I have a 1996 2500 slt laramie with a V10. It has 170,000 miles on it and I have noticed that it is running a little rougher than before. I pull lots of very heavy sailboats with my 5th wheel set up and I keep up with rountine oil changes and little repairs. I can't tell if the engine is just losing power due to a long hard life or if there is something simple that I need to fix to restore it to its full power. The idle is rough. sometimes too high or too low. It runs like there is something in the fuel but the fuel is fine. It still pulls well.. I pulled a 35 foot pearson on saturday... but the acceleration and drivability seems to be deteriorating.. like I can stomp on the gas and it wont spin the wheels... it will just kinda go... and then at about 45 mph it will all of a sudden open up until I stop accelerating and then its back to the way it was for the next acceleration... i dunno.. I would like some "cheap" advice.. I'm a broke college student who can't afford much more than gas....

 

IAC sensor or dirty throttle body?

 

spark plug wires.....run it at nite and check for arching

 

you must have my truck.......same model, same milage, same problem except mine is worse........do you have a check engine light on?.......if yes, a little easier to narrow down.....if no like mine, a nightmare.......I have replaced fuel pump, TPS, IAC, plugs, wires, coolant temp sensor, temp sending unit and have fully charged battery.........Is your fuel guage working properly?.....If it is, your fuel pump is probably good but dodge fuel pump are known to go bad around 80k......What I'm betting is that your intake plenum gasket or lower intake gasket has developed a small leak but before I'd rule that to be the problem, check all your vacuum lines especially the one on the passenger side going from the valve cover to the intake plenum.....mine had actually had worn so bad it looked good but had melted from the inside and collapsed preventing vacuum from the valve cover to the intake.....makes a HUGE difference.....also check the little vacuum line that goes to the cruise control servo under the battery tray......my line also heated and melted off..........shoot me a shout back and maybe we can call each other and help each other out..........jeff

 

Chevys are worse.

 

Actually my check engine light has been on for ages and my fuel guage doesn't work. I'm not sure why the check engine light is on because the guys who do the oil change hooked up their computer to my truck and they said nothing is wrong.... I guess they forgot to reset it. I am going to replace the fuel pump and hope that fixes the problem.. not cheap or easy so I hope it's worth it. If that doesn't work i am cleaning the throttle body.

 

....or you could get the Fastman

 

do the fuel pumps go out gradually?

 

If I were you, I would go to a local auto parts store (call first to see if they have one) and borrow a code reader, and do it yourself. I had a shop read the codes on my Ranger, and they said nothing was wrong, but when the problem persisted, I did it myself, and found out a lot of things WERE wrong.

It could be a MAF sensor, O2, bad plugs/wires, etc.

 

I was just reading about replacing the fuel pump.. it's inside the gas tank.. They say you should take the gas tank out of the truck but wouldn't it work if i could just climb up under there and do it while the tank is in place? Is there a specific reason why it has to come off besides convenience? I got up under there with no problem.. How do you get the pump out? Does that white round thing twist off? and... i don't want to buy a new pump so i'm going to pull-a-part junkyard to get one off another truck.. is there any reason besides that old junkyard pumps are old and crappy that I shouldn't use a previously used pump that works? and in general is there anything I should know not to do or something special to do? wow.. i don't know what to do.... live and learn.....