So I decided to buy the 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 I was talking about. It was not as good in person as in the photos on Craigstlist but I decided to get it. I liked it. It will suit my needs. It's got character.

I sure hope I did not buy a turd. It's got some issues but since I like tinkering with stuff it should be right up my alley. Hopefully you guys will help me out. OH, it's has a 3.9 Magnum engine. The guy says he thinks it has been converted from a 3 speed to a 4 speed automatic. I think the shifter just has some slop in it.

And since I only paid $1500 for this thing, if the motor blows up, I'm not out that much.

Issue 1: This interstate rattle is deafening! I got a headache from driving this thing 60 miles home. It goes away if I push the accelerator in, goes away if I take my foot off. It happens when my foot is resting on the accelerator under cruise. I can actually make the noise go away by "burst driving" but that's kind of annoying after awhile. Around town below 50 mph, there is no noise at all. Other than a squealing noise from the engine but I think that is either the tensioner bearing and or the belt. Easy fix.

I banged on the converter with my fist and I can hear a rattle so I think it's exhaust related. It's welded in place after the downpipes so looks like I'm going half to get the reciprocating saw out and cut if off. If it's collapsed, rod it out and weld it back in and take the guts to the recycler to get money from the platinum. Trouble is the CEL is not kicking on so that make me wonder. I have a code reader I can hook up just to see if the CEL is burned out, I forgot to check that when I turn the ignition on. The CEL was on for almost 6 years on my 98 Chevy van after the rotor button failed and dumped gas into the exhaust because it says the converter has failed and the light bulb finally blew! Luckily there is no inspection system where I live so I can get away with it.

2: Stalling after warm up. For some odd reason this has happened twice. Engine is warmed up but after maybe after 30 seconds of restarting the van, the van starts acting like it's running out of gas, making this slight backfiring then stalls. But if I turn the switch off and restart it starts right up and runs fine. Any idea what that might be? MAP sensor? It ran fine after both of these episodes.

3: Oil pressure guage goes to zero at idle and the check gauges light kicks on and beeps. This concerns me. Once the engine builds up some RPMs, the gauge shoots up between the first mark and 40 lbs. I realize these oil pressure gauges are not exact. The oil pressure guage on my 94 Jeep Wrangler read 40 lbs no matter if it was idling or doing 70 mph and I bought this vehicle new. I'm thinking the sending unit is just bad.
I don't see an oil pressure light in the dashboard.

4: Brakes. The brake pedal is real touchy but has good brakes. Sort of hard to describe. Pedal goes to the floor at first but the second time it doesn't. Seems like allot of cars with ABS do this. After driving 60 miles, I hit the brakes and van pulled to the left a bit. The guy says the brakes need to be bleed because the van has sat for more than a year. He may be right. This should be an easy fix. I've worked on the brakes on all my cars. The van doesn't pull going down the road like the caliper is stuck or a hose is collapsed. The guy said he put new calipers on it.

The brake light and the ABS lights are both on. Reservoir is full of brake fluid.

Other than that, the suspension seems more solid than on my 98 Chevy van with the same miles. Handling is good. Steering is not sloppy for a van with 173,000 miles on it.

Grab life by the horns!

BTW, I've owned various (pre 1983) Fiats for almost 30 years. I still own a 1980 Fiat 2000 Spider I bought in 1992 when I was 22.

I didn't know until recently the new Ram Promaster van is a rebadged Fiat Ducato van. Too bad they don't sell this van in a 5 speed in the US like they do Europe.

Me and my "new" van:

 

Nice van.
Let's start with the brakes and ignore the rest for now. I think you should check the reservoir, check the adjustment on the rear shoes (I assume it has shoes and not pads), and bleed the brakes.

 

Yeah , the brakes should be easy to sort out. It's the fuel injection system that concerns me. I hate fuel injection. I'd rather have a carburetor. Just rebuild it when a fuel issue occurs.

This van holds 25 gallons, I think. The gas light kicked in and I topped it off with 23 gallons of 93 E10. The gas in it was old. I figured it might have water in it from where the van sat. Maybe the water/alcohol mix is sinking to the bottom of the tank after I shut the engine off and it's sucking it in the lines after I start it . But after I restart the van it run just fine.

 

1: The honeycomb element inside the CC has broken and is causing the rattling.

2: This issue comes up every year as it gets colder out. Use a hairdryer to warm up the ECM before you first start it in the morning. Once the ECM is warmed up start the engine. If it does not stall the issue is with the ECM.

3: Start with a new sending unit only because it's the cheap and easy fix. (Remove the engine cover and the sender is right next to the distributor.) If that doesn't solve it then there is likely sludge in the oil pan that is restricting the oil pick up tube.

4:The brake pedal issue is because you either have a worn master cylinder or the rear adjusters are frozen and the rear drums brakes are not adjusting. The pulling is a right side frozen caliper or the caliper slide is causing the caliper to hang.

 

Thank you for your reply. I noticed this morning that the engine maybe had maybe 60 lbs of oil pressure. I guess because the oil was cold. The guage falling to no oil pressure happens at normal operating temperature at idle. Like the sending unit just dies anything below 40 lbs.

The engine did blow a head gasket and the guy said the oil pan needed to be removed and cleaned. I don't know if the mechanic who fixed the head gasket told him that or what.

The oil on the dipstick looks clean. I thought before pulling the pan, I would drain it and pour a gallon of gasoline (or diesel, kerosene or mineral spirits) in the oil pan and let it sit overnight and repeat.

But yeah I'm going to try replacing the sending unit.

Interesting about the ECU issue. I started the van this morning and it was around 32F and it idled fine for several minutes but I didn't drive it on the road due to not having it registered yet.

It seems when it does this is on a hot start. So if driven , parked and restarted 30 minutes later is when this occurrs.

 

I pulled the doghouse. Looks like someone replaced the oil pressure gauge sensor. The engine has 50 lbs of pressure when cold at idle. My code reader also shows no codes stored. Brake and ABS lights are now off for some reason.


I

 

Perhaps they installed an idiot light sensor instead of one for a gauge. That would give you an on/off instead of a variable output.

 

It's looks just like the old one that was laying on the breather. Hmmm. Source of this highway vibration?

Actually the van shows good oil pressure at idle when cold. It just drops to zero at idle when hot. Rev it up a bit and the gauge shoots up to 30 to 40 lbs .

 

I'd buy or borrow a mechanical gauge and check pressure to be sure...

 

Cool looking van!!

had the same problem with a 2000 xj Cherokee

cold oil pressure was great, at idle hot it went low and turned the light on

2000 4.0 sixes had heads cracking and leaking coolant into oil,

coolant mixed with oil and took out the cam bearings which made excessive clearance and caused the oil pressure problem

since you already know it had head gasket problems, do what Tim reccomended and hook up a mechanical gauge, run it till it gets hot and see what pressure it actualy has. If it is below 7 psi at idle it will turn the light on

the Cherokee had 5 psi at idle hot. I replaced the short block under warranty

if you have about 5 psi at idle , try useing 15-50, or 20-50 mobile1 synthetic oil it may just be thick enough to keep the light off

or else you gotta replace cam bearings