Not me, I love my '01 DMAX, but my Son loves Dodge Trucks. He just traded in his '99 Dodge Diesel for a new 2004 Quad cab, Lariat 3/4 4 x 4 with lots of bells and whisles.


I want to get him off to a good start on this truck having learned a lot from this forum on Dmax issues, so here's a couple of questions if you will induldge me:


1. Do the Dodge trucks benefit/require the same early fluid changes like the DMAX such as the Diff, at around 500 Miles and the tranny at 5K etc. etc.


2. Is there a synthetic tranny fluid for the Dodge like Transynd for the Dmax? He had a lot of trouble with the '99 Tranny or should I say Torque Converter more often than the tranny. Is trhe new Dodge tranny better than the old?


3. Most important is how is the Dodge Cummins fuel filter performance. Should he add the secondary Cat Filter to the Dodge for added protection or does the OEM do a good job?


4. What other secrets for the Dodge do you recommend.


Thanks a ton for the info. Will pass it on. Told him to register and check out the site, but kids never listen to their Dads. He's getting better as he gets older, but still a little hard headed, but he has good taste in trucks and got me to buy a diesel and I have never been happier.


Best Regards,

1. Do the Dodge trucks benefit/require the same early fluid changes
like the DMAX such as the Diff, at around 500 Miles and the tranny at
5K etc. etc.



Yes




2. Is there a synthetic tranny fluid for the Dodge like Transynd for
the Dmax? He had a lot of trouble with the '99 Tranny or should I say
Torque Converter more often than the tranny. Is trhe new Dodge tranny
better than the old?




The 48Re is a beefed up trans. I don't know if they upgraded the TC.
I haven't done anything with my trans fluid yet. I'm only at 13,500
miles. I will resaerch it but i don't want to use something exotic for
fear of performance issues.





3. Most important is how is the Dodge Cummins fuel filter
performance. Should he add the secondary Cat Filter to the Dodge for
added protection or does the OEM do a good job?




It's not as easy to add a filter with the Dodge because it has an
electric lift pump that has a hard enough time being reliable doing
it's stock job. FASS will work. I changed my factory filter at 10,000
and I thought I felt a performance boost. I think the stock filter is
pretty good.




He's getting better as he gets older, but still a little hard headed, but <span style="font-weight: bold;">he has good taste in trucks</span> and got me to buy a diesel and I have never been happier.




He sure does http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley2.gif






















[/QUOTE]

Thanks Hoot, could always count on you. I will try my best to get him to maintain this sucker better than he did the old one. Will also try to get him to check out the Dodge forums from time to time.


I am sure the Dodge is a pretty good truck, they sell a lot of them. I just have issues with the styling....can't get on board with that front end, heck I can't even get on board with the Chevy current front end. LOL Keep waiting for the '05 so I can see if they made any changes, probably going to be '06 before they do. Hope it is a complete changover in '06 as I will probably be looking to trade then.


Thanks for the input.


I have been busier than that Wood Chopping Champion we had back in Virginia that had no arms! He held that wood chopping championship for 7 years!


Regards,











ps: you are suppose to ask how he could chop wood with no arms?


Then I reply he stuck the axe handle up his $%# and turned flips!

No - Yes - No - None......Those are the answers IMHO.


Had to do that.


Did find out one "secret" - Drive it hard and put it to bed wet. It's difficult to find things you can complain about.