I have a 2003 RAM 2500 HD Super Crew.
I love this truck !...
Accept for one thing...............

It currently has 22K miles on it. at about 18K miles the exhaust started making loud clanking noises while heating up and cooling down. Now it is even doing it the entire time the truck is runniing. I crawled uder ther truck and the noise is definately either the heat shields or the exhaust pipes near the engine / exhaust manifold area. This is driving me nuts ! is is very loud, constant and frikkin annoying. I would rather tear the entire exhaust off than keep listening to this.. The Dealership said this is a known issue on the 2500's but 2 friends of mine have the same vehicle and one has 70K on it wothout this problem. Does anyone know exactly what this is from ( bad pipes - mounts ) or have any way of addressing this issue ??? Any help would be greatly appreciated, this clanking is rediculous. I can hear it over two hundred feet from the truck across a parking lot !!! Thanks !!!!!!

 

Well no clue on whats causing it, but if its a 2003, it should be under warenty. I would goto the dealership and kick, scream, bite, and yell as much as you have to to get it fixed. I am sure you paid a pretty penny for the truck and in that price you paid, part of it was for warenty, demand that they fix it, especially if it is a know issue. If they say no, walk up to the closest salesman trying to sell a car/truck and tell the customer that they are talking to about the "great warenty service" that they offer and your truck will be fixed pretty quick.

 

I'm not sure if this is the same as your truck, but I had the same problem with a Jeep Cherokee last year. I found the noise was the inside of the catalitic converter comming apart. It eventually shook itself completely apart and departed the vehicle via the tail pipe. It seems that it's made of some type of ceramic material and breaks down and eventually turns into powder. It wasn't a problem for the Jeep since it has no O2 sensor after the converter but it may be a problem for your truck.........that is, if it is in deed the same problem that I had.

Brian

 

One word... "aftermarket"

 

Big Time, go for the performance upgrade.[sm=exactly.gif]