| Author | Message | ||
     Mr_grumpy |
My old Dodge D100 went to a new home yesterday  this is due to the imminent move to the mountains. By chance today I spotted a '01 Dakota 4wd with the 4 door cab, & a 4.7 Magnum lump, even in my favourite colour, karma or what? Anyway I'd like to know if any of you have one, or have had one, was it good? was it crap? what went wrong, are they better in stick or auto? what was the fuel mileage like, etc, etc, Cheers in advance. | ||
| Ratbuell |
The 4.7 is torquey...but not too miserly on fuel. Good, durable setup though - it'll run for a long time. The Dak platform is much lighter than the Ram so the 4.7 is less stressed here. ATX or MTX depends on what you're going to do with it. I "like" a manual...but for hauling and towing, we went with an auto in our Cummins Ram. If it's an auto and you're going to work it hard, put in a trans temp gauge (our diesel runs Autometer boost, trans temp, and EGT so I can keep an eye on things). If you have an auto, and are hauling or towing, USE the tow mode! I've noted nearly 25 degrees lower temps on the trans when I use it in the Ram. Dunno if it's a diesel thing or if its all the Dodges, but tow mode does NOT lock out OD, it just recalibrates the shift points (no slip, but more 'pop' into gears) and changes the converter lockup point. A friend of mine has a pair of Dakotas - one 4.7 quad like the one you're looking at but with a six speed (light duty stuff), and an old 89 or 90 convertible with the 3.9 V6 (also a stick). Hasn't had any issues with either of em. I had a 93 Dak 3.9 5 speed years ago, same thing - no issues. | ||
| Nukeblue |
i've got an 03 quad cab 4x4 4.7 love it! we have alot of trouble with cam sensors (which will leave you stranded) i would just replace it asap bout $30 for the part at the dealer. make sure it doesn't overheat, the 4.7L does not like to be hot. usually you find a restricted radiator. if it gets real hot or has been the heads warp. trannys are pretty much bullit proof. thats about it i guess, spark plugs every 30,000 and you good to go! | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
What sort of gas mileage do you get? | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
I've had two, an 02 Dakota 4.7 club cab, thing was smoking fast. I'm running an 06 (new in 07) 4.7 4 door, short box. It's not the same. The gearing is totally different, and the truck feels heavy. I've pulled 3000lb boats with my 02 and it ran ok. There was a ball joint recall done on 01-05's I believe, you may want to check of that was done.  | ||
| Bill0351 |
We had a fleet of Dakotas where I used to work. I have never experienced a less reliable vehicle. I wish I had a copy of the maintenance log for my truck to show you. They replaced them with a fleet of Ford vans and they were essentially bulletproof. When I met my girlfriend, she had a Durango and it was constant headache with little things. When we checked, it was getting around 14mpg in mixed driving. We were happy to get rid of it. You couldn't set the price low enough to get me to buy another Chrylser product. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
I get 14 running around town, about 22 on the breezeway. I've had this truck for about 2.5 years and the only issue I've had is a suspension link pin deal that's getting fixed before years end on warranty. I had my 02 for 5 years (110,000+ miles) and never had an issue other than the recall. I hit two deer and rolled it over into a river in winter and even after it was fixed, nothing glaring went wrong. | ||
| Strokizator |
I've got an '04 crew cab 4x4 with 3.7 engine. I've got 87K miles on it and it's just as solid and rattle-free as the day I drove it off the lot. Mileage sucks but it's been a good truck. After 10 years of a 1-ton crew cab Ford, this thing is just what I want. | ||
| Bads1 |
I've got a 06 Durango. Bought it new in 07. Drives great.... but the damn thing is in the shop more for piddly crap that all my past 8 import trucks put together. And no I'm not buying another Dodge. Hell I just had a door replaced and the whole drivers side of the truck repainted because the door started to rust in the door jam down where it seal's at the Rocker panel. Frigg'n junk. the truck has 28,000 miles on it right now. I just looked up my service records. Its been in the shop for more then one day and having to get a loaner 8 times so far. I'm driving it two more years and hopefully cash for clunkers will come around again. | ||
| Nillaice |
i got an 02 dakota (2WD) with a 3.9l V6 auto. gas mileage is around 15. i can get 16.5 if i really try. i have been replacing vacuum lines with appropirately sized fuel grade hose to try and find the leak. i think i have it fixed. i find he factory vacuum lines aren't the best. i recently replaced the ball joints, and just in the nick of time, let me tell you! i got teh report form the wife that 'the truck is acting funny' ... and no it was not telling jokes. one of the rubber boots had worn thru, and exposed the joint to the elemnts. that really shortens the service life ... and just last month the spark coil wire found it's way out of the stay, and it metled/shorted to the header. 2.99 for a new one. it is now insulated and ziptied above the valve cover. what was the report from the wife? ... 'the truck was acting funny' again, it was not telling jokes. i got a buddy with an 02 durango. had some problems with the front suspension, and fuel delivery system too. don't know all the details, tho ... i work with a guy who's motor siezed up in his brandy-new ford truck. the warranty was voided because he didn't keep his reciepts for oil changes. i towed 4 bikes in an enclosed trailer from VA to buelltoberfest and got 8-9 mpg's. it really didn't like that. i loaded up 2 bikes in the bed for MB6, and that was much better. i got the best ever gas mileage on that trip and had alot of fun, despite the rain. no one cries out when their bike/truck/car is working fine with no issues, so don't freak out if you keep hearing horror stories. i can garuntee you will have zero issues if you : don't buy a vehicle at all every vehicle is not perfect, and not every vehicle is not perfect.  | ||
| Rocketsprink |
I happen to have a 2001 quad cab 4WD 4.7L. Only issue I have ever had is the front brake rotors warp. I have 98,000 miles and probably have changed the rotors 4 times. Brake pads outlast the rotors!! I have a 07 Durango with a Hemi for towing the toyhauler for racing. Never had an issue with it like Dana has. Gas mileage on the Dakota kinda sucks. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
My Boss has an 07 Hemi Durango, blew a piston straight out of it leaving a hole the size of a softball. She did an internet search and I guess this has been an issue with the Hemi. | ||
| Rocketsprink |
thank God for the lifetime power train warranty. As long as they stay in business. | ||
| Jstfrfun |
In '06 I bought a new '05 with the 3.7 and 4x4. The truck is very solid but kinda weak, it now is the wifes grocery getter as I've bought a 2500 with a diesel...oh yea! | ||
| Seanp |
I bought an '01 Dakota brand new in August 2000 - 4WD, club cab, 4.7L V8. It lasted me about 160,000 miles until this past summer, when I was moving from FL to NY. It threw a connecting rod on I-95 in South Carolina. I left it there, because it would cost me about $4000 to fix the engine, and the KBB value for the truck was about $4000. The 4.7 is a great engine, but it's expensive to replace. I loved the truck, and it was an awesome hauler, mudder, and all-around useful truck. But it left me in the middle of nowhere when I needed it most. I had the same problem Rocketsprink has - I went through three or four sets of brakes as well. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
I was about to pull the trigger (had financing and down payment and everything) on two different 03's Dakota SLT Quadcabs, the first ended up with a minor problem in the (automatic) transfer case caused by a vacuum leak. The second didn't have any apparent problems, but after hearing some oil passage info presented by the shop I consulted I decided to hold off. So...nearly all of the information I'm providing is second hand, but is from my research when I wanted to buy a Dakota a couple years ago, take that for what it's worth... One of the Sgt's that liked to hang out in the control room at work a lot is both an ASE mechanic and a Dodge man I was shopping for a 02-04 quad cab Dakota and asked him a lot of questions about them. He owns a 02 Sport in the quad-cab (4wd) with the 3.9 that he's spent a lot of time tuning and trying to tweak more power from for a few years. His wife has an 03 Durango with the Hemi (5.9, also 4wd). His opinion was for fuel mileage the 4.7L was the best engine as it got about the same as the V6 but has a lot more power. The 5.9 is a gas guzzler he said, but had great power. He wished he'd gotten the 4.7. I checked with a local certified shop I trust that works on foreign and domestics, they told me to be careful of the high mileage (4.7) motors due to poor/improper oil passage design. They had started seeing a lot with sludge build up they felt was due to the design. (Perhaps poor lubrication caused the engine failure that left Seanp stranded?) I read reviews of the truck on NADA that were favorable and included this about the automatic tranny: "This transmission was designed in tandem with the 4.7-liter engine and they are precisely calibrated to each other, with an onboard computer continuously adjusting the shift pattern to match the way the truck is driven." The 2000 review says this of the 4.7L motor that was a new option that year: "Dodge claims its new 4.7-liter V8 ($590), designed from a clean sheet of paper, is the most refined V8 ever offered on a Dodge truck. It's a powerful little devil, rated at 235 horsepower and 295 foot-pounds of torque. It offers all the power and torque you expect from a V8." I bought a 03 F150 about three weeks ago because, well, I've always been a Ford man and the idea of having to fix something other than a Ford kinda freaked me out. If you like Dodge, they sound like a great truck, really, and who else offers a "mid-sized" truck with a v8? For peace of mind just run that Valvolene full synth that claims to remove "up to 67% sludge build up by the first oil change" for a few service intervals before running synth blend. Or try running a chemical additive that can remove sludge called Auto RX that is mentioned in a thread about this dude who didn't change the oil in his Beemer in 50,000 miles (that was an interesting read)... | ||
| Nukeblue |
my mileage blows. from 12-15 mpg. course i like to feel the power, which it has tons of! |
