Some Rams end up in broken homes....

[dmurdock]

Lift pump was dying, so off to the dealer I went (here's that thread) http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...075#post285075

Anyway, while I was there, the tech (a true diesel afficianado and "performance friendly" to boot) invited me back in the shop to show me some examples of poor maintenance. I saw more, but here's what I remember:

One poor 3500 4x2 (think it was a 98.5 or 99) was in because it was using oil. Well, he showed me the underside of the truck and it looked like it had been ziebart coated or something, this thing must have been leaking oil forever. Sticker from quick-lube showed oil had been changed 5 days earlier, and when it was brought in it was already 4 quarts low. Truck was brought in because it was burning oil (and leaking it) and had an injector miss...probable head gasket failure. They couldn't even drain the radiator because of the amount of bars-leak in it. Airbox looked like it had never had a filter in it, the inside of the fresh air hose (you know, big hose which runs from air box to turbo) looked like it had been soaked in gunk....I mean the inside, it wasn't dusty, it was downright dirty. I saw the air filter, it was so dirty it had been sucked up against the center post in the airbox so hard the mesh screen ripped (and went thru the turbo and the engine). The turbo vanes looked like somebody had went at them with a chisel. I mean it looked like somebody had tried to run this thing on gravel instead of air, it was horrible. I looked at this truck for a long time and I honestly feel that the hood had never been opened until 6 days ago when it went to quick lube (and whenever oil or bars-leak was added).

I kick myself for not having my digital camera with me, the pics would have been priceless. It's probably for the best though, some of you would have had nightmares....