Hey guys, I've been on the Dakota forum for a while now but just sold my 06 Dakota to free up some money for my Cuda project. i still need a daily driver though and am looking at a 97 1500 extended cab with a 318 and an auto. It has about 150000kms (96000miles) on it. Just wondering how these truck are:
- on gas (not great I know but as far as a full size truck goes)
- reliability
- problem areas
- anything else you can tell me
Thanks, Tyler

 

you will be happy with it, the 318 and 360 can take a a** beating all day long and be ok, some trucks have tranny and a plenum leak, leak is cheap and you can mod it if needs fixed. but mine has 126*** miles on her and nothing been bad. some rams have there problem but this is a help forum. so you will have good luck , and there fun. can you post pics????????????

 

id go with a dodge ram with a 360 v8 if i were you, really fast, not many problems, the only problem that ive heard of with dodges is the tranny tend to bump into reverse as they get older. dodge is very reliable and the mods and repairs are reasonably priced, in my opiinon dodge makes great trucks, best of luck post pics and any troubles you have

 

For an everyday driver they are average... many have poor steering, tranny troubles, bad brakes, rough ride, tricky vents, and crappy gas mileage.

This being said.. there are many quick, easy, and cheap fixs to these problems... Overall you can expect mileage to range from 10-15mpg... better with the 316 13-20mpg

If you put some money into the engine and keep it IN TUNE you can get 15-18mpg highway with the 360 and up to about 20mpg with the 316... but don't hold your breath

i would recommend a cold air intake, new cat and exhaust system, TBL, plugs, wires, distributer, points, tires, run full syn oil, brakes, and steering pump... these are some of the things i've done to my rig and I get about 17-18mpg highway

be careful picking a muffler.. i recommend a flowmaster 40... but you will have a HARD time keeping your foot out of it because it will sound AMAZING!

Overall on a scale of 1-10 I would give this truck a 8.5 there's room for improvement, but overall it's a soild truck

Take it my opinion for waht it's worth and check out the site and see what other people have to say. I love my truck and will get another dodge when this one finally kicks the bucket.... which could take a while!

 

not to be jerk but its a 318

318/5.2 i get 15 in town if i can keep my foot out of it. the 318 has sum power not as much as a 360.. but if you keep it in tune the truck will run great, is the truck 2wd or 4wd?

 

if I remember right
1998 is the year the Ram got better brakes

have the 46RE automatic transmission checked out by a pro thoroughly, including a pan drop, because yours is at the mileage that many fail, and may be why it is being sold

13 MPG is the most common fuel economy reported by both 5.2/5.9V8 auto Ram owners. A manual trans 5.2 Ram will get 2-3 MPG better in city driving

Are there any cracks in the dashboard?
Use that as a bargaining chip if there are, because it is a $350 or more replacement

 

And if there are, I have a 94 I'm parting out that I'll send you the good dash for $50. (sorry to plug here).

As for the 318...that is what I have. I'm running on 4" lift and 35" mudders, so I definitely had to gear down in order to keep the power where I wanted. Even with the height, I'm pushing 12-13 city and 15 highway.

Do you plan on towing much? I'd be leery of the a/t if you do, but I know guys who install a cooler and guages and they are just fine (still $$ to think about though).

 

thanks fo rthe info guys, yeah its an auto and a 4x4. I won't be pulling a railer much, maybe our car trailer ocasionally but not far and not often.

 

You have got to be kidding me. Fast? Are you serious? These trucks are Dogs. They are not fast at all. Take a ride in a Chevy with a 6.0L or heck even a 5.3L then get back in your Dodge. I wouldn't call the Chevy's fast they just give you a good comparison of how slow these things are for trucks.
Once again you have to be joking. These trucks have soo many common issues that most of the guys on here with a few exceptions have dealt with and they are all expensive issues to fix. Well, most of them.

The pleneum fix is not cheap if you have to take it to a shop. If you can do it yourself I wouldn't call it cheap but it's not horrible. To do it right you would either get a APS or Hughes kit or just go with a M1 intake. If you just replace the gasket you will have this problem again.


There are quite a few common issues with these trucks so do a search. This is covered all the time so I don't want to type it all up again. If you can't find it let me know.

As for the motors they are decent motors except for the issues with heads cracking the the pleneum gasket. The heads are a major issue though not something minor if it does happen. Luckily not everyone has it happen like they do some problems. It is common though. Unfortunately it's not the motors that don't last though it's the rest of the truck around it. At least, that has been my experience.

You are on a Dodge forum so don't expect to get too many people talking bad about them. I'm just going to be honest and tell you that they have a lot of common issues and having dealt with most of them it gets super expensive and makes you wish you had another brand of vehicle.

 

The Chevys are fast. Up until the last couple model years, IIRC the Chevrolet 2500 with the 6.0 was the fastest stock truck short of a Ram SRT10 or Ford F-150 Lightning.

But again I'll point out... you are comparing engines released just shy of the 21st century (Chevrolet 5.3 and 6.0) to one who's original design goes back 30+ years (Dodge), and just underwent revisions now and then. You might as well be comparing an old Chevrolet 5.7 to a new Hemi 5.7. Is the newer engine faster? Of course they are! Not trying to be a jerk here, but do you get my point? If you compare apples to apples, the engines that were meant to compete against Dodge 5.2s and 5.9s, yes, the Dodges are powerful and fast.

In that same spirit, this is a Dodge forum, so you are going to see a ton of problems. Joe Bloe doesn't come on here to say "Well, truck's running fine today guys, has been for a long time, no problems. How are ya'll?" He comes on to ask questions related to a problem he has. So forums sometimes tend to always look bad, no matter what make/model of vehicle you have.

However, like HTM said, lets be honest. Some of our 2nd generation Rams last forever without any or hardly any problems, especially if maintenance is done properly and timely. Some of our Rams also seem to have a gazillion problems, with many being quite spendy. Most tend to be inbetween.

I think it tends to relate a bit to random chance, and (big time) to how they were treated by previous owners. Just don't expect an eight year old truck to have no problems.