So, I took the truck to the Dealer yesterday. I told them all of the symptoms that the the truck has. I told them that it stalls mostly before the truck is at normal operating temp and that they should hold on to it until they can get the truck to stall for them. Well that didn't happen. I dropped it off at 7:30am and they called me to come get it at noon. So of course they never got it to stall for them and didn't find anything wrong, no error code, nothing. They told me they did two rrt flashes and a another flash for the trans or something.

Anyways, I leave to go to work this morning and the damn thing died on me twice in probably 5min. So it looks like i'm going to have to take it back again.

 

So I took the truck back and they tell me its the idle sensor on the throttle body. Apparently theres a voltage drop through the sensor which then closes off the throttle causing the engine to stall. But the thing is I had a bad idle sensor on my 2003 ram and it would stall at low rpms at any time. It didn't matter if it was in park, neutral, coming to a stop or driving down the road. So I don't know if they're right on this one. I guess we'll see what happens next week.

Oh yeah, its not just a simple sensor replacemant, its the whole throttle body. They come as one unit.

 

I just got the truck back yesterday at noon. (again) They replaced the throttle body and sent me on my way, saying everything was good to go. Well at the end of the day, I went to leave work and at the first stop sign the truck started surging and then died. It still feels like it has something to do with the trans or tc.

We'll see what they say when i call today.

 

Have you tried taking it to another dealer to get a "second opinion?" Some dealerships just brush off small work as much as they can because they just don't want to deal with it. If it doesn't pick up with a code reader, they usually come to the conclusion there is nothing wrong with the vehicle. In todays world, it just seems that there are no mechanics anymore, just guys to swap a new part out when told. The only way to do that is to read the codes, they don't want to take a chance of replacing something if they don't know that thats the EXACT problem. New car mechanics seem to be moving towards this way, where as I know several mechanics in the trade that could pinpoint the system thats could be causing the problem, then narrow that down to the part. Granted thats on older vehicles, and they have been in the trade for a while, but they still have the experience that they need to determine whats wrong.

Could seem like mumbo jumbo, but what I am saying is try and take it to another dealership. Mention to them what the other dealer did, and they could possible have a more experienced mechanic that could pin point the problem much better. One who does not have to rely on a computer to see if there is something wrong. Because you an I know that not everything will be registered on the computer.

Just to clarify too, im not trying to hack away at new mechanics. I know some new mechanics that are VERY good with parts and their understanding. But face it there are some that just want to get through school, work at a dealership. They get paid the same amount of money by a computer telling them what to replace if not more. Pretty penny for easy work. You don't really gain experience by a computer telling you how to do you work. Again not saying that it applies to everyone, just seems to be a vast majority, around here anyways.

 

Nate, I agree with you on how new auto techs are being trained to some what depend on computer diagnostics before mechanical diagnostics. But my problem is that there are only 2 dodge dealers in my city and I'm stuck with what I've got. I've already had issues with the other dealer because they took 3 months to fix my truck after an accident. At least the one i'm at is willing to look thru it untill its fixed. So next week its back in the shop.

 

Not worth it to drive to a nearby town? I know your in sask just don't know what part...but for me I live half way between calgary and red deer. Its about an hour to drive to either of them, yet there is two towns within 20 mins that I could go to. I still go to the one in red deer just because of their service and I know the mechanics there are good. So I don't know how close the next town is in your area but for me its worth an hour drive...

 

scratch that I just noticed your in saskatoon...I am surprised that you don't receive good things from a dealership there. Might be time to try a smaller town dealership. Might get the guys that want to be there, then just to earn money.

 

Well that didn't fix it for you that's too bad, I still would bet money that it's your torque converter. The only way i knew my torque converter was bad was by towing my camper, or something really heavy that will make the truck work hard. Every once in a while the truck would get the engine light to come on while towing, i always thought it was my tranny overheating cause it would get really hot because the torque converter not unlocking, so i just left it at that. Then i had my diablo sport tuner and was able to read codes when that engine light would pop up. And it would only light up when i would climb long hills where the truck would downshift, just locking the torque converter but would never unlock after a while, causing the light to come on. Now i know there's not one hill in sight in saskatchewan but maybe worth trying to tow something heavy to get the light to come on, then you'll have a code and bingo they have something to work with.

The dealership told me back then they couldn't do anything without a code, so I had to end up towing a trailer around to get the light to come on and thank god it did, they found the code (P0742) and changed the torque converter (with the same ****ty rattling noise TQ) but this one was working good, made a huge difference towing, i was relieved.

Check out the post i made last year about it. Good luck

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/4th-gen...-stuck-on.html

 

Cant,

If the dealer cannot figure out the issue they should be calling the Chrysler techs to get them involved. If you prefer you can call the Chrysler Canada Customer Assistance Center and they will contact the dealer and offer to get the Chrysler techs involved in your issue if the dealer cannot figure it out. It is good that the dealer is willing to see the fix through but if they can't figure it out they should ask for help.

800-465-2001 - Customer Assistance Center Canada

 

Just got the truck back from the dealer again. The service guy told me that there was a service bulletin a while ago that stated that if the transmission fluid is too low that the torque convertor will not recieve suffecient lubrication. Then causing the torque convertor to intermittently stay in the locked position.

I guess I could have check the fluid level and came to that conclusion myself but I made the assumption that everything should be good and topped up. Especially after another dealership replaced the rad a couple months ago due to a fender bender that I was in.

So I guess we'll see how things go this week.