I need help. I have a 1999 dodge ram 1500 sport only 50000 miles YES ONLY 50000 and been having some problems. I have replaced the CAt, o2 sensors, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, TPS, IAC, filter, just changes the oil. I replaced the wires with BOSCH and they are arcing and the idle is a little jumpy. What wires should i use and any recomendations for a new dodge owner? Plus it sounds like i have a valve tick can you adjust the valves?

 

did you route the wires per OEM instruction? with 10+ wires you can route them however you'd like.

valves are non adjustable if they're OEM. they all have some degree of tick

 

50,000 miles? Its barely broken in.

Magnecor wires are the best on the market:
http://www.magnecor.com/

But I run NAPA Belden wires and havent had a problem with them. I had MSDs and they arched after 3,000 miles.

Valves are not adjustable. If your motor is a 318, its just the nature of the beast.

Oh yeah,

 

yea, allow me to give you some helpful knowledge....

never use fram!
use dino oil!
if 4wd doesnt work is probably a vac leak
if ur trans is shifting late its likely the governor pressure sensor and solenoid
if your burning oil an getting some spark knock, replace the plenum

that otta keep ya busy for a while

 

I have considered to go to Dodge and buy the oem wires they are only 55. Why not use something that works? It is the 5.9 360 and has 50000 miles. The tick is annoying but something i have to live with...I guess? Any mods that i can do once i get the wire thing fixed? I also recently purchased the flowmaster 40 dual series exhaust have not put it on yet waiting for it to warm up in this chicago weather. Any things i should do being that i am new to dodge? any particular parts, maint, or any thing else? The 4wd works perfect just a little wind noise, is that normal. and the steering wheel shakes some times when hitting bumps. O ya the passenger seat like to also rattle when hitting bumps. Any one else experience this? And no i did not route the wires correctly but when i sprayed water on the BOSCH wires it looked like a lightning show.

 

As far as the valve tick, its been my experience that its actually the exhaust manifold gasket and it gets progressively worse if you dont replace it

 

7 year old thread.....

 

There is no way it still has only 50,000 miles on it now... after 7 years. Since then his dome light switches went bad, the cupholder broke, sunglass holder broke, the plenum went bad and fouled out spark plug #8 and partially clogged the cat. The O2 sensor also went bad early due to the plenum failure but the computer didn't show a code. The vacuum check valve is bad and the HVAC vents are doing stuff you would see in Stranger Things. The spark arcing took out the coil and the tie rods are worn and a bad design so now he has 4 inches of slop on each side in his steering. He needs to buy a $30 gas cap that is hand carved by Tibetan monks and clear some codes. The valve tick is now an exhaust leak. The IAC is so dirty it is stuck and it idles high all of the time. (to add to the poor fuel economy) It doesn't want to shift when it should but if you coerce it, good things will happen. You might have to wait a bit but it will happen. He gets the same mileage as we all do on the original plugs with 150,000 miles on them while running on 6 out of 8 cylinders. If he wants to change them he will have to cut off the heat shields and get the gunk out of them. (5 hour project) He will route the wires the way the factory did and not change the bad coil

It still tows his boat. It barely knows that the boat is bad there. The brakes notice but the engine doesn't.

Just kidding, Don't get me wrong, I do love the 2nd gen Dodge Ram. I've never been stranded on the side of the road and I put some mileage on them.

Some things are predictable like getting old. It applies to vehicles more aggressively than it does to humans at least.

Just replace a bunch of stuff on your Mopar and drive for another 100,000 miles. I wish it worked that way with humans. I would change my plenum gasket and a bunch of stuff proactively and get some $2 spark plugs. Then I'd go another 150,000 miles.

That being said, I would love to find one with 50k.

 

Geez, sounds like a lemon. And there's no codes for gas caps. That didn't start until the 2000s. My 99 sure doesn't so neither would his. The plenum blowing was somewhat common and would take out the cat if neglected. I'm on my third cat at 240k.

How do you get 4 inches of play in the steering? What did he hit curbs the first ten years of driving? Replace track bar, steering gear, and do an alignment with string. No more play.

Put in a Hughes kit, Magnaflow cat, steering upgrades, and it's a new truck.

 

How do you align using a string?