I'm trying to not take up for shops or manufactures. But vehicles today are built better with less problems,last longer then in history. I've dealt with new vehicles that had 10 plus items to dig into and would stay a full week plus in the shop. Under warranty, no loaners, no lemon laws, no free oil changes etc. with less then 6000 miles. Metal in a differential is not unusual. I've seen it for 3 decades on everything under the sun. Thats why there is a magnet in them. Auto transmissions usually have metal and fiber in the pan. Some more then others but that dosen't constitute a problem. Thats why they have a filter. Techs have turned into what WE created in this fast pace world. I remember when techs,service writers were paid labor only. No parts. Alternators and starters we repaired. Water pumps had the shaft pressed out and a new bearing/seal kit was installed. Then the tech painted it before installing. That all went away by the mid 1980s. I've gone home on a Friday evening with over 100 cars in the lot waiting to be looked at. No such thing as a appointment. Half either had rack and pinions leaking or broken transmissions. Automatics and manuals. The techs I worked with then called it job security. We had a endless supply of vehicles under warranty and not. Lots of change in 20 odd years. These Dodge trucks are really built nice and not many issues compared to their predecessors.

 

I sold my old 78 dodge 1/2 ton pickup a few years ago, 150,000 on the odometer, never once did it have the diff fluid changed. Never any noise`s from the diff even as of today on that old truck. How do i still know this...????..., my neighbor bought the truck from me, he`s STILL driving it today, not one issue with the rearend. But yet i have a 2010 dodge truck sittin here with the rearend blown out at 20,000 miles, and several others out there with the same issue as mine. Check out all the dodge forums on the internet, you`ll find these 4th gen trucks with rearend problems nation wide. Alot of the other issues i`ve had with this new truck, i`ve found that others have had the same issues as well. So that tells me QUALITY of newer vehicles today is actually worse in my opinion. I hear what you`re saying hounddog, but it still seems very odd with all the issues out there with these 4th gen trucks. (and thers ALOT of them) Years ago i didnt have to wait more than a couple days at the most to get my vehicle looked at, (by a tech that KNEW what they were doing..!) today you`re put on a waiting list to get in. (sometimes you wait as long as a month around my area) Thats telling me thers alot of broken vehicles coming back to the dealer. I use to work in dealerships yrs ago as a tech for almost 40yrs (i`m retired now) and an old timer once said to me way back when i was 25yrs into the auto repair world, "Some day they`ll appreciate us, BUT, we are a dying breed, these new kids coming into the autoworld are dumb as sh_t, they have to be retrained every 5 minutes" The biggest problem i see today, a lot less people care about the quality of the work they put out. Back in MY days of working on cars/trucks for a living, we had what they dont have today....PRIDE...!!!

 

Vehicles like your 78 Dodge were durable to a since. But they were not built as well as the ones today. They were no where near as complicated or to have things go wrong except in the drive train area. Them old ones did not last as long, get the performance and fuel mileage that we have today. They were a lot easier to work on. Because so simple. They did rot and fall apart rather quickly. Took a different type person to work on them then as to now. The waiting time to get a vehicle looked at changes with the economy,fuel prices and such. Big in the day I remember shops were dead in the gas crunch era. Now its the overall economy. Lots of business have times they need more employees or hardly need any. I still encounter top notch techs in dealers that some days are busy other days with nothing.

 

Hounddog,
most of your points are pretty good ones, but some are definately not. I strongly disagree with your point about these trucks being better today. If they ARE, better, then tell me why a $40,000+ dollar 2010 dodge truck (with only 20,000 miles) has, bad rear diff, trans shifting issues, brake failure, water pouring in on the rear seats, shiddy tires that cost 10 times more than they did in 1978 and the tires only lasted for 15,000 miles, the new bumpers rusted in less than a year. (rusted in 4 months to be exact) Also, the paint jobs on these new dodge trucks just SUCK period. Tons of dirt UNDER the paint. Not one of these i mentioned, has ever been seen on my old 1978 dodge truck...!!!! And that old 78 is still running on the road today, everyday, with close to hitting 200,000 miles on it. I totally dought this 2010 i have right now will ever see 100,000 miles. And i will also mention, my old 78 dodge never had to be taken back to the dealer for a warranty issue all the years i owned it, but this new one has been back to the dealer for several recalls and other non recall issues, so dont try to tell me these trucks are better today than they were years ago. Maybe if they didnt try to build trucks to ride like cars, and put a lot less trinket`s on them, we`d have alot better trucks today. Look, i`m not trying to start a pizzin contest with you, i`m just making valid points of people spending big money for these trucks but the quality is suckin with ALL vehicles today. The service during a warranty issue today really sucks too. We shouldnt have to threaten with lawsuits just to get something fixed. Ask yourself WHY they came out with the lemon law....because these loser companies dont want to back up what they sell...!!!!! If these cars & trucks were that great of a product today, then we wouldnt have the lemon law, now would we. Dont get me wrong here, i do like the truck, but i would never concider buying another one. I`ll keep this one for a little while longer, and then i`ll send it down the highway before anything else goes wrong with it.

 

All that you describe wrong with your truck is not the norm. The only thing that 78 did was rust faster then vehicles we have now. Thats just a fact. Your comparing a twin engine jet to a 1955 Piper Cub. Yea that Piper is still flying. So ?

 

Yup, you`re right, its not normal, and thats why ther`s tons of 4th gen trucks on the internet/forums with these very same issues i`m having..??? As for rusting, you should see most the 2008 dodge trucks all rotting thru just above the rear wheel well on the outside of the box`s where i live, yup, once again, not normal. But my old 78 isnt rusted thru there yet. (hmmmm, your point...?) If ther`s one thing for sure, that i`ve learned, i wont be buying another new dodge truck again. Maybe i`ll hunt for an older one and shove a real oldskool 426 hemi in it...hehehehe

 

Wow!!!! Tons and tons of trucks, I don't buy it! Sorry there are problems with your trucks and the ones who are having problems definately have a right to be pissed, but really tons? I would imagine if a statistical tally of problems versus amount sold for each model year would really tell you the true story on percentages other that joe smo complaining on five different sites, like I said I would not want to be the one of the bad apples, sure they are out there but to act like 3 out of 5 trucks has a problem is BS, would love to find the statistical data to put this to bed cause the horse is dead and sold for dinner somewhere in South Florida. I have had some minor issues with mine but its a machine, par for the course, My mom had a porsche with issues (yeah german tech), she continued to have issues with it, traded it in, the next one she still has 27 years later still runs like a clock (3/4 porsches were fine), there are bad apples just part of the statistical averages unfortunately, good luck.

 

McDonalds serves over 50 million people daily and they are everywhere...not just South Florida, lol!

 

I can't say that I have ever seen a rusted out 3rd gen Ram, heck very few 2nd gen have rust around here.
My 08 has no rust. I just crawled under it to put different step bars on it. No rust anywhere and I do drive on salted roads in the winter.

I do agree that they try to make these trucks too car like. If I wanted something to ride totally smooth, I would have a 300C. I bought a truck because I occasionally tow up to 8000lbs. Can't do that with the 300C or a Challenger.
These new trucks are build pretty good, the problem is crappy suppliers and the fact that there is so many gadgets these days, that there is just so much more that can fail.

Seems like if you are having that many problems with a 1yr old truck, that the lemon law may apply.

 

LMAOAY

I guess you better go get yourself a happy meal before the hamburgler gets ya (and make it a four piece mchorse nugget)!







The name of the thread says it all!!! Rearend Whine!! Make sure it's lubed next time!

Good luck!