I just turned 16 and I am looking to buy my first vehicle, and I am dead set on a 99-01 dodge 1500, v8, 4x4 (and hopefully a lift kit on it).

What should be the FIRST things I should look at on it to make sure its fine, and things that I HAVE to look at, I am new to buying used trucks, so ANY help is appreciated.

 

search plenum fix, wildvents and deathflash for starters. then wait for others to chime in about there problems, welcome to DF

 

Folks have written books on how to buy used vehicles.

Figger out what you want on it, assorted power accessories, extended cab? quad cab? long/short bed? Once you have that sorted, go see what it actually available. Just a fast glance at the outside of the truck will probably give an overall impression of its condition.

Things to look for:

Tire condition.
Fluid leaks. Look EVERYWHERE. If there is a fluid nearby, it needs to be staying where it should be.
Fluid color, and at the correct level. (especially for auto's.)
u-joints.
Crawl under it, start at the front, work your way back. Look for excessive rust, broken/missing parts. Cobbled repairs. (coat hangars holding up the exhaust? not good.)

If you find one you REALLY like, you can generally pay a mechanic to inspect it for you. How thorough you want him to be, determines how much it costs.

 

okay, what should I listen for when the truck is running? and the brakes, what should they feel like, I usually drive my dads f250 or my moms ford edge..

 

things that are common to all 2nd gen trucks, that you'll have to accept/watch for.
cracked dash
poor mpg
sloppy steering
leaking plenum
weak transmission
poor gearing 3.55
the CAD never works right.
clogged catalytic converter.

when buying one, you want to test drive it for at least 10-15 minutes and run it sort of hard. you want to get the transmission warmed up and see if it acts up ANY at all. if it does, then you've identified the most likely reason that they're selling it, is that it needs a $1500 transmission rebuild. this will show up as poor shifting, lack of shifting, lack of 1st or reverse, shuddering or shaking, trans temp light on, slipping or not wanting to pull. transmissions are weak in these trucks, and can be fixed, but it costs money.

the absolute worst thing that can happen to you is to spend all your money on a truck, and then find out that you need a $2000 trans rebuild, and not have the money to fix it. SO- don't let this happen to you. if it doesn't act right, assume it needs a rebuild because its seldom a simple or cheap problem. read monte's trans thread...

other expensive repairs you can get hammered with.
water pump - $300-400
plenum fix - same
ball joints - $400
front axle bearings - $500
front axle u-joints - a lot.
track bar
heater core - $600-800
a/c - a lot
cracked head - $1000+ test via compression check.
trans rebuild - $1500 +
dash replacement - $800+

that's a lot of bad news. the good news is the 318 and 360 are really durable engines, other than a tendency for cracked head. its not common, but does happen. more good news is that most of this can be fixed yourself, and the parts are not overly expensive. its the labor cost that's such a killer.

the 01 Offroad is the best. this should be your first choice.
00/01 should be your second choice. the brakes are a lot better.

find out how your state sales tax works. in GA. dealers charge 6-7% sales tax. private sellers do not.
use craigslist, autotrader, cars.com to find cars.
don't buy anything without a serious test drive to evaluate the transmission.
don't buy anything that doesn't run right unless its really really cheap, like less than $2000.

 

You guys also forgot to mention that the rear ends in these trucks that have a factory LSD suck. The factory LSD in notorious for having the clips break off. Also the evap coils fail often. A shop I used to work with said that they have never seen a Dodge where it wasn't leaking. That's not good. Overall, most of the other issues seem to be mentioned above. These trucks honestly are the biggest money pits I've ever seen of vehicles. I highly doubt I'd buy another one but if I did I'd make sure it was a 2500 or 3500. There is no way at all I'd buy another 1500 Dodge. At least in the 2500 and 3500 it does away with several of the parts that cause issues on the 1500 Rams. Plus then you have the option for a diesel. If you get a diesel, 5 speed, 2500. It shouldn't have most of the common issues other than maybe the evap coil, and cracked dash.

 

If I were to get another 2nd gen Ram, I'd get a 00-02 5.9 Cummins with a NV 4500 5-speed. Nuff said.

I wouldnt even deal with the gas engines or automatic transmissions.

 

Exactly.

Honestly, I halfway like my truck. I use it when it snows and I can't drive the car, I use it when I need to tow, and I use it when I want to go somewhere that's too rough for the car. I tried to sell it but I'm not going to give it away either. I thought $8500 I wanted was more than reasonable considering what I have into it. Yet everyone seems to think it's worth $4500. For that I will just keep it and use it when I need a truck. That's why I still have my truck.

Now that being said, it's been a POS. I've never had a vehicle that was such a money pit. Not to mention it gets crappy gas mileage, has crappy power, and just isn't all that much positive about it.

I treated it very well and still had all kinds of problems. Now that I've gotten them all fixed and have decided to just use it like a truck I've kind of quit caring if it gets scratched up, it stays dirty for months at a time, and while I don't abuse it I use it like a truck instead of babying it.

If I ever was to consider another Dodge which I don't know that I'd do unless it was something like a 69 Dodge Charger or similar. It would be a diesel with a manual transmission. I think you could get a halfway decent truck. I do mean halfway if you went with that setup. The 1500's are just basically pieces of crap.

 

Plenum gasket,track bar, rust, wheel bearings, U joints, ball joints, gas gauge in working order, crazy/wild vents due to vacume leak.

 

^^^ buy hometheater's truck. he has a really nice one.