Car Blog

Question:

I have a 2004,V8 Dodge Dakota.There seems to be knocking under the front of the truck.That sounds like it is hitting where my feet are when I drive? Please can you help?

Answer:

Two things come to mind, exhaust or suspension. I would lean more
toward suspension. You can lay under the truck and look for the
suspension arm running from the front wheels back to under the
drivers foot well. I would suspect a worn bushing. How is the
steering feel and road manners of the truck? Does it wander on the
road, any pulsating or abrupt movements when braking? All could point
to worn front suspension.

Followup Question:

During braking it does pulsate some. I changed the brakes those are fine. It does pull a little to the right though. Also, when I hit even a small pothole, it almost seems to lose a little control. I have climbed under the truck and grabbed the suspension arm and it seems to be tight. The bushings also look fine. This is why it has me stumped

Followup Answer:

It really sounds like something in the suspension. Without the car up on a lift or jack stands, and a prybar, its tough to spot worn suspension pieces. I would take it to an alignment shop and let them know your symptoms, they should be able to get to the bottom of the problem.

Question:

Hello. I let my neighbor borrow my Ford F350 Diesel Pickup truck. When I picked it up, he informed me that he had put it in 4-wheel low. I asked him if he put it in neutral first, and he said he did not, he just had it in park. My question is, will that damage my truck, and if so, what are some things I need to look out for, telling me that damage occured?

Thanks for taking my question. Tim

Answer:

Tim,

It should not have caused any damage, the real problem would be if he
shifted into 4LO while driving, but the newer Fords prevent you from
doing that anyway. The gears for 4LO are not synchronized, and
straight-cut so they can not be shifted on the fly, so having the
transmission in neutral allows the shafts in the transfer case to free
spin and engage smoothly while the vehicle is at rest. When shifted
into 4LO while in park, there may have been a slight clunk if the
gears did not mesh properly, but it would not cause any wear to the
gears or damage. If however the truck was moving, and he tried to
shift into 4LO there would have been a lot of grinding, possibly a
broken tooth on the gear and some wear. That is why most newer
vehicle prevent you from engaging 4LO while the vehicle is in motion.

I got this email forwarded to me this morning...

Watch your speed. New State Trooper Vehicles…
KDKA and WDVE & CBS3 confirmed this. in PA.

Look out for Penn dot trucks parked along the road or appearing beh ind you pacing you, it could be a Trooper driving the truck, it is called Operation Yellow Jacket and will be off and on all summer, each district h as a truck cleaned up and ready to go!

Watch Your Speed In PA!
USE CRUISE CONTROL -NO MORE THAN 2 MILES ABOVE POSTED SPEED LIMIT.

Starting today, Pennsylvania will launch a 30 day speeding ticket frenzy. The state estimates that 9 million dollars will be generated in speeding tickets. 1 million will go to pay state troopersovertime. There will be 50 state troopers on duty at all times patrolling
the 9 main intersections and highways. They are the following:

Rte. 1 north and south
PA-220
I-99 north and south
I-95 north and south
I-279 north and south
I-276 east and west
I-376 east and w est
I-76 east and west
I-80 east and west
I-79 north and south
I-70 east and west
PA-60
PA-66
US-22 & 322

5 mph above the limit can justify a ticket and every state trooper is supposed to pull
a car over and write a ticke t every 10 to 20 minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked Dodge Charger Police cruisers and are bringing in all of their part timers on full time. If you work in Pennsylvania, you will probably take one of these highways. Its up to you how fast you are going then they clock you < /b>
KDKA and WDVE & CBS3 confirmed all of this in PA.

Starting on August 15th, the price of a ticket for violation of PA Law 39:3-29 (failure to show your drivers license, registration, or insurance card at the time you are stopped) is going from $44.00 to $173.00.
Make sure your vehicles have the proper documents in them. And the fine for not having all three documents is $519!!!

End Email Quote....

Now the first thing I thought was to check snopes.com for a report... so I found this...

http://www.snopes.com/politics/traffic/speeding.asp

The email has all the classic signs of an urban legend... No real dates, or links to the supposed stories on the radio/tv stations listed. Also the email plays to the common story of the city/state using speeding tickets to boost revenue. I then dug a little further and found this...

http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Penndot/Districts/district12.nsf/Operation%20Yellow%20Jacket?OpenPage

Which seems to be a legitimate page on Penndots website. So basically this is a semi-myth. The 30 day push and increasing revenues to the state are the urban legend part, but it appears that PA has been using PennDot trucks for speed traps for quite some time. Its always good to slow down in work zones anyway, and remember to turn your headlights on as well.

Question: I recently changed the battery on my 2003 dodge dakota with the 3.9L engine. Upon starting the vehicle, the speedo and tach needles both jumped all the way up. the tach needle came back down and is working fine, but the speedo needle stayed stuck at the 120mph mark. Do i have to reset something? or did I do something wrong?

Answer: With the ignition turned off, simply press and hold the trip button at the bottom of the speedometer for 10 seconds. You will see some
numbers flash on the odometer as the system resets. The needle should
go back to normal after that. I have heard of some mechanics charging a lot of money to press a little button, since most people are clueless about this reset trick.

Question: My 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 5.9 gas engine stumbles and backfires when cold. After short warm up seems ok. Any suggestions? 180,000 KM.

Answer: Two possibilities come to mind...

1. Faulty coolant temperature sensor could be causing the ECU to
think the engine is warmer than it is, thus not enriching the air/fuel
mixture. This usually trips a check engine light though.

2. Dirty throttle body could cause issues like this as well. You can
clean with throttle body cleaner, making sure to get the IAC (Idle Air
Contoller)

Since its easier to tackle, go to your local auto parts store and get
a can of throttle body cleaner. Take off the air intake hose, and
spray everything inside. You may also want to check out
http://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-ram-van/68174-diy-how-to-clean-the-iac.html
for free instructions.

If cleaning the throttle body does not help, I would then check out
the temperature sensor by hooking the ECU up to a scan tool and see
what the temperature reading is at start up, to see if its accurate.
Most auto parts stores will allow you to borrow a scan tool, but if
you cant find one, you may have to go to a mechanic to have this step
done.