I just bought a 2006 Dakota quad cab 3.7 automatic with 61,000 miles. In general, it runs well; other than a dent in the bed and a section of bad paint on one door (scraped and badly painted over, IMO), the body and interior are clean; it was owned locally most of its life (no salt around here!), so there is very little rust, and only on the exhaust.

There are a couple of foibles, though:

1. It has a vibration from 60-65mph; tires are pretty new (one is mismatched) and have been balanced. Is that one odd tire doing that? Is one of them bad that I just can't see? Warped/bent rim? Bad u-joint?

2. I was driving down a mountain yesterday and the CEL came on, it didn't want to accelerate once I got to the bottom, scan tool (I have one of those bluetooth units) said p0340/p0344 but went away after turning the car off and on again, and hasn't happened again. Those codes are for the cam sensor, but I know that can be a number of different problems. Is there any consensus on the best place to start, or should I just go ahead and replace both cam and crank sensors and go from there?

3. The whole front end is... well, it's crap. Steering is fine, but the suspension is awful. It sounds like it is going to fall apart when going over rough pavement, but nothing is loose or broken, it's just a jittery front end. Is there an upgrade or fix for this, or do I just learn to live with it?

 

Welcome to Club Dakota! They have their quirks to be sure, but so does any vehicle, especially with the way people treat their stuff these days.

1) 60-65 wobble could be a LOT of things. Friend of mine with a 1500 had a wobble from 65-75. Ended up being a bent driveshaft. Didn't look bent, but u-joints were good, but was bent just enough to have vibrational forces do funny things to it at speed. Personally, I had a bit of a wobble around 55-60 and it ended up being the front brake rotors. Smooth sailing since.

2) Not too sure about that one. I'm sure another member will chime in, but you should definitely get a copy of the service manual if you want to diagnose it properly. The parts cannon gets pretty expensive pretty fast.

3) Yeah, stock is pretty yucky, especially when you have ball joints that are smoked, and stabilizer links that are bad are especially a big source of noise and clunks and groans. Rebuilt all of mine, and used Rancho struts. Night and day.

 

Yea, this one looks like it was babied, though; 2006 with 61k miles, clean inside and out.

Yea, I was hoping there was something specific to Dakotas, because the tires all look good.

It does, but my time is valuable, too

Good to know, thanks!

 

welcome aboard

1) try moving the tires around (left to right, front to back) to see if the vibration follows it. if it does, then there's your culprit

2) there's a link to the service manual in a sticky on the forum. go grab it. if doing the Cam sensor, get OEM. Aftermarket Cam sensors fail or just don't work.

3) yeah, the front end sucks. go MOOG for ball joints/control arms/end links. Rancho struts for something a little stiffer, or the Monroe quick struts for a more "stock" stiffness.

 

I can try that; one tire is mismatched, but they are all pretty new.


I have read that, luckily the Mopar sensor is only like $30. I have also read that sometimes even the OEM part doesn't fix it

I was planning on ball joints, but not the whole control arm; is that a better idea? That is a lot more expensive, but I am willing to make the investment since the truck only has 60k miles.

I was looking at KYBs for front struts; I don't need a particularly stiff suspension. I have a spring compressor, so I was just going to get the cartridge.

Thanks!

 

You can do ball joints on the bottom, as long as the control arm bushings are still good. But the upper ball joints are integrated onto the control arms, and need to be replaced as a unit.

 

You need to jack up and shake down the front end real good.There is likely one or more components contributing to your vibration imho.Carefully look at upper and lower control arm bushings and all ball joints.Inspect the hub bearings too,they are known to fail as well.The lower ball joints can be reverse pressed.The uppers are integral to the control arm.The better ones have a grease fitting for longevity.

KYB Gas-A-Just rear shocks and Monroe Reflex front strut assemblies work real well in my experience.They are much better than stock.The lower strut mount bushings in the lower control arms may be pretty seized and will likely require cutting them out and pressing in new bushings if you have the ability and new mounting bolts from KYB or Moog.Install new hardware with anti-seize if you want to be able to take it apart in the future.In extreme situations the lower control arm may need to be replaced with new eccentric hardware.For steering and suspension parts I highly recommend Moog problem solver line for everything.They last a long time and you won't regret it.