So out with the old in with the new. I have driven an old Dodge truck for the past 3 years and I am looking to get a new one. A decent price came up on a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 with a 5.2L V8 in it. I know I know, Dodge sucks buy Chevy / Ford / Stanley Steamer. But that aside, does anyone know much about these trucks aside from what it says on T3h interw3bz? I have only heard mentions of transmission issues but obviously with hundreds of thousands of cars on the road there are bound to be a few bad apples in the bunch, is it really a widespread issue? I have also heard of poor gas mileage. I tend to take it easy on the gas pedal, but is it really that bad? This isn't the biggest of the V8's so I'm hoping it won't be awful. Thoughts anyone?

I've driven one. Don't do it.

I know I know, Dodge sucks buy Chevy / Ford / Stanley Steamer.

For that, we're friends now.

For that, we're friends now.

Whoa. An idea that Nereth didnt shoot down?

Stanley steamers make me laugh. Anyone that can slip one into conversation is alright by me.

To be honest, I don't like the Dodge Ram except the turbo diesel.

Ha, thanks Nereth. As I thought about it more we have a Dodge Ram 2500 van at work that has been fairly good to us, even though we punish the crap out of it. I'm more concerned about reliability than anything as this is for my business so I won't be taking it to the track or anything. The transmission is the only thing that has me worried, although I have heard if it should fail it is possible to rebuild it using Ram 2500 parts and it is worlds better than the 1500 series transmission.

I thought the 1500 referred to it's engine size. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Dodge with a name like that, running on a 1500. How wrong I was.

my friend has a dodge ram 1500 and gets 12 mpg, but thats with a 5.9 liter 360. with the 5.2 liter 318, you will probably get about 15-16 mpg. i have a silverado with a 5.0 liter 305 that gets around 15mpg, but i drive it hard

Well, if you make the decision to go with a Dodge, I can find you a much better deal then the one your currently getting, if you don't mind driving out of state.

There was a Dodge Ram SRT-10 infront of me at traffic lights the other day, this is in the UK take note, very very rare to see one over here, anyway it shot off like a bullet, given its size, I was impressed. Can't imagine the MPG is good when you floor it.

Well I found out a bit more about the transmission issues in these trucks. One person I talked to said he believed it to be an issue with the pump. He said that the pump was made of low quality parts and would shit the bed and result in back pressure that would cause the transmission to lock up. So my followup questions are:

How hard would it be to just replace the pump with an aftermarket part? is it just a matter of dropping the pan and unscrewing the old one, and putting a new one in.

Secondly, are there any higher quality pumps I can get such as ones made for racing or offroading that would be better than just putting a stock or cheap aftermarket one in it's place.

I'm just thinking of doing this as a preventative measure if there isn't too much involved.

^You might as well rebuild the whole thing at that point.

My neighbor has a 5.2 Dakota and a friend has a 5.9 Ram... Mileage on the 5.9 is 10/10 (6" lift,) mileage on the 5.2 Dakota is around 14/18. For a 5.2 Ram I'd expect 13/17 or something, not too much less than the Dakota.

Both of these guys have rebuilt transmissions, both done around 100k miles. The Ram is nearing 180k and is looking like it's time for another rebuild. Another issue is the crappy bonded torque converter clutch.

Interesting. I also came across torque converter issues mentioned on other sites. How hard is it to replace the torque converter and pump with an aftermarket one? Is it just a matter of unbolting and replacing parts or is there a lot of measuring and other tricky shit involved?

ive got the cummins turbo diesel and the only problem with it is that when i tirn it of the belt screeches like a bitch

GO with a STANLY STEAMER ftw ftw ftw ftw

Replacing the torque converter is pretty simple if you have the tools to remove the transmission from the truck. I have never done a transmission pump before but i would think that you would have to open up the tranny after you remove it to get at the pump. This would not be an easy job for your average joe. You would probably need a service manual for that transmission and would quite likely need some specailized tools to work on modern automatics.

If you can find a truck with a manual transmission. They are more reliable and you will probably get better fuel mileage than with an automatic.

my dad has a 5.7 mega cab with an 8 foot bed. it gets 10 mpg and used to cost 120$ to fill up when it was 4$/gallon for gas. it's kind of a clean whip