Good day. This is my first post. I have a 2004 RAM 1500 with a Hemi engine. It has 58,000 miles and has been an excellent vehicle. In the last few months it has been running rough, almost as though the spark plugs or the ignition is intermittent. It has actually stopped on me at least three times while driving. After stopping it takes quite a few revolutions of the engine to get it restarted. My dealer first replaced the throttle body (TB). The problem did not change so they assumed the new TB was bad out of the box and replaced it with another. The problem improved a bit, but never went away. I got on this forum and searched for the problem. I found several articles with the same problem and the fix was identified as either cleaning the IAC (?) or installing a ground wire from the TB to the battery negative. The dealer meanwhile is searching for a Bell Crank as the next piece to replace. I talked them into installing the ground wire even though they claimed this only works on a diesel engine. The engine is still running rough although it hasn't stopped as yet (1 week so far). Does anyone have any more suggestions or is the bell crank the answer? I can't believe that the engine running rough is good for the engine. I love my truck and in the 10 years that I have had it, the only major repair has been a new radiator after the aluminum one developed some holes. I'm looking forward to some help. Thanks in advance.
Dan...

 

Welcome to DF.

For future reference:
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-r...ead-first.html

Will move you now.

 

Is it throwing any codes and also how well have you kept up on maintenance like spark plug change and so on

 

Good day scwpd. Thank you for responding. There are no error codes appearing when the engine quits. It stutters for a few seconds, I can see the RPMs fluctuating and then it dies. Here is the complete repair history for my truck.

Dodge History – 2004 RAM 1500 Hemi engine

Oct 2004 purchased new
Oil, filter & lube every 3,000 miles
Jun 2005 – evacuated and recharged A/C
May 2007 – lower ball joints replaced
Feb 2009 – new tires
Feb 2009 – front brake pads replaced
Sep 2010 – injectors cleaned
Sep 2010 – belts and battery replaced
Jan 2011 – power steering hose replaced
Sep 2011 – thermostat and system flush
May 2012 – radiator and oxygen sensor replaced
Dec 2012 – rear brake pads replaced
Jul 2013 – spider gear assembly replaced
Jul 2013 – throttle body replaced
Jul 2013 – throttle body replaced again
Aug 2013 – installed ground wire from throttlebody to battery

After installing the ground wire, the engine is still running rough as though the spark plugs are not firing all the time. When I accelerate from a stop, the engine hesitates and then surges to catch up with the accelerator. The RPMs do not fluctuate enough to see a variance, but I can feel the hesitation, more so at higher speeds. I hope this helps.
Dan...

 

I don't see on you list when you replaced the spark plugs. Kind of wondering if you don't have a fuel delivery issue its not going to be easy to track down but you might want to try a fuel system cleaner if you have not done so already.

 

Yea don't see anything about spark plugs on your must by the book you should be about ready to do your second change on them. Pull one or two and see how they look I'd actually say pull two one main and one waste plug and check the wires really good and go from there

 

what DTCs (diagnostic Trouble Codes) are you getting? You should be able to pull those without having to start the truck unless they are "temporary DTCs"...

 

o2 sensors?

 

Good day. This is probably going to be a long reply. Since my last message the tech and I went for a ride. Got up to 65 and the tech said that what I thought was spark plugs missing was tire or driveshaft unbalance. I had the tires rotated and balanced. That seemed to help a bit. Now the missing is noticed most between 50 and 65. Then i took the truck to have the driveshaft balanced. The tech there took the truck out and got up to 82 before he noticed any vibration in the driveshaft. He said there is no problem with the driveshaft. Another thing the Dodge tech did was to install a paperclip in the connector mounted to the firewall. He asked me to install a voltmeter to this ckip and monitor the +5 volt reference voltage, especially when the engine quits. On the drive home from having this clip installed, the engine quit once. After I soldered a wire to the clip and ran it to a voltmeter laying on the dashboard, the engine has not quit in more than 3 weeks. I installed the ground wire from the voltmeter to the battery negative terminal by loosening one of the bolts on the battery negative lead and crimping the wire under the bolt. I asked the tech last Friday if the heat from the soldering iron would have affected the connection in the firewall connector. He said it was a coincidence and suggested placing an analyzer on the engine. The dealer that I go to used to sell Dodges along with Fords. The dealer has another store several miles from here that also sells Dodges and Fords. The dealer was told by Dodge to move the Dodge sales to the other store to separate the sales. Now there is only one tech at my local store who works on Dodges. When i asked if the other store had the analyzer, the tech said no, that it was a special unit and he would have to try and find one. Within the last 2 weeks, the rear end is now howling. The driveshaft tech noticed it and it reminded me that all of this trouble started right after the dealer replaced the spider gear assembly in the rear differential. The driveshaft tech asked if they replaced the bearings as well. I don't know. I do know the spider gear assembly cost me $800 to replace. They showed me the inside of the old one when they opened it up and there were at least 3 teeth broken off and laying in there. The engine still feels like it is missing. Back in September the dealeer tech pulled one of the plugs and said it looked fine. He said that since the Hemi has 2 plugs per cylinder, they normally will last 100,000 miles before needing to be replaced. When I accelerate more than usual, the engine responds with impressive action. The truck only has 60,000 miles on it over 10 years. I love the truck, but i'm wondering if it's worth all this trouble trying to fix a problem that they can't seem to find. Any suggestions? Thanks for any replies.

 

For that price there is no way they replaced the pinion bearings and probably not the carrier bearings either. If you have the bill check the parts list. Its probably $300 for spider gear set. A bearing set would run around $300. Since it low on mileage they probably figured the bearings were fine. But maybe they did not get the backlash set properly when they put the carrier back in. When setting up existing used gears they are supposed to try and match the existing wear pattern. There should have been no reason to remove the pinion gear so all they need was getting the backlash and carrier preload set properly. With your engine troubles I am sure you are tempted to just trade it in.