I noticed alot of talk here in different threads about trucks shaking when brakes applied. It's warped rotors. Here is my experience. I got 40,000 on mine till the shaking started. At 48,000 I replaced front rotors and sanded brake shoes. At 50,000 it was shaking again, so I replaced back rotors. Back rotors weren't the problem. Factory brake shoes are WAY too hard. At 51,000 I replaced front rotors again, and put the cheapest softest brake shoes on that I could find. I now have 65,000 miles and she's doing fine. Make sure you scrap those factory pads when you replace the rotors. If you do lots of heavy hauling, Summit Racing sells nice grooved rotors to shed the heat, but they cost over $100 each, compared to Autozone's $26 for factory replacements. All you guys who are getting warped rotors before 25,000 or 30,000 miles, are you using your tow\haul button at all? If you are going down a fairly long grade, push the tow\haul button to shift her down to 3rd. This really helps hold you back and saves the binders. If it isn't a steep grade and you are slowing down too much, give it just a little throttle and it'll shift to 4th. Yes, at least in a 2004, the tow\haul will let it go into 4th. I know some of you guys will read this and think I'm an idiot for posting this because everyone knows this, but when I bought my truck it was my first automatic with a tow\haul and I had to figure out the right way to use it myself.

 

That's not a bad piece of information to share. The OEM rotors on alot of Dodge/Chrysler products are known for being crap. I'd recommend swapping out to a good aftermarket rotor/brakes as soon as you pick up the car. Now, not all the vehicles have the same issue, and not everyone that owns a Ram or a Stratus will get the same issue at the same time. Sometimes its just the parts naturally wearing out, but most people are seeing pre-mature wearing.

I've used slotted/drilled rotors on my Dakotas with good ceramic pads.....and I am about to put Hawk pads/drilled rotors on my Stratus.

 

The tow/haul mode off in an 04 will NOT allow 4th gear. Just 1-3 then the lockup in 3rd.

 

sorry Kenihemi, but you are wrong. My owners manual even states that it'll shift to 4th. I know when the converter locks up, and I know when it shifts to 4th. When it is in tow haul, going down hill, just give it a little gas, not enough to accellerate. It shifts to 4th. If I push the tow\haul button off at this point, it shifts to 5th, which only drops it about 200 or so RPM's. At least mine works that way, and like I said, it says it in my owners manual.