quadcab 4.7L. We bought it with 58k miles for a rough 15k flat. I know of a few problems with the truck, and I know that it being a Florida born truck that it didn't help that it was bought in New York, and suffered more than 3 years of Snow. Just recently we've started having problems with the truck itself. We just (yesterday) had the rotors and brakes rotated and replaced. Me and my brother did a second hand job replacing a brake line that burst after moving down here to South Carolina. We flanged and replaced roughly a 8" piece of brake line under the driver side door. Anyways on to the current not severe problems.

We've had a U-Joint replaced once before while we were under the Dealer Warranty, because of tire noise. Although that did not fix the problem it was performing better, were still getting what sounds to me like a differential sound every time we make a left or right from stop turn. I was wondering how we could go about figuring this out, and why its making the sound. - Urgent

Another problem we've had for a while is that the front passenger side Fog lamp, blows every time we replace the lamp, I'm believing it could possible be a short in the system. - Minor

My brother an I have never changed the Spark plugs on the truck, simply because we do not know how to change them out, I've yet to come across ed a tutorial on how to replace them, We've just never worked with the spark plugs that this Dakota runs. - Very Urgent

Windows, It seems to me their well, Slow. Very slow. Could this be a battery issue? I can put one up amazingly fast, but while trying to do two or more, it seems that it's struggling to put them up. - Minor

Sound System - I'm guessing my sister blew the driver side speaker on the door. I was hoping that anyone could help me in explaining how I go about replacing it, and what I should use. It's an older system, so I'm planning on simply replacing the entire system. - Minor

Rev jumps, while at a stop the truck struggles to maintain a consistent RPM, and thus revs the engine. It'll idle at 500RPM's, and rev to just under 1,000RPM, before settling again at 500RPM. Could this be a timing error, or is it because of the spark plugs never being changed, but once since we bought it. - Urgent

Throttle Body Cleaning - I found a pretty good tutorial on how to go about cleaning the throttle body, again I'm scared that I could mess something up. Is this safe to do, it seems to be but I wanna make sure. - Minor

RPM Jumps on the highway, our speed limit down here is 65, and just yesterday did I notice this but when we got up to speed, the engine would begin to jump RPM's without any pressure on the accelerator. I'm going to change the oil, probably next weekend, oil filter, oil, and check on the brake lines all the way around. Could it just be the oil needs changing, it's never done this before.

So there's the problems I'm having with the truck itself, I wanna get it into complete working order, so that I can well keep the truck as long as possible. I'm hoping that y'all have some help for me, I'd rather not get rid of this truck, since well its one of my most priceless possessions I've owned, shoot for a first vehicle it aint bad at all. Thanks y'all.

Current Mileage - 122,000

 

mine runs on 185,000 miles and at most it has had 3 fuel pumps and a valve seat replaced.....as for you....

the door panel....theres a few screws and take off the cover for the switches

put in new rear end fluid

spark plugs...get the right size spark plug socket and id do one at a time so u dont get wires all mixed up

for the windows...ur just putting alot of power onto the battery andid just stick to doing one at a time unless you want to replace all the regulators$$$

idel jusnt at a stop....coule be the plugs...but also a dirty filter/TB

cleaning the TB....just follow the tutorial very closely and ull do find..if not post up again


jumps on the highway....changing ur oil will most likely not solve the problem...it will help...but it could be the plugs....

good luck and have fun

 

everything that loudpedal had explained is very important. from what i have heard it seems as if before you even had the truck it did not really get any general maintnence. i would just do a full change and tune up.
new rear end fluid
new engine fluid
new tranny fluid optional
change spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor this could be part of your engine reving. when i chnged mine it helped.
clean intake filter.

as for the speakers it's pretty easy all you do is take out one bolt were the side mirrors are. then you take another out behind the door handle. then i am pretty sure there is one behind the door handle, then two or three down on the bottom of the door. then you lift the door upwards and then pull off. now once you have that done you are going to need to unplug all the wires. then at the bottom there are three bolts and then the speaker comes out with the connectors unpluged. then the new ones goes back in with the supplied brackets if you are going aftermarket. good luck and have fun wiht your truck.

 

i would check on the IAC while i was doing all that stuff too. could contribute to the rev problem.

 

To change spark plugs just remove the not that holds the coil in place, then remove coil, then use a spark plug socket to remove the spark plug.

By the way Welcome to SC, How do you like it.

 

I absolutely Love South Carolina, thanks for the quick replies look like I have some work to do. I'm also gonna have Autozone check my Engine light codes, that's been on since probably week two of ownership, they said it was the gas tank cap, but I'm not so sure about that as I know I tighten it down all the way every time I put it back on.

I know that your only supposed to use a specific rear end fluid, any recommendations?

 

You can check the codes your self with out a code reader, the is a sticky on the top of page 1 with how. I forget the fluid type but if you have the limited slip make sure to get an additive or the fluid has it.

 

75W-90 gear oil for the rear, and if it's a limited slip, you need friction modifier.

 

I just went to AutoZone had them check my Engine Light codes. Turns out to be 3 Problems.

1.) " Malfunction exists in the electrical circuit for cylinder # 1 - 8 fuel injector. " - Absolutely no idea what this means.
2.) " TPS Malfunction. " - Replace the TPS sensor?
3.) Misfire on one of the Cylinders. - Simple Spark plug job should surfice for this one.

Needless to say were bringing it to a local garage, to get it accessed.