Purchased my first truck, a '00 Dodge Ram 1500 V8 w/ 107k miles. We purchased property a year ago and have been needing a truck ever since. Now that I have a truck and a motorcycle, all I'm missing is a dog, gun, … But I digress.

The truck cost me $3.5k and I feel I got a decent deal. I thought I would like the truck, but I find that I LOVE it. Now for the needed fixes (and so far have found the forum HUGELY helpful in determining the best choices for fixing the issues).

1. Dashboard is trashed! Planning on purchasing a dashboard cover from www.latemodelrestoration.com I'm also thinking of adding a Bezel cover, but am concerned about it fitting right.

2. Plenum Gasket is going to be replaced. Based on what I have read on the forum, this should be done and I know the previous owner didn't do it (this truck was not taken well care of).

3. Heater … what heater? Cold air is all that comes out of the vents. When I turn the **** to hot, I feel little to no resistance. But I fear this is not the issue. Ideas?

4. MPG - going to try ANYTHING to improve this. I know, I know, get a Prius if I want good MPG. Still, there has got to be something I can do.

5. Cleats for the bed. There really aren't any good places for tie downs.

6. New bedliner. Old one fitted poorly and is trashed. Recommended brands?

7. Alignment — it pulls to the right.

8. Headlights, can barely see at night. Planning on wet sanding and polishing the plastic and replacing the bulbs.

Well, that should destroy my pocketbook for a while. Recommendations are more than welcome, especially any that relate to the above items or things that should be done to the truck at 100k miles. Thanks!

 

Welcome to DodgeForum!

Good choice of a truck, get some pictures up!

Do the plenum first, along with a full tuneup. That will definitely help your MPGs too.
Also, get rid of the death flash, by use of a superchips or SCT tuner.
The heater could be plugged and not be recieving coolant, or you could have blend door issues.

 

Congrats on the truck, welcome to the forums!

Another option, although more expensive, are these aftermarket replacement dashes. Not a cover, but a replacement dash. They are supposed to be USA made, and better than OEM.

Not just the gasket, but a "reinforcement kit." A new aluminum plenum pan with new bolts. This is the one I nabbed for my truck, along with a Felpro gasket. However, they do now sell just the plenum plate with no bolts or gasket, so you can do get your own gasket/bolts separately.

Could be the heater core is done. A known issue with these trucks.

Best thing you can do... buy as close to stock tires as possible (245/75-16s), and make sure they have a highway tread pattern. Then keep your foot out of it. The plenum gasket will help as well, along with a general tune-up: new spark plug wires, new spark plugs, new dist. cap and rotor. New oxygen sensor pre-cat.

I like my spray-in Line-X, but it came with the truck when I bought it. I've heard they aren't cheap.

Easy enough to do or have done.

Maybe a sport headlight conversion? Although, that'd involve some wiring and slight cutting of the supports on each side of the radiator. Sports have two bulbs per headlight, and clearer style lamps. Another thing that may help is the relay wiring modification, where your bulbs get electricity straight from the battery rather than having to go through the switch. Do a search, you should be able to find info on that one, can't recall exactly where its at right now.

I'll probably think of more later, but its almost midnight here, and I have been working a lot this week, so pretty tired. Many others will chip in.

Once again, welcome!

 

Welcome to the dodge family.Make sure to invest in your gas station of choice to help offset the cost of your fuel bill.

 

Way to out do me Jason.

Also, get that radiator flushed and the filter changed as well. You might also want to look into a transmission cooler to extend the life of your transmission.

 

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...-write-up.html

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...igh-beams.html

 

Welcome, just take things one at a time. It made it 107,000 before you got it somehow! Will you be doing everything yourself ? The heat would be my first priority.lol!! The tires can have alot to do with steering.

 

Welcome to the RAM world!

i bought my 5.9 4x4 1500 with 186K shes about to roll 200K, and still runs perfect. (ive also dumped about 2K into it in the past 5 months...but im rebuilding it. I do my own work)

Definatly a good choice in truck. Yes they have some flaws, but what vehicle doesnt. IMO the 4x4 on RAMS are better than chevy and ford.

I did my plenum as well, its actually quite simple to do.

as an FYI they do have kinda weak trannys. keep up on tranny flushes and filter change every 12-20K (according to the haynes manual)

 

I bought mine for 3.5K too. I have had it since September (Birthday present )and I just had it inspected. Past with flying colors. The only thing that I don't like about it is it's 2wd and the gas mileage. But what ever I only got stuck once. ooo yeah for being a New England truck all of it's life it has no rust.

 

you'll wish you got the dog or gun instead very soon.....lol jk. Welcome to the dodge forum....
hand around here reading and you'll see what your up against soon enough to get the truck into shape...