Sandman wrote:
>
> Alright, I talked to my service manager today about this rear end noise alot of
> you are hearing. I just casually asked him if we had had any customers coming
> in with rear end noise between 40-50 mph and before I could even finish he told
> me this is an age old problem with any rear end. He said it is just the way
> the gears are cut and there's no way to fix it. You can change when it happens
> however by adjusting the backlash. He said from the factory they make it so it
> makes the noise at low speeds (15-20mph) so that it is ALOT less noticiable.
> Now if your backlash gets out of adjustment for whatever reason, it generally
> goes to about 40-50 mph. He also told me you can do all the adjusting, and
> installing new gears you want to but that all it will do is change either 1)
> when the noise happens or 2) the pitch of it. He told me that it is not
> hurting the rear end in any way and that the best thing to do is just ignore
> it, unless you hear grinding or something out of the ordinary coming from back
> there. Also told me that this problem is very common in pretty much all makes
> of trucks with any gears (american made anyways). So there ya have it, take it
> with a grain of salt, believe what you want.
Sandman,
Problem with his description is it suggests ANY rear end will have it.
That just isn't the case. Some on the list are having the problem, most
are not. I never had this sort of problem with my GM vehicles. Only
since I bought the Dakota. It's the inconsistency that says it can be
fixed. Otherwise, what are you saying to customers of new trucks is
"hey, you might get lucky and get one that DOESN't make noise". That is
sort of silly, don't you think? Also, what makes this phenom specific to
trucks only? Why not rear wheel drive vehicles period?
> Now I've never known this guy to lie to me, have worked with him for about 3
> years now, and he is very knowledgeable about this stuff. He was a mechanic
> for various dealerships his whole life, and has been service manager at several
> too. Including Chevrolet, Mazda, Honda, Mercedes, and now Dodge.
Not questioning the guy's credentials, just his logic isn't making
sense. Also, if you go to the carcast URL that was mentioned earlier,
it's flat out frightening some of the horror stories about
differentials, front end noises, transmission and steering shaft
"clunks", bad paint, etc. All specific to Dakotas. When I ran across the
thread about 96 Dodge Caravan transmission problems, I about peed my
pants. I just had a tranny put in mine at 55K. New one hasn't worked
right since. I appear to have about 200 other people(only counting those
who've been to that site) who share in my misery. The site talks about
all makes, models and I see a disportionate percentage devoted to
Chrysler products. I think the Caravan tranny deal was the longest
thread there! That's not good any way you slice it.
I've added a considerable pile of paper to my case folder just today
from list traffic here as well as those links. Thanks to all who
contributed. I want to get it all more organized, but I think a recall
request is reasonable. Problem is this is not safety related, so the
importance to gov't agencies and the possibility of getting help from
them is low. Really, the only way you get any action on this sort of
thing is to drag it out in the public forums and parade it around. Until
the bad press starts to impact dealership sales, they have no incentive
to give you any satisfaction. Consumer reporters, news programs, etc.
are all avenues we'll be using here. This has grown from an isolated
instance with a few dealers to a widespread problem with DC as a whole.
They had to do a buyback with the RT towing issue and that's a limited
production truck. What are they going to do about potentially tens of
thousands of noisy rear ends that they can't seem to fix? Blame it on
"trucks" in general and I'll parade half a dozen other makes/models that
don't have the problem.
This one ain't over by a country mile.
Bob
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:51:26 EDT