Greetings!
I have a '92 Dakota, V8, Automatic, 4WD, extended cab, towing package, HD
cooling, HD suspension, blah blah blah. I am getting ready to take it in for
its last service before the 70K warranty expires. This is the MOPAR extended
warranty including the high-tech package. I have not gone through all of the
TSBs and am curious what things I should have them test. I am aware of the
TSB on the driveline "clunk", the one on delayed lockup of the torque
converter when cold, and one on erratic fuel gauge readings - all of which I
am experiencing. What else needs to be fixed that I don't know about?
The vehicle has been mostly reliable with two major exceptions:
1. Transmission rebuilt at 3,500 miles. Then replaced at 4,000 miles.
Somewhat erratic operation ever since. The second/third shift point is close
to the ECU RPM limiter so sometimes it will shake rather violently under WOT
acceleration when the limiter cuts in before the tranny wants to shift.
Dealer could not reproduce (several attempts). I have not bothered too much
with this because the high performance ECU will raise the rev limiter cutoff
point and the problem should go away. This will be happenning soon now that
the Dakota is not my daily driver.
2. Drove through standing water and the engine richened to max and stayed
that way. Barely driveable, black smoke, 8 MPG. Dealer replaced O2 sensor
and reset computer - all well until next puddle. I went berzerk after 3
attempts to fix this. A "flight computer" was installed to monitor things
and, fortunately, the dealer was able to hit a puddle and reproduce the
problem. The O2 sensor was fine with valid readings but the ECU responded as
if the sensor read way too lean - and richened the engine to its limit. The
ECU was then replaced and the problem has not reoccured since - even after
fording a foot or more of water.
Mark E. Kraieski
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:19 EDT