'01 Dakota Died on me

From: Victor Carrola, Jr. (carrola@texas.net)
Date: Fri Apr 27 2001 - 01:58:30 EDT


I had the Transfer case on my '01 4x4 Dakota re-programmed per the
Safety Recall today. The shop also rotated my tires. I noticed on the
way home there was some vibration in the truck and highway speeds, so I
figured the tires needed to be re-balanced.
Anyway, I took the truck out a little later and at a stop light started
to smell coolant. My temp gauge looked normal so I suspected the smell
was from another car. After a few turns, I was still smelling the
coolant, but the gage was just fine. Then I noticed the idle started
dipping when I put the clutch in and decelerated. All the sudden a
'check gauges' dummy light appeared on the dash, the temp gauge shot up
to max, and the truck died. I started seeing a little smoke come from
under the hood. I looked under the hood and the radiator cap and hoses
seemed to be fine, but there were little puddles of coolant on the
engine. The truck was towed to the dealership, so I find out more
tomorrow. I did start the truck after to drive it up onto the flatbed
trailer. When the tow truck was lowering the Dak, the weight caused the
tow truck to do a little wheelie stand.
A friend of mine suspected a blown head gasket, but I have no idea. My
only performance mods to date are my Bosch +4 Platinum plugs.

The truck is a '01 4.7 Quad cab 4x4 5spd, just turned 12k miles.



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