I have been a Dodge owner all of my adult life, a trait inherited from my father. In 1994 I bought my first new RAM, another in 1998, another in 2002 and finally, 3 months ago I bought a 2004. I love Dodge trucks and my brand loyalty is strong, but the events of this past weekend have seriously undermined my confidence in the 5.7 HEMI engine.

A shiny new Flame Red Ram 1500 on 20" rims with an off-road package was not meant to drive on asphalt alone. I live in Alaska, and here the road systems are nowhere nearly as well developed as in the contiguous 48 states. Often to get where we want to go we Alaskan's must drive off-road. As a long time Dodge owner with years of experience driving in our unique local conditions I was extremely confident that my new truck would handle anything within reason that I asked of it.

In a nearby mountain range lies the Knik Glacier, an impressive expanse of ice that winds through the mountains terminating in a sandy valley, home of the Knik River. The Knik River is a nondescript ribbon of blue and green glacial runoff that terminates in the infamous Cook Inlet. The river basin itself is miles wide in some locations, leaving vast expanses of dry sand upon which to drive, and on warm sunny days (yah, we get those in Alaska) the sandy floor of the basin makes for a great off road day trip.

On this particular outing my buddies and I loaded our respective families into our rigs and headed to the river valley - we had traversed approximately 3 miles of ground when we came to an unimposing water crossing - totalling 40-45 feet in width and being less than 3 feet deep at it's lowest point, this particular crossing was a small side eddy fed by the much larger Knik River - there was no current to speak of, as this little 'creek' wound it's way lazily through the low spots between sand bars.

In years past I have crossed much more intimidating bodies of water with my Dodge trucks - in the 2002 model RAM I just got rid of 3 months ago I once performed an emergency water crossing during which the depth was such that the entire hood of the truck was submerged for as much as 30 seconds at a time. Let me tell you, when your hood goes underwater, it's dark outside, and the emergency prompting the crossing is nipping at your heels 30 seconds is a long goddamned time. My RAM's have NEVER failed me, and my history with Dodge, Alaskan driving and water crossings all told me this was a safe bet.

I entered the water at roughly 10 miles an hour... for the sake of argument let's say 15mph. Midway through the water the engine died - stopped cold. Dead in the water you might say (grin). My wife and kids were in the truck and glacier fed streams are COLD, so after counseling them to stay in the cab I exited the vehicle to survey the situation.

Dropping into the water I bit my lip to hold back a 'colorful metaphor' regarding the chill (the door was open and the kids were all ears you understand) and noticed immediately that the water was only about mid-way up my thighs (see linked photo at post bottom as proof). How could this little stretch of water have stopped my RAM? Baffled, I investigated further and came to the only conclusion that made any sense - hydrolock.

What followed was almost comical - a battered Chevy Blazer crossed downstream from my location and waited on the far shore to offer aid if needed. An older model Ford truck drove through the exact same spot I attempted to cross, passing me on the left and pulling onto the sand bar in front of me to lend a hand. Behind me, several ATV riders rolled up to the waters edge and offered an assist. 4 of these ATV riders had 3000lb winches mounted to their front ends, and after a few moments spent spooling out the lines and hooking them onto my truck they winched me to the dry bank I had just left. As this little drama unfolded, a few dirt bikes passed us and a newer model Toyota crossed from the opposite shore without hesitation. Talk about embarrassing.

By the time we got the truck out of the water we had drawn quite a crowd of onlookers - one of these turned out to be a mechanic by trade, and he lent me a hand for the cost of a beer out of my cooler. I removed the cold air intake assembly and sure enough the filter was saturated. We pulled 8 plugs (if you are familiar with the new HEMI's you can guess what a hassle this - vote to move the vaccuum booster anyone?) and I turned the engine over - sure enough, water jetted from every cylinder. After letting it stand for 5 minutes I turned it over again to eject more water - I repeated this procedure 4 times total, and when I saw no more water mist we reinserted the plugs and started the engine.

In the middle of a river basin, miles from civilization the sound of knocking rods makes your heart sink.

Fortunately RoadSide Service came to the rescue - this beautiful addition to the Daimler/Chrylser Warranty required merely a single cellular phone call - a few hours later a flat bed tow truck operator pulled up, winched me onboard and delivered my rig to the dealership for repair.

Of course this type of repair isn't covered by warranty, but fortunately I have good insurance. The entire repair is being covered as a comprehensive loss and with only a $100.00 deductible I came out of this pretty well, all things considered. Nobody got hurt, the truck is getting a new engine, and it didn't kill me financially.

Here's the thing though... I *never* would have thought my engine would fail so spectacularly under the circumstances described above. Similarly, the mechanic working with me on the truck was convinced that if we could get the water out of the cylinders the engine would be fine - it's a HEMI after all. A few days later the mechanic at the dealership informed me that he too was surprised the engine came apart so completely, but oh by the way "yours is not the only truck to suffer this fate".

Come again? My situation was not unique, stemming from extreme circumstances?

According to him, during a recent heavy rainstorm in Anchorage no less than four 2004 RAM trucks had been disabled by hydrolock while driving through rain puddles on paved streets. Rain puddles? Paved streets? Turns out the cold air intake placement is the culprit... the wide mouthed intake allows for water to pass as easily into the filter box as air, and the fact that the intake is located below the headlight (which places it below the top of the wheel wells) makes it particularly susceptible to contamination from ground water, standing or otherwise. Conveniently the warranty excludes damage due to flooding. I'd say this qualifies. But a truck with 20" rims and an off-road package should be able to confidently traverse less than 3 feet of slow moving water - the added ground clearance afforded by the rims is completely negated by the low placement of the cold air intake. What kind of flawed thinking goes into such a design decision?

The engine damage is extreme, and total engine replacement is the only option... bent rods, cracked piston heads, warped valves, etc. At 15 miles per hour? The engine was hardly under load.

Regardless, I came out ok in the end and I will be getting my truck back with a new engine. As a side note the truck had a mere 2700 miles on it when this happened. If this failure is as common as the mechanic led me to believe I am hard pressed to understand why the warranty won't cover it - further I am extremely frustrated over the fact that my new truck is nowhere nearly as capable as those I have owned in the past (given the particulars of my environment) - given what I now know I will most certainly be installing an aftermarket air intake of some kind (mostly out of spite) and a snorkel to go with it so that I can drive it through a carwash without fear. I suppose I'd better start looking for an ATV or a beat up Chevy Blazer to continue my outdoor adventures. The 2004 RAM's evidently aren't up to the challenge.

Photo: http://home.brabander.org/ram/trucksub_002.jpg

 

AdamB,

I enjoyed your post, I think that you have a future in advertising for Alaska.
Anyway, I too have had the wonderful and most embarrassing experience of locking up an engine. I just loved it! [:'(] This was in a 95 Ranger 4X4, lifted. Again, the air intake was positioned at the lower part of the grill, thus I locked up that engine. After getting back to the dealer (this took a while) paying my $50.00 deductible, they did quick evaluation and basically told me that I was going to take it in the shorts. I can't exactly remember but I believe it was over $4500.00. Needless to say I certainly didn't have that at that time, then one of the heavy-line guys came over and told me that this was not uncommon, and they were replacing engines left and right in the Bay area (San Francisco) due to heavy rain on surface streets. Apparently Ford wa more than aware of this problem. Long story short, I had a Ford Arbitration rep, come down to evaluate. It was no longer than a minute and he said "replace this guys engine" I did take the moment to ask what was truly going on. He explained that it was cheaper to replace a few engines, than to bring a recall into effect and retrofit. Apparently this was only on the 4.0 liter Rangers.
Regardless I do sympathies with your dilemma, and the utter embarrassment. I think that I might had had it just a little worse, I just had ran out of liquid refreshment right when this happened (if you know what I mean) it was about dusk, and that water was cold! Getting back to camp with soggy drawers and no beer, was brutal.
BTW... That picture is classic!!

 

Man thats pretty crappy. So much for an off-road package

 

Adam. Great picture, except for your Ram in the middle of the creek. That sucks. I can see how you got water though, with the stock intake so low compared to where the TB is located. I've seen an inexpensive dual intake for the hemi on ebay which probably wouldn't have taken the water as the stock set-up did. Hope you come out of this OK.

 

I was toying with the idea of installing an AirRaid EGP300-125-1 because it has a much shorter (and therefore higher) intake opening and it's smog legal in 50 states. I just spoke with the mechanic actually turning wrenches on my truck and he tells me that in changing the cold air intake solution I could void the factory warranty... anyone have experience with this?

 

It's laid out in your warranty paperwork.

In a nutshell, if Dodge can prove the mod(s) you made caused the warranted part to fail, then you pay for the repair. If not, they pick up the tab. This is a simple, short example.
For full details, read your paperwork and/or call your dealer.

BTW, mechanics do not have the final say-so in warranty repairs.....

 

Not true, a 50 state aftermarket item is 100% allowed in a new vehicle, and NOT to void warranty. I'm to lazy to look it up at the moment, but there are guidelines and laws governing this. C.A.R.B (California Air Research Board) I'm sure that the B.A.R is there somewhere (Bureau Of Automotive Repair) oh and Mitchell.
I'm hopeful that someone has the info on this, I've seen it often enough. I need to save it next time this issue comes up.
Sorry for the lack of ambition, I'm having a hell of a day.
If you don't get answers soon from someone else I'll look it all up for you.

 

Like I said, read the warranty. DCX will not pay for repairs if it can be proven that the mods were the cause of the failure. You can argue the point all you want and quote any law you prefer, the truth is dealers are refusing to honor the warranty in many cases, especially on SRT-4's, where many owners have mopar aftermarket items on their cars. Don't take my word for it, visit www.srt-4forums.com to hear all the complaints.

BTW, Mopar performance parts don't have a warranty.

 

Dusty,

I'm certainly not disputing, but now wondering. Actually I'm getting a bit worried.
I was under the impression, some items were allowed to be exchanged from factory, due to federal law. Contracts through warranty, would be so strict otherwise the aftermarket industry would be obsolete. This would be down to tire size and manufacture. See what I'm getting at?
First of all the entire subject is a bunch of BS. Plain and simple. I do think we both agree on that.
So lets just say that AdamB had a "replacement" K&N filter, sucked some water, and locked her up. Does and will; this give Chrysler the right to void warranty due to discretion? Oh and lets change this to a heavy rainfall paved street. Hypothetical, just work with me.
Can they come back and say... "Our testing shows, that our air filter element does not allow the water saturation and volume that K&N manufacturing allows through the element" ????
Again hypothetical, work with me, is this what your saying is possible, and what is actually going on?

 

BULLDOG,
Your case certainly sounds like one that would come up, especially on a SRT-4 given the limited ground clearence....it's also a major reason I haven't done the CAI thing. All of my "critical" mods are Mopar parts, even though that doesn't mean anything since they carry no warranty. There's a gal here in the SRT-4 section (PSI ChicK) who is going to have to replace her whole tranny at her cost because the dealer has issues with her mods.

I blew a engine sensor out last week on my SRT and it's been in the shop for a week. The dealer says I have to pay for a day's cost of the rental (out of 6 days) and that's it. Of course, the dealer also put on most of the mods on my car so are they trying to avoid "looking bad"? I dunno, dude. Each dealer is different in how they work. Amazing. I'm into my 50's and everyday I learn something new.......