2001 Dodge Ram from North America - Comments

Engine blown at 50,000+ miles after above recommended maintenance.

5-star techs repeatedly found sludge to tar type oil.

I questioned them over and over as to the cause. first they said oil wasn't changed enough. I proved differently. then it was the low grade oil I used. valvoline? they continued patch work. this took place over 2 years. finally after the last repair oil pressure dropped. and engine blew.

This was obviously a dealer problem. The tar type gook in the engine generally indicates a leak of coolant in very minute quantities into the engine. Your dealership was too lazy to fully check for small leakages in gaskets or coolant passages. As for oil, ANY oil easily forms gook and sludge unless it is synthetic. I wouldn't drive any of my vehicles 5 miles with non-synthetic in it regardless of the oil brand. Non-synthetic Valvoline will form sludge too. In your next vehicle immediately change to synthetic oil as soon as the vehicle has 5000 miles on it. My 1990 Dodge Omni went 240,000 miles with ZERO engine problems. Chrysler generally builds great stuff. I'm sorry you got a one-in-a-million bad one.

That's why you go exactly by what the owners manual says.

Have a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4, 5.2L, automatic. It was purchased from the dealer with 18K miles on in it in 2002. I have had the transmission serviced 3 out of past 4 years, each time at the dealer. The first time the dealer only "replaced" the fluid and didn't drop the pan. The following year I took the truck to a different dealer who did drop the pan, replace the filter and tighten the bands. (2004), 2 weeks after that service call, $300 to replace some small electronic shift capacitor (vehicle would not down shift into low gear and consistently “searched” for gears. I went back to that dealer for additional tranny service in 2005. In December 2005, while returning home from a long distance cross country drive (750 miles), check engine light came on. Following day, truck wouldn't idle, engine code error was 1740. Took the truck to the transmission shop, $3500 dollars later and three return trips, the torque converter was identified as the problem. tcc solenoid was replaced along with the valve body. There was only 68K on the truck, it was never abused nor pulled anything more than a lawnmower, what a piece of junk. Even the repair shop, very qualified repairman, indicated Chrysler trans were junk. Overdrive unit was like brand new, the clutches were still like new, he stated that while diagnosing why the tranny was overheating and fluid was not being circulated through the cooling lines, he finally pulled it out of the vehicle and discovered the torque converter had disintegrated. I love driving this truck, but will never purchase another Dodge because of the unreliability of the transmissions and their expensive repairs. I was hoping to have this truck for a long time, now I just want to get rid of it before the tranny goes out again… thank goodness it didn’t fail on the expressway. Again, I will never use my hard earned money to purchase a vehicle that cannot make it 70 – 100K miles without some major overhaul. (I hit all the maintenance periods with this vehicle and am very meticulous with taking care of this vehicle). Toyota is coming out with a new Tundra…seriously considering one, even though my father will disown me, he is a blue color, UAW all the way, retired factory man from the Midwest.