Hi all
I recentley purchased a 2005 Dodge Dakota Laramie fully loaded with only 19000 miles on it, it's a great truck but it has one PROBLEM. A very rough idle 80% of the time.
The dealer says there is nothing wrong with it. I have listened to other trucks with the same v8 engine and the idle is smooth.
Does anyone have an answer to this known issue with these trucks

Thanks
Gary

 

I installed the Autolitesplugs that seem to be what most like for the 4.7s. It made a big difference in both idle and smoother accelerations.

 

agreed ^^^^

 

You say a rough idle 80% of the time. So 20% of the time you don't have a rough idle? What are the driving conditions when it's rough, low speed around town? Highway? Warmed up? Cold? What about when it's not rough. Dealer says nothing wrong? There is something definitely wrong with a rough idle 80% of the time. Change your plugs to Autolite 3923s.

 

i would take it back to the dealer and tell them its crap thats what i would do!

 

I have the same truck, 2005 Dakota SLT 4.7L, with the same problem. Tried new plugs, NGK Iridiums, didn't make any difference. Took it to the dealer in Nov. '07, they hooked the computer up and said it showed nothing wrong. They called Dodge Engineering and was told they knew about the problem and was working on it. They've been working on it since sometime in '06, I don't think they're working very hard on it or it's way down on their list. I'm suppose to talk to the District Manager whenever she gets down here. If something don't happen soon I'm going to talk to my lawyer.

If you go to, Topic: 05 Dakota 4.7 Rough Idle, Forum: General Tech -- you'll find post from other '05 Dakota owners that were discussing this problem in '06.

 

you cant go wrong with the autolite 3923 plug. the 4.7 really likes them. one thing almost all of the newer daks came from the factory with incorrectly gapped plugs. some were gapped at .050 and some .035 and so forth. check the plugs to see what they are gapped at. most likely each plug is different

 

When I took it to the dealer the first time they told me they checked the plugs and didn't find anything wrong. However, when I changed them 5 days later there sure was a lot of dirt on top of the engine and in the plug holes andall of my driving is hwy & city.And I found a couple that were gapped a little wide and others a little narrow. But like I said the new plugs didn't make a difference and you'd think if it was something as simple as plug gap they'd fix the damn thing before they let it off the lot. This is a huge dealer, the American Big 3 under one dealer, in a small town. They sell thousands every month and are still adding onto their lots, yet they acted like this is the first time they'veeven heard ofthis problem. Didn't get to see the DM, she was suppose to be here 1/29, they didn't call me though, going to drop by today and see what the story is, I'll post on that later.

Thanks, superdak05 for the advice.

 

Well folks picked up the Dakota Friday (2/8/08) which they had for 3 days. They said they had ran another computer scan, pulled the heads, and flushed everything to remove carbon build up. Exactly how much carbon can an engine with less than 40k have in it? Anyway, it still ran the same as it did before all the work.

Today (2/11/08) I called another dealer and asked if they had any exsperience with rough idleing Dakotas, they asked if it was a 4.7. I said it was and was then told that all 4.7s had rough idles and that was because they didn't have a counter balance shaft. Itold them that a V8 didn't need a counter balance shaft. He said that was true, that would just be a way of fixing the problem, however, the rough idle was due to the engines being so out ofbalance. So there's another excuse.

 

why havent i had any problmes....?