hi,
Great forum, wish I would have found it long ago! My cummins in my 04.5 Ram3500 Laramie is coming off warranty in 50 miles. Should I make a last visit to the dealer, and what would I ask them to check?

She's completely stock and runs fine, though for the last 6mo I've have smoke at cold startup for the first 2 minutes. Flipping through the archives, I saw it mentioned a few times about changing the fuel filter. I am overdue, so will try that. Its a blue grey smoke, strong smell, but not of burning oil. Any ideas? There is no injector noise. When I am on the pedal good, she leaves some nice black smoke, but who doesn't...

Thanks for your help!
Mark

 

Sounds like engine has lived up to it's expectations. Let er roll.

 

Have you had the lift pump moved to the intank location? THats about the biggest major concern I would have with an 04.5.

 

Check'em, cuz their not cheap to replace.

 

x2 on the ball joints. When I had my 03 Quad cab 3500, I was a 100 miles short of my warranty ending. Had them replace ball joints and fix the a/c. With my 06 Mega Cab 3500, I'm about a 1000 miles from the end of my warranty. Gonna call the dealer next week about getting the truck in for that. Maybe they will treat me a little better this time around because I'm thinking of buying the wife an 09 Charger when they come out. We test drove an 09 Pontiac G8 GT this evening. Wasn't to bad a car. I mentioned that to the salesman at the Dodge dealer that I was considering a Pontiac, and that I never was happy about past warranty issues with my other truck. He told me he would make sure that the service writer would take care of me when I do bring my truck in. We'll see.

 

Check to verify your odometer is reading 1 mile for 1 mile. I know some cars from the factory have been reading up to 5% fast, meaning your warranty will expire before you actually travel that many miles.

 

What's your first/main symptom of bad ball joints?

 

Which warranty ? 36k Bumper to bumper, 70k powertrain, 100k Cummins ?

Check for AC issues like the blend door.

Fan clutch. Mine wobbled back and forth when I checked it, after the 70k warranty passed.

Look at the axles to see if there are any leaks at the seals.

Have the fuel pressure checked to see if the lift pump is ok. Dodge replaced the one my 2003 at over 80k using the 100k warranty.

Look for other leaks like around the yoke on the drive shaft, valve cover, etc.

 

Often ball joints can cause a clunky noise in the front end when going over bumps. Safely raise a front wheel up by the axle and grab the tire by the top and bottom and try to rock it...

Capn Mark, there is a TSB that may apply to your truck, said to address exhaust smoke, improve fuel efficiency, and increase overhead MPG accuracy...

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2004/18-037-04.htm

 

On my old 03 and my current 06 Megacab I never could never "feel" anything wrong while driving, but if you can get the front end up off the ground, you can check for excessive play in the front by literally "shaking" the wheel. I can't remember what Dodge says the acceptable tolerences are, but if you have a 2500/3500 4x4 and you're near the end of your warranty, your ball joints are bad. Thanks to forums like this, I knew to have my ball joints checked. The dealer won't check them for you just because you think they might be bad. Tell them the truck steers funny or something like that. Like said before, I didn't notice any problems with my 03, but the ball joints were bad, and Dodge replaced them. My Megacab drives just fine, but its a lot more truck than my 03 was, so I "know" the balljoints are bad because Dodge still uses the same crappy ones they always have. I'm gonna have Dodge replace these, and then when they go bad, I'll replace them with aftermarket greaseable ball joints. Trust me, your ball joints are bad, or will be soon.

 

I started noticing a small "clunk" that I could feel as a slight vibration with my feet on the floorboard. As has already been said, I jacked up the front left tire and there was a very noticeable wobble when I grabbed the top and bottom of the tire. Unfortunately, I was at 47K miles when this happened so I had a local shop install greaseable ones.

 

I have read that the white smoke is a injector sticking. Mine did that then I ran some injector cleaner thru it, cleared up after a few tanks.
May want to have it check if you take it in.
I have a 05 and had to have the door seal replaced, the door would cut them as it closed.