Spark plug wires.. I know of at least 1 Ram owner that had SERIOUS pinging
problems, until he talked the dealer into replacing all of the secondary
ignition components (cap, rotor & wires).. the pinging went away
immediately.
Fuel injectors... if you've got a wide difference in flow between your
injectors, the ones that flow less will be lean, and be more suceptable to
pinging.
Cleaning the Throttle body- this has helped with my Ram before.. just get a
can of carb/TB cleaner and spray anything that's black.
Clogging Catalytic converter- increases backpressure, can cause pinging.
Brand of gas- Believe it or not, I get pinging on certain brands of gas, but
Citgo (7-11) and Texaco seem to be better... YMMV, I'm at high altitude.
Engine temp- high engine temp (200+) will definately result in pinging.
That's all that I'm coming up with off the top of my head... good luck
Gary Shook
Penrose, CO
>I have a '99 Dodge Dakota, V6, extended cab, shortbed. Ever since 7k it
>developed a slight ping, by 11k it had already been to the dealer twice.
>The first time they said a intake cover or something was not sealed
>correctly, driving home I still heard it. The second time they re-routed
>the spark plug wires, driving home I still heard it. Decided to wait a
>little while before taking it back, thinking it was too quiet for them to
>hear until it got louder. While waiting I discovered plus gas made a big
>difference, after about 2-3 months I decided to try a tank of regular. Big
>Mistake, it's still there and it is loud. It drove me crazy. I now have
an
>appointment for Wednesday after Labor Day to get them to look at it again.
>It got so bad that 2 days later when I had only 1/2 tank of gas I filled up
>with the highest octane I could fins, 93. By doing that the spark knock
>went away. I feel that since the manual states to use regular unleaded gas
>they should fix it to run on regular gas.
>
>The reason for this post is to see what others think may be happening.
What
>does it say by plus or premium gas stopping the knock? What tips can be
>relayed to the local Dodge service department?, they don't have a clue.
Can
>driving habits cause spark knock? Like heavy on acceleration, quick stops,
>etc.
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:16:32 EDT