Why is it that design flaws that art easily seen by the car buying public are so invisible to the designers. My 3rd watyer pump on my Dodge Ram 1500 Hemi.(the problem is only on the 5.7 Hemi) It is not the pump that has gone bad but a tube located right under the thermostat that the heater hose goes to. It is not molded into the water pump but is a seperate tube inserted before the pulley in the manufacturing process, that uses an o ring to seal it. This has been where the leaks have occurred on the previous 2 water pumps. they have designed it so you can not remove it to replace the o ring. so dealer says fork over another 400 bucks. I need a simple fix.
In what year was your Heavy Duty Ram 1500 built?
You neglected to tell us this basic information.
“Dealer says for over another 400 bucks.”
What does your local independent mechanic say?
Step 1: Buy a water pump and a package of JB Weld.
Step 2: Apply large quantity of JB Weld around the tube/pump body interface where leaks have occurred.
Step 3: Let cure, then install pump.
I haven’t tried that fix myself, but it’s a “simple” one if it works, and it probably can’t hurt.
The Ram 1500 is a 2004 given every regular maintainence requirement Dodge assigns to it, other re-repairs include a broken door inside the heater controls that aligns the direction of the defroster 3 times – 2 rear ends, different parts one axle and one gear cluster. A Power module (fuse box) a computer control chip.Every time it goes in I might as well count on something. It is a pain. I ask them if these are problems that others see on a regular basis and get the response that only occasionally do we see this or that.
May be time to sell this one and get something more reliable.
My brother in law was a mechanic at a Chrysler dealership and he said the Chrysler vehicles made around '04 were pure junk. He felt the Daimler/Chrysler deal contributed to the bad cars and trucks. Those bad vehicles kept him and the dealer service department busy; poor designs, poor build quality, and cheap parts. He wouldn’t buy a Chrysler product even when offered a good discount on one.
Sell it and move on.
RTV has worked well in eliminating that problem. The pipe must be fixed to prevent it from twisting the connection to prevent the RTV from being stripped out.