I just bought this truck from a local used car dealership about a month ago. Yesturday i changed the serpentine belt, oil, and the air filter. Like the guy with the forrester a long time ago, i came to find that there was not a filter in the air box. I know for a fact that i have been driving without one for at least a month now w/out it and they probably drove it a while before w/out it too. Ever since i bought the truck it makes a clanking noise(kind of like when you jingle your keys in your hand) when i mash the trotle around 40mph or if i’m going down the highway at 70-75mph or so. It only does this for a couple of seconds until i let off the gas. What is this? How do i go about solving this problem?
Definitely put an air filter in there…For every gallon of gas your truck consumes…it’ll consume 10,000 gallons of air.
Without actually hearing the noise…it could be knocking. When was the truck last tuned up (plugs, timing)??? If unknown then get it done. Excessive knocking is NOT good. Are you also using the right gas??
I put an air filter in it. forgot to mention that… and i was planning on changing pugs and reading my haynes manual to adjust the timing (i just replaced the belt would that cause it to be out of sync?)and as far as i know i am. It was doing it when i got it (using normal un-leaded) and i put a tank of premium in it and it sounded the same.
What year? What miles? What engine? The rattling sounds like knocking, not likely caused by either the missing air cleaner (that would cause faster ring wear and increased oil consumption) or replacing the serpentine belt, which can’t be put on ‘out of sync’ (not the timing belt, right?). The rattling can result from carbon deposits (my '95 Suburban did that, went away with either mid-grade gas or a couple of bottles of Techron, for a while). Try one tank of premium, see if the rattling goes away. If it does, try some gas treatment. Or some shops can do a more extensive decarboning treatment. The real cure is a head cleaning, but it’d be cheaper just to buy mid-grade or premium.
1998 ram 1500 5.9L V8 116,000 miles now. i have already done one full tank of premium. what is techtron? like fuel system cleaner? I have a bottle of complete fuel system cleaner that i am putting after work today. Will that help? is techtron the same or similar to sea foam?
Chevron Techron concentrate and fuel system cleaner. It is similar to Seafoam when used in the gas tank. Use whatever you have already, in the correct proportion.
Given the size of your gas tank, make sure you put in the correct amount (may be more than one bottle with full tank of gas on your truck).
It may or may not help, but is an inexpensive attempt at a cure.
Did using the premium make any difference? 116k miles makes it sound like carbon, see how much a Chrysler dealer or, preferably, a trusted mechanic will charge for a decarboning job.
premium made it sound weird. like it was firing in the wrong order or something. i don’t know but i tried to use the premium tank asap.
Well now you’ve got me stumped, no reason for a tank of premium to do that. Get it to a good mechanic, I guess!
The noise sounds like you’re describing a pre-ignition rattle. This is more than likely caused by the timing being advanced too much (someone has been playing with the distributor) or the truck has an EGR system fault.
One other thing he could check - make sure all the vacuum lines are plugged in, not cracked, not leaking, and correctly routed. If the former owner did a knuckle-headed thing like leave out the air filter, who knows what else he might have messed up!
And hopefully the air filter was not oil soaked when it was thrown away!
Good point - the guy didn’t throw out a good air filter, that’s for sure! May be worth doing a compression and leak down test, especially if it’s using oil.
There is a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB 09-05-00) dated Feb. 25, 2000, “Spark Knock & Oil Consumption - 3.9/ 5.2/ 5.9L” Which may match your symptoms. The TSB deals with “intake manifold plenum pan gasket internal oil leak” which causes spark knock. It’s not difficult. You can do it.
There are some things which are standard among all public libraries. Yours may have this feature. Go to your public library Web site. Click on Electronic Databases, click on Reference, click on Auto Repair Reference Center (ARRC), input your library card #, input your vehicle year, make, model, engine info, click on Service Bulletins and Recalls, select Spark Knock & Oil Consumption-3.9/5.2/5.9L.
there was no oil in the filter case that would leave me to assume that there is anything with too much oil being pumped through or something like that. I don’t know exactly would cause that but i know that it is along those lines. but i’ll see if i can find someone around here to do that. thanks
o and another thing. he took off all upgrades that he put on except for his off road tires and his dual pipes (which were crappy and broke off the hanger a week after i bought it.) like there are scratches and such where a bug deflecter used to be, there used to be a truck bed on it…so on. i’m guessing that he had another truck that he could put the filter in so he took that too.
Hello, where is the noise coming from ? I had a clunk in my dodge coming from by the seats, check the rear differential seal for leaks. Mine was two broken tooth on the pinion crown. This truck is confortable and looks greath but it requires a good investiment of time and money. Hope you got a good one (www.dodgeforum.com).