1998 Dodge Ram Pickup 1500 Quad Cab 4x4 from North America - Comments

I'll try to keep this short. For starters the gas mileage is terrible (around 9 to 10 MPG). The transmission clinks every time you start up. When locked in four wheel drive it makes an awful whining noise that is not normal. But my number one complaint has to be the engine pings, the constant knocking, and the service engine light that won't go away every time this happens. I took my truck to be serviced and they told me this was a problem with Dodge 318 engines. They could not fix the problem.

I like the way the truck looks, that's why I bought it in the first place. Never again!

To the person who is having the ping problem the dodge dealer would be able to fix the problem if they wanted to the problem is the intake manifold gasket my truck has gone through 5 of them and it is a 1998 tell your service department to look up their technical service bulletins to find the problem and the solution and tell the dealer to pay for it as well.

7/17/03 - I have a 1998 Dodge Ram SLT Laramie quad cab bought new 12/97. Wonderful truck!! 201,000 all highway miles to date. Only thing replaced on this truck has been tires, shocks and water pump. Oil changes every 6 weeks because that's how long it takes me to put 3,000 miles on it, and all regular maintenance done on time. 10 days ago and approx. 50 miles into a fuel fill-up, engine started the ping sound like when you got a watered-down tank of gas. Got louder as I got home. Check engine light came on and stayed on. Next morning, I took it to local Dodge dealership service because I was afraid to drive the 52 mile trip to work with the light on. Service technician did diagnostics and said something about the #5 cylinder, but could not find anything that needed to be repaired. Said looks like I just got a bad tank of gas. Told me to go to local auto parts and get a bottle of HEET and add to tank and to do so for the next 2 tanks. I did. On third tank, I did not add the HEET. Approx. 60 miles into the new tank of gas, pinging started again. Engine light came on again. Does anybody have any idea what could be wrong. It has to be something other than a bad tank of gas again. This has been such a good truck and I'd like to think it might get another 100,000 miles before it quits for good.

1998 Dodge 1500 Quad cab 4X4 pickup started making clicking noise when in 4X4 and wheels turned hard left or right. Shop installed new ball joints and u-joints; no difference, they recommended to use 2X4 when turning sharp. Another shop said the transfer-case chain was stretched and slipping on the sprocket;had transfer-case rebuilt; no difference. Shop techs in my area have never heard of this problem. Can someone help?