TSB Work on Warranty

From: Jay Robertson (jdr@rain.org)
Date: Sat Sep 18 1999 - 22:56:58 EDT


Over Labor Day weekend, I took about a 1200 mile trip in my '98 Dakota (CC, V6, Auto).
Twice during the trip, while climbing moderate grades, the transmission failed to shift
down and the engine started up with a truly horrible rattling pinging sound (sounded like
the engine was about to blow wide open), after which the "Check Engine" light came on.

After the first time, I looked under the hood and found a missing vacuum cap on the intake
manifold next to the PCV hose. I went to an auto parts store and got a cap and put it on.
Because I didn't want to look at the Check Engine light for three days, I disconnected the
battery cable to clear it and proceeded on my way. After the second incident I also
cleared the lamp. For the rest off the trip I had to do the thinking for the supposedly
automatic tranny and shift it out of overdrive manually, which seemed to keep me out of
trouble. The engine seemed really doggy, though, and when passing I was lucky to be able
to get ahead of anybody.

I took the truck into the dealer after I got home, and they performed warranty work
according to TSB #184898 (rerouting spark plug wires) and Bulletin #182697 (re-flashed the
PCM). It seems to have worked, and now I seem to have more power and smoother, more
logical shifting.

My question is this: Is there a place on the web where I can access TSBs to see what is
going on with my truck out there in the world? Or does D-C keep it all under wraps for the
eyes of dealers only?

-- 

J.D. Robertson http://www.rain.org/~jdr/ http://www.rain.org/~jdr/dakota.html

"We have enough youth: how about a fountain of SMART?"



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