Hey all!

I'm new to these forums as I just bought my first dodge. Had a japanese 4cyl for the last 4 years, and decided to travel to the opposite end of the spectrum of gas milage recently and bought a 2001 RAM 1500 v8 (automatic). She's got 76,000 miles on her, and I was just curious: What are the common issues with this vehicle? Thanks in advance for the help and advice!

 

Read through the 2nd Gen FAQs.

 

Bad transmissions, bad plenum plates, idiotic front and rear gearing, your dash is gunna crack and fall apart, and that's just the easy stuff.

 

Hey, way to butter him up and soften the blow cap'n Jack! LOL... but i completely agree with ya!!

But on the other hand, all vehicles have problems and we have fun with ours!!

 

Other things include heads cracking, if your radiator is more than 10 years old, its a safe bet that needs replacing. Giant holes in the gas tank that has a pipe to the straight to the engine (stole this joke, credit to whoever made it).

 

I have heard mixed commentary on the heads cracking, so I take that with a grain if salt, not denying it though. It seems that the cracked dashes are more common to 99 and up models from what I have gathered, my 96 has spent its entire life in southern California out side in the beating sun and has no signs of cracking, it has faded, but no cracks.

These trucks will take a beating, far beyond what you think it should. I just drug close to 5000 pounds cross country with my truck up hills that would make Lance Armstrong think twice, then back down. As long as you keep up with the maintenance on it, it will last. Just make sure you have a few bucks saved up in case anything happens.

 

Heater cores, bad cats,plenum,heads,ping,low power,bad tuning from the factory,one wheel wonder,bad gearing,tranny suck,crappy torque converter , front end ball joints .. there fun trucks though !

 

rusted out/blown out brake lines at the gas tank. failed fuel pump, track bar, coolant leaks at timing cover, weak factory timing chains, vacuum leaks galore including at the cad and no 4wd engagement. insufficient cooling with 1 row radiator, no trans cooler w/o towing package, leaking 3rd brake light.

 

Just like to point out that usually the bad cats, low power and pinging are caused by the plenum. None of the trucks from the 2nd gens era were powerhouses anyway. Also not all were "one wheel wonders" depending on if they are equipped with a lsd or not. Once again all trucks have this problem if they are not equipped. Same with the bad gearing........... Most trucks have low gearing so they can get better mileage.

 

I would guess that almost 90% had 3.55 gears, that is not good gearing for these trucks.