2017 Ram 3500 60k / 67.5k Service (help / not diy)

[Tagrun]

Hello everyone!

First off - you guys have helped me fix easy things on our 3500 Ram. We have a 2017 with 66k miles. Mostly used for hauling equine (wife is a trainer). I had to take truck in for recall work and as you know the dealership gave me that “service recommendation/ required” sheet for 60 and 67,500. Doing everything is $5,500 and the “least” is $4,200.

I am a complete … idiot when it comes to cars/trucks. I can take apart computers and such, but trucks just make my brain stop.

What on this service sheet do I actually need to complete? My thinking is definitely Transmission Fluid/filter, transfer case, injection cleaning?, epr, and egr?

We routinely change the diesel fuel filters with our local diesel shop, so I know I could probably ask them but figured I’d ask y’all first. Truck has been perfect, most recent service was turbo service.

 

[c69ss396]

run and run fast, I worked for dodge 98-2005 and those prices don't add. Most is nothing but bs upsales that will do absolutely nothing. The min suggestion is just fluid changes with added bs language to mislead you into thinking you are getting more then you are.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Pretty much all of the Preferred would be good to do ..if you plan to keep it a long time and believe in preventative maintenance. The price is high though. A local shop with a competent mechanic should be able to do them a lot cheaper (Notice I didn't say Chain shop with flunky mechanics).

Let's single a few out separately:

1) Coolant conditioning. This seems murkey, and easy to forego. But the goal here is to ensure the pH of the coolant and it's other properties is good. First off would be to have a shop test it with a DIGITAL TESTER (not test strips). Test strips are not accurate enough. A digital tester should be recently calibrated with buffers (which most shops probably don't know how to do accurately). But that's the 'ideal'.

The science looks like this: Iron and aluminum have different pH needs. Iron is "happy" at the alkaline end of the spectrum. Aluminum is 'happier' not that far up the alkaline end. And the key is this: there is a very narrow overlap of the two ...which is about 8.8. Outside the 'window' of Happy, ion-exchange begins to occur. So when guys on the forum say, "It's going to cost me $1500 to replace my heater core!" ..that might have been prevented by attending to coolant quality and pH. Heater cores are paper-thin aluminum so ion-exchange does it's magic pretty quick on them. What makes coolant pH go 'off'? Well, normal age and there are a lot of electrical sensors in engines. Poor gounding can't help.

2) Fuel Injection cleaning. I don't know what the dealer would be doing here. Maybe someone can chime in. If it's just putting a can of injector cleaner into your truck's tank (which might be the case), then that's something you could do.

3) A thorough inspection is also a great idea. Are there any shocks leaking? Bushings damaged? Suspension components worn? It's usually cheaper to fix items in advance than roadside breakdowns, or sudden problems. Ideally the dealer would have the best insight into what fails on these trucks. But they'd probably have their new guy doing the basic items on the list ...so a shop with a good, trusted, experienced, mechanic would be the best to look things over.

4) Misc: Some things on that list like certain fluid changes might have already been done. If not, it would be a good idea.

5) Brake fluid exchange: Brake fluid as you know *attract* moisture. It gets darker when it does. Look at it's color. Fluid suspending more moisture doesn't brake as well as fresh fluid. A good shop will have a brake exchange machine which makes exchanging the fluid a quick and painless procedure (than doing it at home). But it's a good idea to do also. If you live in a dry area of CA..the fluid color might not be as dark as, say, an owner which lives in a real humid region. Since you pull a heavy trailer, it would be a good idea to not skip that IMO.

6) I would add rust-proofing for owners who live in rust-prone areas. But you shouldn't have to worry about that. Maybe leather conditioning, waxing the paint, and so on would be a good thing to add if it pertains to your truck.

There are a lot of other things a guy could do to extend the service life of his vehicle...if time and money were unlimited. It depends on how nice you want to keep it..really.



Best of luck!

 

[ppine]

Dealers are really aggressive these days about upselling. They get you in the door and want to sell you everything in sight.
Follow the manual. Use a fuel additive once in awhile. Brake fluid lasts as long as you want it to.

 

[caulk04]

Pull the manual out of the glove box and complete maintenance as recommended by the MANUFACTURER, not the dealer. That dealer marked you as someone they could get money from.

That said, you'll find some good information online relating to maintenance...and some looney tunes info.

 

[Choupique]

I believe the only oddball thing required at that mileage (somewhere around there) is changing the crankcase vent filter.

 

[Tagrun]

Y’all are great.

 

[Dean2]

They sell Brake Fluid testers for less than 20 bucks on Amazon. If you want to know if your brake fluid has too much water, use one of them. The fact shops recommend the change without testing is just one more reason to avoid that shop. Jeep and the others covered the rest really well. Just in case it wasn't clear from what the others said, I would NEVER go to that dealer again, at those prices and recommendations my kindest description is they are Bunko artists. Find yourself a good reliable independent shop and deal with them.

 

[Tagrun]

They sell Brake Fluid testers for less than 20 bucks on Amazon. If you want to know if your brake fluid has too much water, use one of them. The fact shops recommend the change without testing is just one more reason to avoid that shop. Jeep and the others covered the rest really well. Just in case it wasn't clear, I would NEVER go to that dealer again, at those prices and recommendations my kindest description is they are Bunko artists. Find yourself a good reliable independent shop and deal with them.

Normally don’t go to dealer at all but they had the recall work and warranty work. Some gasket and an array that need to be replaced (under warranty) - so easiest to go to dealer. Not many of our local shops do warranty work unfortunately.

Thanks for the info though. We have two diesel shops in our town that are great.

 

[Wild one]

Normally don’t go to dealer at all but they had the recall work and warranty work. Some gasket and an array that need to be replaced (under warranty) - so easiest to go to dealer. Not many of our local shops do warranty work unfortunately.

Thanks for the info though. We have two diesel shops in our town that are great.

Before you let them do any recall work,it's always wise to research the recall first,not all recalls work in your favour

 

[Dean2]

Normally don’t go to dealer at all but they had the recall work and warranty work. Some gasket and an array that need to be replaced (under warranty) - so easiest to go to dealer. Not many of our local shops do warranty work unfortunately.

Thanks for the info though. We have two diesel shops in our town that are great.

I understand. Warranty, get it done at the dealer for sure, Stellantis won't cover having ti done anywhere else except in very rare circumstances. Anything else, not a chance, just make sure you have good records and receipts so you can prove you followed the maintenance schedule in the manual..

 

[Tagrun]

Before you let them do any recall work,it's always wise to research the recall first,not all recalls work in your favour

It was emissions:
#67A 2013-2018 D TRUCK ENGINE CALIBRATION (VB6 EXPANSION) - not something we really wanted but California is a stickler.

 

[Tagrun]

I understand. Warranty, get it done at the dealer for sure, Stellantis won't cover having ti done anywhere else except in very rare circumstances. Anything else, not a chance, just make sure you have good records and receipts so you can prove you followed the maintenance schedule in the manual..

Appreciate it.

 

[Wild one]

It was emissions:
#67A 2013-2018 D TRUCK ENGINE CALIBRATION (VB6 EXPANSION) - not something we really wanted but California is a stickler.

If you're on good terms with your dealer,you can sometimes get them to say the recalls been done,but not do it,and that one is probably one of the recalls you might have tried to have them sign off on,but not do it.My local dealer has signed off on a few recalls,but never actually did them.

 

[nlambert182]

Wow what an upsell.... most of the time when it says conditioner, run away.

As some have said, read your owner's manual.

CCV filter will be a must or you'll get the CEL on the dash around 67,500 miles. That's a super easy 30 minute swap in a driveway with a socket.

Trans fluid change wouldn't hurt, but my manual calls for 120k miles for normal service and 60k miles severe service.

Oil/fuel filters depends on when you had them done last. BUT... why did they list changing the oil and filter AND adding in an oil conditioner? That isn't required at all.

The diesel fuel injection cleaning service is a scam. The fuel filters keep the injectors clean so long as you're changing them consistently. The only real way to officially clean the injectors is to remove them and have an injector shop do it. Sounds like they're going to dump in a $5 bottle of injector cleaner and charge you $150.

For coolant, I'd just replace the coolant with new if it were a concern but I'd test it. The interval is typically 150k miles per Cummins. I wouldn't add conditioner for no reason.

Xfer case - possibly. I think that interval is 60k miles (30k severe service)

Diff service is usually 15k-20k miles.

This dealer is trying to go to the bank.

 

[Jeepwalker]

OP.
Since you say you're kind of 'techy' you could test the coolant yourself with said tester as linked above and do a better job than a shop. Depending what you discover, add a pinch or two of Lye to bring the pH 'up' ...or a pinch of citric acid (or lemon juice) to bring the pH down ...to get it as close to 8.9 as possible. Or have the shop replace the coolant at about 80k+ miles. I test and balance all my vehicles' coolant each yr.

Back in the old days when trucks had brass radiators/heater cores, pH attention wasn't very necessary.

You could buy brake fluid test strips too (cheap) and test your fluid. But you might achieve a more solid pedal feel by having it changed.

I'd probably wait till 80k to do the trans fluid.

Rams says 65k..or whatever. I might wait till 80k on those items if it were mine.

 

[Choupique]

wouldn't add conditioner

Period. The factory coolant in those engines is basically good forever, but when it needs attention you simply drain what you can and fill with new. Never add anything other than factory part number fresh new coolant.

 

[c69ss396]

2) Fuel Injection cleaning. I don't know what the dealer would be doing here. Maybe someone can chime in. If it's just putting a can of injector cleaner into your truck's tank (which might be the case), then that's something you could do.

Prior dealer diesel tech here, On a diesel it's literately just a can of bg in the tank. The only thing it does is makes the tech a few bucks. There is a "chip" in the bottom of the can that gets turned in for cash. There are way better products out there for less. I personly recommend hotshots.

 

[MJCs18Diesel]

I recommend a complete flushing the brakes.
I also recommend a DIY changing of the EGR filter. There are several DIY YouTube videos.
I ordered the Dorman brand filter. Ram brands are ridiculously priced.

https://www.amazon.com/Dorman-904-418-Crankcase-Breather-Element/dp/B01D8VKS3Q/ref=sr_1_92?crid=3D39GOSQFFJAU&keywords=Cummins%2Bdiesel%2B2018%2BEGR%2Bfilter&qid=1706555954&sprefix=cummins%2Bdiesel%2B2018%2Begr%2Bfilter%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-92&th=1