I have a 2004 Ram 2500 QC, 4X4 Diesel. Was a fantastic truck when I first got it...in fact, this is my third Ram truck, but my first HD Diesel. As I sit here, I am wondering if this truck was worth it...

It only has 49,000 miles on it, all highway driving. I have used 4 wheel drive only a few times, and only for crawling through some sand and pulling 2 cars out of the mud. I have towed a U-Haul trailer with it once.

At 39,000 miles (3,000 over the warranty) I noticed what looked like oil on the driver side frame rail...turned out to be brake fluid. Seems the hydroboost unit cracked and had to be replaced...$800!!!

At around 40,000 miles, it developed a harmonic sort of buzz at around 67MPH that smoothed outa little at around 72MPH. It made quite a deep sort of rumbling sound inside the cabin and the buzz was very noticable on the steering wheel. The dealership could find nothing wrong. It's not the tires, it's definitely something in the drive train. Needless to say, it's annoying as heck when trying to drive long distances on the highway and slowly getting worse with time.

At 49,000 miles the steering has developeda fair bit of play and I am constantly steering back and forth to maintain straight down the road. When I switch lanes the ever so slight hump in the middle of the road shoves me off to one side, then pulls the other wayand requires quick back and forth steering to keep it from jerking me off the road. I can turn the steering wheel 3-4 inches left or right before it will apply pressure to turn the wheels. I haven't had it to the dealer for that yet as I figure they will just tell me there isnothing wrong, or they'll tell me I need a several thousand dollar repair and try to blame it on me.

The ride quality has gone to total crap. The once smooth, taught feel is now a loose, but bone jarring ride. I have had the shocks checked by the dealership and they say they are fine. I have lots of noises and rattling in the dash and especially in the doors.

And just today I happened to notice that the rear differential is leaking pretty heavy where the driveshaft enters and is throwing oil all over the underside of the truck. Lovely.

Needless to say, I am quite disappointed with this truck. My previous two Rams (both 1500 gassers) have been great, nota single problem. The diesel 2500 has been my dream truck for quite a few years and now that I have it, I am appalled at all the problems it is developing at only 49,000 miles. I have to wonder what sort of shape it would be in if I had actually done anyhting "heavy duty" with it. I certainly didn't expect any of these sorts of issues until at least 90,000 to 100,000 miles if then. I have had other trucks in the past that had over 100K on them and didn't have the steering issues, or thedeteriorated ride quality....and they werne't even heavy duty trucks.

I am meticulous with my trucks. I do all the maintenance at the proper intervals, etc. I babied this thing! Of course, the bumper-to-bumper part of the warranty is out, so the steering issue will have to be fixed out of my pocket (just like the hydro-boost for the brakes), but I sure as heck hope they will fix the rear diff under the 7/70 drive train warranty.

I'm having very mixed emotions now. Part of me says trade it in for a Fordor Chevy, butthe other half wants the Dodge so bad....sigh.

Anyone else have issues with the rear diff? The steering? What about the harmonic buzzing/rumble? Crappy ride quality? Rattles and noises in dash and doors?

Fortunately, I haven't had any issues with the automatic trannylike I just got done reading a bunch about. Sure hope that doesn't go on the fritz as well...

 

WOW dude I'm really sorry to hear how unhappy you are !! I think we may be able to help you out though ...

First of, the steeringplay that you are experiencing unfortunately isn't anything new, however there IS a brace that is fairly inexpensive, quite a few of the fellas here are useing it and like it, and apparently it's easy to install. Cowboy just mentioned it in another thread.

Here's the link for the brace ...
http://www.pscmotorsports.com/produc...products_id=90

The other problems that your having hopefully someone else here will chime in and help you out. My Pop has the same year and I believe he too has the HD version. So far, he's happy with it.

Best of luck to ya !! Feel free to ask any and all questions here. Don't be shy, help is on the way !!

 

Drive around on a rough road for a while, get out and touch your shocks, if they aren't warm, then they're bad. The rear diff pinion seal seems to be a common problem and can be fixed fairly easy if you have the right tools. As for the harmonic, I would check the dline out and the carrier bearing, make sure the dline is in time and there is no play in the ujoints. Best of luck to you what ever your decision may be.

 

Jake pretty much hit what I was gonna say.

That harmonic vibration...............I'll bet my dollar to your hundred that the rear u-joint is toast or the pinion bearing in the rear diff is shot. That vibration is probably also what's causing that leak at the rear diff. If the u-joint went south is and was severe enough, it would take out the pinion bearing (and the seal) pretty quick.

As for the wandering, there are3 things I'd check first....the tie rod ends, ball joints and the wheel bearing assembly. They are a common problem on ALL trucks with solid axles. The check the ball joints, jack up one tire and grab it on top and bottom and tug it back and forth. It there is play, grab it on the sides and give it a yank. If there is play there too, then the wheel bearings are toast. If the play is just top to bottom, then the ball joints are toast. As for the tie rod ends....have someone hop in the truck with it running. You go underneath and watch the TRE's as they cycle the steering a few inches to each side. If there is steering gear movement without tire movement, the TRE's may be gone.

None of those are hard fixes and none of those are uncommon, in ANY of the HD trucks.

Believe me, I've had all 3 and none of them have been shining examples of durability. But, by far, the Ford SD's have a higher rate of failure in all the areas you're talking about. Don't even ask how I know.

I know you're ticked at the moment, but it's just a little elbow grease and she'll be all good.

 

I can understand the issue isn't terribly difficult to fix or deal with, I'm just appalled that a heavy duty truck has such poor durability (it's a bit of an oxymoron, don't you think?). Yeah, I am ticked, and I'm sorry, butI shouldn't have to applya little "elbow grease" on a $40,000 heavy duty truck with only 49K miles on it. Like I said, what if I had actually worked the truck hard over it's short life? Would I be changing ball joints, tie rod ends, seals, u-joints, etc every 10,000-15,000 miles instead of 49,000? That'sa little ridiculous....and to add to it....I discovered the tranny is leaking like crazy right where it bolts up to the engine too...so those tranny issues I thought I wasn't having, well, guess again.

I bought the truck because the diesel should give me better mileage and longevity (which thank god the Cummins has done so far), it's just everything else around the engine that I'm not too happy about.

I've had solid axle trucks before (back in the early 80's) and never had this ball joint/loose steering issue, or failing u-joints, pinion seals and leaking transmission at such low mileage,so I don't buy that "it's common on solid axle trucks". It might be common on a poor design or poor quality.

Either way, I really do like the Dodge because of the Cummins and I like the way the Dodge looks over all the others, but if all the HD trucks are like this, then I may just go back to a 1500 gasser. My '95 Ram (even after swapping out the little 6-cylinder for a 5.9L V-8) never gave me any trouble in over 140K miles. The 02 1500never had a problem and it had 50K on it when I traded it for the 2500 diesel.

I dunno, the truck was dropped offat the dealer this morning and the service tech told me they get a lot of the HD's in with the leaking pinion seal, but the leaking tranny and the buzzing/rumbling they seemed a bit worried about....we'll see.....


Oh, and I checked out that steering brace...of course, the one I need is the expensive one, lol....that thing should be OEM from the factory....

 

Sucks to hear about all of your probs 4x4. I guess your only saving grace is that your Ram is probably still under warranty and thus, someone else will be fixing it up for you. Best of luck to you !!

 

From experience.....really ask some of the guys here about my experience when I first bought this truck......I'm not impressed by ANY of the US manufacturers trucks right now.

The difference with the trucks now and the trucks back in the '70's and '80's was that they used king pins in the steering knuckles, not ball joints. They were indestructible. The other thing is, they went away from the serviceable bearings and put in these crap unit bearings that you have to replace the whole damn thing.

It's all cost saving crap and unfortunately it's not just Dodge that does it. On my '04 SD that I traded for thsi truck, I had steering / wandering / tire wear issues from day one. At 15K, I had to replace (under warranty) the friggin unit bearings. I also had the vibration that you are talking about and, sure as $hit, it took out the rear pinion seal. It also started burning a qt of oil every 1500 miles.

I know you're frustrated with it, but like I said, it's not uncommon in these or any of the other HD trucks. I've told folks before that I'm not a brand loyal person by any means. I buy the product that give me the best bang for the buck at the time. When I was looking for a new truck, I told plenty of dealership folks that if Toyota comes out with a HD diesel, they better watch out, because right now the Amercian manufacturers custom service SUCKS!.

 

I to traded in a Ford SD for a Cummins dually. I had 65k on the Ford and went thru 1 set of front wheel bearings and 2 sets of ball joints. Since the only time I did anything with 4wd in the Ford was to put parts in it, my '05 Dodge is now 2wd. Alot nicer ride, and no worries. Allthough these fixes of yours are easy to do in the driveway, it still sucks to do it with less than 100k on the clock. And the only reason is because of the cheaper made parts that the big 3 now use. It is getting almost impossible to get american made parts nowadays. Good luck to 'ya.


KenZ

 

I have had plenty of steering issues. All of them have been fixed fairly easily, but they are very frustrating when they occur. I was ready to get rid of my truck last month because of yet another steering issue. There is a lot of extra weight on the front end of these trucks with the CTD and 4x4 parts. The good news is that all of the steering issues I have had were easy to fix once the problem was identified. I have replaced just about everything on the front end on my truck.

I had to replace allof the ball joints hub assemblies and trac bar on mine at just 42k.

I have had my share of leaky seals too. The leak between the motor and the tranny is probablyjust a seal. Mine went out at about 80k. The vacuum pump seal went out around the same time and the seals on the rear axle just got replaced this past weekend at 166k.

 

One thing you might want to look up is when your truck was built. . .that has been a factor in which truck some buy. those built on a monday or a friday will generaly have more problems then those built in the middle of the week.

my truck was built on a thursday, and the engine was built on a tuesday, just a bit over 42K and zero issues.