I found a 1998 sport 5.9L 4x4 club cab. Body is straight, carfax is straight, Shifter **** fell off in my hand which was ok she's almost 10. Took her out on the freeway about 3 miles out up to about 75mph, drove back through stop and go in the city to the used dealership popped the hood and the radiator is filling the rather large engine coolant overflow resorvoir(passenger side close to radiator cap). Is this normal. It's about 77 degrees out here, and I wasn't abusing it. The temp guage was a little high never red, but not in the middle either. I'm new to Dodge and I don't know what normal is. Can anyone offer any advice? I'm in the bay area in Northern California if anyone can suggest a good place to find a 1998 Black sport 4x4 club cab short bed.
Thanks,
Rob

 

I would say that's not normal. If you're still interested in her I would suggest you take her to a shop that does a bumper to bumper inspection. Usually cost a couple of bills but well worth it.

 

It's filling the coolant overflow tank because the dealership overfilled the cooling system/radiator. You're not SUPPOSED to add coolant to the radiator itself, just the overflow tank. The cooling system will pressurize when hot and blow off any excess vapor and then suck up needed coolant as it cools off (and forms a vacuum). It should eventualy reach equalibrium.

They probably flushed the system and overfilled it then. Or there's a serious cooling problem. You should not have seen the temp gauge go past mid point on a day like you were seeing. No WAY! We see 107+ and mine stays below that ... in stop & go traffic with the A/C running full blast.

Club Cab or Quad Cab?

 

It was a club cab, the truck looks good, I really like the black sport trim. I can see them over filling it, when I got there they had the hood up, the car was running, and I smelled that sweet toxic smell when I showed up. After I took it for a spin, I smelled it again which caused me to pop the hood. Overfilling could cause the temps to go up or just flow over to the overflow? I don't want to throw away the $200 for the diagnostic if I should just not look back.
Thanks
Rob

 

i have ran 110-140 for 6 hrs straight, and my truck never went above half..so yours seemed to be overheating as far as I can tell.

if you like the truck and it seems like it'll be a decent deal, even if you need to swap rads., think long and hard before doing the inspection.

i take it, you will make the right decision.


keep us posted.

 

pass on it unless they want to fix the cooling system. it must have a problem. it shouldnt have gone past half way on the guage. take it to a shop and have them look at it, another thing you can do is take it for an extra long test drive and see how it performs.

 

Agree with Steve, run the **** out of it when you have alot of time, take your cell phone, have the dealers number programmed in and when she breaks down call them to come get ya, guaranteed to get a good deal on another vehicle, broken down vehicle on test drive always gets unwanted attention.

 

Sorry guys... this is long but if your looking to buy, might be worth reading.

Even the long test drives may not catch everything... my wife just sold her dakota and wanted to downsize into a toyota corolla for the fuel savings (she's going back to school full time)... we found one in her price range, drive it at least 25 to 30 miles (drove the **** out of it) to see if there were anything that would show up... nothing. cool, haggled the price some, negotiated some detail work and she is now ready to pick it up the next day. pull it off the lot and head over to a spot for dinner and my wife mentions something about a vibration noise that was comming & going. took a quick look at it and thought that a under body pannel that was loose might have been causing it when she was at speed.... motor sounded fine, everything sounded fine while I was standing there listening for anything so I figured it had to be the panel.

the next day she runs her errands and meets me at lunch and now the vibration has turned into a squeel and is there all the time. Cr@p what the hell is that? she said it got worse & worse. Called the dealer (husband/wife lot, selling 8~10 cars/mo) and got v-mail, left a message and proceeded to drop the car off at the shop (I have no time to fix it and she needs it now). told the shop owner to have a look at the problem and see what else it might need and let me know. turns out the drive belt tensioner went bad causing the vibration/squeel brakes were on their last leg so I had them swapped out as well... $580 bux later she's on her way with a car I have much more confidence in.

I got a call from the dealer (husband) and he said to take it to the shop (it was already there) and see what they have to say and let them know. When I got it back I e-mailed them a copy of the receipt. the next day I got a call from the husband who talked with his wife and looked at how much they paid vs how much the sold it to us for and offered to help with $100 bux. The actual repair portion for the squeel was about $250 so anything helps. He was very appoligetic (sp?) and mentioned that since they only have a few cars at any given time, they drive them to & from their shop to check them out.

bottom line is even if it looks great, runs great, it doesnt mean it's not going to break. no-one has a crystal ball to see what's going to happen in the next 100 miles. some things are obvious and some arent.

Oh yeah... in the past when I've sold cars, 1 car's alt died right after getting it smogged, I called the buyer to let them know what happend and it'd be another day... the happieness in their voice was well worth the extra day to get it fixed (they're not mechaniclly inclined) and actually the same thing with my 2000 that I just sold... the alt bearings were sounding funny intermittantly, told the buyer that and told him I was going to swap it out as part of the deal, he was more than happy about it.

the worst thing is buying a car/truck and then having to wrench on it right after you get it...

again sorry for the long post but someone elses experiences may help you in the future...

 

that is some really good advice steve.


back to the original post, i'd say to really have the cooling system checked out if you're considering the buy. just remember there are a lot of these trucks around so you can pretty much find one that you're looking for. just have to wait and be patient. correct me if i'm wrong someone but i do believe that the temp gauge works properly at 195 and should never go past 210.

in any case it could be something as simple as a bad temp sensor, but then again it could be something worse. if the flush was done poorly something that was stuck in the radiator could have been flushed into the block and making a blockage that is not being forced out.


i'd say walk on this one. but also to be a good consumer i'd let the dealers know that there was a problem that needs to be looked at. or just stick them with it if they were (i'd use some more profane words but then again this is a family forum) jerks.


OH!!! i nearly forgot! WELCOME TO DF!!!

 

My intial thought would be to run. If your worried about it now, your ALWAYS gonna worry about it. Even after it's been fixed your still going to question it. It's natural.

Steve's post can't be ignored though. S**T happens. If you feel really comfortable with the dealer, mention your concerns to them and see what they say. Ask if you can purchase the truck with a 100% guarantee on the coolant system. If they him and haul in the least bit then I'd say to bolt. Just like Crazy said, even though you really like this one, they're all over the place. You'll find another.

Good luck, and welcome aboard !!