Hello, im new here and just looked at a 2000 dodge ram truck today. It has 150,000 miles on it and im going to get it for $3000. Its a very clean truck it has the 318 in it and runs great!

The truck is bone stock right now. No intake,exhaust or suspension mods have been done. But ill be doing some lifting as soon as possible after i get it.

I have acouple of questions, What should i look for? What are some common problems? And what are the oil pressure stats, like at 1500 rpm while cruising and 2000 rpm and at idle. I need some advice and info so i can look some things over tomorrow before buying it.


I Hope to be the owner of this truck soon!

 

Might want to do some searches and some looking around. Lots of info on these trucks. Basically, the V8s have issues with intake plenum leaks and trannies. I would spend $60-100 bucks and have a mechanic check it out for you. No guarantee, but it could give you ammo to get the price reduced. Is it 4X4? Might be worth $3k if it is clean, well maintained and has no body rust.

 

Its not a 4x4, But it is clean. No rust anywhere. Not even on the underside of the truck. Looks brand new under the hood also. No oil smell under the hood no noises under the hood. Doesnt smoke. It looks like a heck of a deal to me.

Anymore suggestions?

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

DONT DO IT UNLESS! You have at least 3 months of savings put away. Not including repairs for this truck. As the previous poster mentioned. Check all the posts for inherant problems with the 2nd gen rams. then decide whether you want to buy one. If its an automatic figure the cost of a replacement transmission into your price. If it's a manual transmission grab it. Every one will be jealous!

 

Now, are these trannies really peices of craps?

 

It's not that they're pieces of crap, it's that they just don't stay together. Mine went at 38k miles. Most go out sometime before 100k. Rare is the RAM with more than 125k and the original tranny. If this is a standard cab, 2X4 with few options, $3k might be a little high for that much mileage.

 

i got a 318 over a 360 hoping for better mileage but they're about the same and for only being 15 less horses it feels like 50 or more less. i've driven a couple 360s and a couple 318s and the 360s feel a lot more powerful.

look at the pcm and see if it has a sticker on top of another sticker that says authorized software update, if it does then it has the death flash which is bad, the timing is pulled back a few degrees to combat pinging, and with the timing off it has less power than it should.

pull the air box off and open the flaps on the throttle body and look inside it, if there is oil pooling in the bottom then it has a blown plenum gasket and will have less power than it should.

on the test drive you should take it to a good tranny shop that does free diagnostics and have them check it out.

also on the test drive, cruising at about 55 or 60 look at the tach and see if its surging a couple hundred rpms, if it is then there is a good chance that the tps is bad.

as far as oil pressure goes, mine sits just over 40 when crusing around 1600 rpms (i guess 50ish) and it drops just under 40 when stopped (i guess 30 or so). so long as its in the normal range on the gauge then it should be good.

check out the dash, the 00 and the 01s have cheap plastic in the dashboards and they crack and fall apart and the dealership has jacked the replacement price up from $200 2 years ago to $400ish now.

another good idea would be to stop by advance and have them put a code reader on it to check for codes at the end of your test drive.

so just take it for a good long test drive, roast the tires a couple times, stop hard a couple times (not so hard that you warp the rotors, just firm) and listen for noises and watch for irratic rpm fluctuations. one of the noises you should listen for is pinging when you accelerate hard, pinging is a good indicator of a blown plenum gasket. and squeaking/popping can be u joints, if you get under it and feel the u joints after driving it, they should be cool, if they're hot then they're lacking grease and won't last too long.

if i'm wrong about anything hopefully someone will chime in and correct me. its late and i'm tired but i'm pretty sure i'm not misleading you.

 

Thanks for the long and very helpful post man! Accually i did have to hit the brakes pretty hard on the test drive one time. And everything went perfectly. No noises at all. I got my brother to get out and look for smoke when i took off and nothing came out. The dash is brand new. The guy just got it replaced. The truck is accually around $2700. A heck of a deal to me from the way it looks and all. It shifts extremly smooth and idles like a dream. I didnt even know it was running because it was so smooth. It was 90'F (florida) And the truck idled for awhile while i looked and listened under the hood. And i went threw alot of stop and go traffic. The temp stayed down and rock solid. The oil pressure was way above the 40 mark at around 1600-1800 rpm cruising. Looks like a heck of a buy. I see em all the time, Best looking truck you can get IMO. I did fall in love on the test drive.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments PLEASE post up!

 

Welcome to the forum man...

 

Are you buying it from an individual or from a particular dealership?
Also since I just had the same issue and am finding out it is a common issue give the front tire a good tug to make sure the front hubs or bearings aren't going out (I thing the 2000 has bearings not the hub) Good luck and as previously stated welcome to the Forum and the RAM club. There are some sharp guys in here they have helped me out and saved me quite a bit of cash by not having to go to the stealership as you call it if you find anything that you feel isn't right leave and come ask these guys and gals they usually answer pretty quick. Good luck