SETEX 6.4
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2014
- Posts
- 760
- Reaction score
- 353
- Location
- Port Neches, TX
- Ram Year
- 2014
- Engine
- Hemi 6.4
Well let me start off by saying I love my truck and I love the 6.4 Hemi.
What I don't like is ****** technicians and service managers at stealerships.
Let me know what you guys think about this whole scenario of things that happened and what your opinions are about what the problem could be.
It all started when I made and appointment at my local stealership for warranty issues. Issues were.
1. Pulling to the right (alignment)
2. Clunking in front end under passenger floorboard when suspension drops down off of a bump (bump is my driveway)
3. Ram Boxes not closing straight (body lines not straight when closed)
4. Tailgate not lined up straight in tailgate opening
5. Seamed to be excessive noise in rear end differential
6. Rear pinion seal leaking (not bad just oozing down the pumpkin)
I dropped my truck with 8500 miles on it at the dealership November 10th. I really thought it was weird that the pinion seal was already leaking.
So they had my truck from that Monday the 10th till Friday the 14th.
A coworker dropped me off at the dealership at 12 as we were leaving for lunch. I walked in and they assured me that everything was fixed. I drove away towards my house to go eat lunch.
Its about a 5 mile drive from dealership to my house and as I turned onto my road the truck started making a god awful noise and it was coming from the rear end. It was like a metal on metal grinding no clunking noise but it did make a slight clunk as I backed into the driveway.
I got out and looked under the truck but could see no physical signs of anything wrong.
I went in the house and ate and figured I would just drive back to the dealership when I was done.
So I left my house and while pulling out of my driveway the clunk in the front end is still there and it was still making the very bad noise from the rear end. I was tempted to call the dealership from the side of the road but I went ahead and made the 5 mile trip back.
They put it up on the lift and pulled the drive shaft and find that the PINION NUT had backed off.
Now remember the pinion was leaking that's one of the reasons I brought it in and they had changed the seal which requires removing nut and dust shield.
They told me they did that and reset the pinion preload yada yada yada, but when I asked them if they had used loctite on the nut the response was no they didn't figure it needed it because the truck had so few miles on it.
Needless to say they needed to keep the truck and was going to order a new pinion nut this time. I also told them I had the same clunk in the front end.
So I left the dealership pretty pissed because I had to explain to them that how do we/they know if any damaged occurred in the differential to the gears or to the bearings. I literally drove the truck with ZERO preload on the pinion bearings.
So they had my truck again from 11/14 to 11/18. I picked it up that evening of the 18th.
As I was driving home and sense that day there is a whinning howling noise from between around 30 mph to 43 mph. Its loud to me but not so loud to other people. But thats pretty much all I hear because I know something is wrong with my brand new truck.
Im not a dumb guy when it comes to vehicles I knew right away that it had to be the preload on the pinion bearings not set correctly or the pinion bearings are damaged from driving with zero preload.
I stopped back by the dealership on the 20th of November to tell the service manager that it was making the noise and he said "yeah we heard that and we think its your exhaust". WTF
I told him it was not my exhaust and it had just started doing this sense they had worked on the rear end and besides that I would have had that on the list of **** I brought my truck in for in the first place.
So I left to start my further research and own troubleshooting to try and prove to them that the rear end is not right. I was on vacation from 11/21 to 11/30 and during that time I sat in a deer stand a lot researching on my phone about my issue.
Sure enough numerous write ups about people having this problem after having pinion seals replaced.
So I basically fumed about it for 9 days.
On 12/1 afternoon I went back to the dealership to talk to service manager.
He could tell I was pissed. He asked if I could bring it in the following morning at 7am and we would go for a ride with the tech.
I show up at dealership at 7am on 12/2 and we all go for a ride with me driving.
Sure enough we can all hear it and we acknowledge that yes there is a sound there but they are not so convinced that its coming from the rear end.
I tell them it had to be, "its the only damn thing that's been touched on this brand new ******* truck." I told them I don't think they got the pinion preload correct or that damage must have happened when the pinion nut backed off while I was driving it.
So we go back to the dealership and they give me a ride to work.
Service manager calls me that evening of the 2nd and tells me they think its the transmission. I tell him thats bs and if it was the transmission it was one hell of a coincidence seeings how they had just worked on the rear axle and caused the pinion to back off.
He calls me back the next morning of the 3rd and tells me he has been driving the truck and just cant seem to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. I told him "its the pinion bearings or pinion preload." He disagrees and says that one of the techs has a set of chassis ears at home and was going to go get them so they could hook them up all over the truck to find the noise. He said if the sound was coming from the rear end they would rebuild the axle.
He calls me back the evening of the 3rd and tells me that they could not hear any of the sound that the truck is making through the chassis ears and he would keep the chassis ears hooked up and we could go for a ride and listen for myself.
I show up at 7am the morning of 12/4 look under truck and see all the chassis ears hooked up. We go for a ride and sure enough you can hear the whining noise still between 30 and 43 mph but I couldn't hear anything through the chassis ears. I could hear gears working and such but not the whining noise.
He had the leads hooked up to fins near the pinion and transmission and transfer case. Could not hear the noise through the headphones. Just the normal sounds of the gears.
We went back to the dealership and he told me that he had called RAM and that was no help, that they hadn't had any problems reported like mine.
He really did seem to be trying to find the problem.
He basically told me there was nothing further they could do because there is no physical evidence that leads them to believe that a total rebuild or whatever of the rear end needs to be done because they cant find out what the noise is.
I politely told him that was BS and left and told him I was going to a different dealer or rear end shop or something because bottom line is I just want my truck fixed properly. Its still brand new in my book 8500 miles.
He told me he hopes they can find the problem and fix it for me.
So that the point Im still at today.
Rear end still whines and clunk in front end under passenger floorboard.
What are you guys thoughts on this?
Do you agree with me in saying pinion preload is wrong or bearings damage on pinion.
Have any of you had a similar issue.
What should be my next step? Another dealer?
I did make sure that all this was documented properly and it is all in the RAM database.
Please help,
Chad
What I don't like is ****** technicians and service managers at stealerships.
Let me know what you guys think about this whole scenario of things that happened and what your opinions are about what the problem could be.
It all started when I made and appointment at my local stealership for warranty issues. Issues were.
1. Pulling to the right (alignment)
2. Clunking in front end under passenger floorboard when suspension drops down off of a bump (bump is my driveway)
3. Ram Boxes not closing straight (body lines not straight when closed)
4. Tailgate not lined up straight in tailgate opening
5. Seamed to be excessive noise in rear end differential
6. Rear pinion seal leaking (not bad just oozing down the pumpkin)
I dropped my truck with 8500 miles on it at the dealership November 10th. I really thought it was weird that the pinion seal was already leaking.
So they had my truck from that Monday the 10th till Friday the 14th.
A coworker dropped me off at the dealership at 12 as we were leaving for lunch. I walked in and they assured me that everything was fixed. I drove away towards my house to go eat lunch.
Its about a 5 mile drive from dealership to my house and as I turned onto my road the truck started making a god awful noise and it was coming from the rear end. It was like a metal on metal grinding no clunking noise but it did make a slight clunk as I backed into the driveway.
I got out and looked under the truck but could see no physical signs of anything wrong.
I went in the house and ate and figured I would just drive back to the dealership when I was done.
So I left my house and while pulling out of my driveway the clunk in the front end is still there and it was still making the very bad noise from the rear end. I was tempted to call the dealership from the side of the road but I went ahead and made the 5 mile trip back.
They put it up on the lift and pulled the drive shaft and find that the PINION NUT had backed off.
Now remember the pinion was leaking that's one of the reasons I brought it in and they had changed the seal which requires removing nut and dust shield.
They told me they did that and reset the pinion preload yada yada yada, but when I asked them if they had used loctite on the nut the response was no they didn't figure it needed it because the truck had so few miles on it.
Needless to say they needed to keep the truck and was going to order a new pinion nut this time. I also told them I had the same clunk in the front end.
So I left the dealership pretty pissed because I had to explain to them that how do we/they know if any damaged occurred in the differential to the gears or to the bearings. I literally drove the truck with ZERO preload on the pinion bearings.
So they had my truck again from 11/14 to 11/18. I picked it up that evening of the 18th.
As I was driving home and sense that day there is a whinning howling noise from between around 30 mph to 43 mph. Its loud to me but not so loud to other people. But thats pretty much all I hear because I know something is wrong with my brand new truck.
Im not a dumb guy when it comes to vehicles I knew right away that it had to be the preload on the pinion bearings not set correctly or the pinion bearings are damaged from driving with zero preload.
I stopped back by the dealership on the 20th of November to tell the service manager that it was making the noise and he said "yeah we heard that and we think its your exhaust". WTF
I told him it was not my exhaust and it had just started doing this sense they had worked on the rear end and besides that I would have had that on the list of **** I brought my truck in for in the first place.
So I left to start my further research and own troubleshooting to try and prove to them that the rear end is not right. I was on vacation from 11/21 to 11/30 and during that time I sat in a deer stand a lot researching on my phone about my issue.
Sure enough numerous write ups about people having this problem after having pinion seals replaced.
So I basically fumed about it for 9 days.
On 12/1 afternoon I went back to the dealership to talk to service manager.
He could tell I was pissed. He asked if I could bring it in the following morning at 7am and we would go for a ride with the tech.
I show up at dealership at 7am on 12/2 and we all go for a ride with me driving.
Sure enough we can all hear it and we acknowledge that yes there is a sound there but they are not so convinced that its coming from the rear end.
I tell them it had to be, "its the only damn thing that's been touched on this brand new ******* truck." I told them I don't think they got the pinion preload correct or that damage must have happened when the pinion nut backed off while I was driving it.
So we go back to the dealership and they give me a ride to work.
Service manager calls me that evening of the 2nd and tells me they think its the transmission. I tell him thats bs and if it was the transmission it was one hell of a coincidence seeings how they had just worked on the rear axle and caused the pinion to back off.
He calls me back the next morning of the 3rd and tells me he has been driving the truck and just cant seem to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. I told him "its the pinion bearings or pinion preload." He disagrees and says that one of the techs has a set of chassis ears at home and was going to go get them so they could hook them up all over the truck to find the noise. He said if the sound was coming from the rear end they would rebuild the axle.
He calls me back the evening of the 3rd and tells me that they could not hear any of the sound that the truck is making through the chassis ears and he would keep the chassis ears hooked up and we could go for a ride and listen for myself.
I show up at 7am the morning of 12/4 look under truck and see all the chassis ears hooked up. We go for a ride and sure enough you can hear the whining noise still between 30 and 43 mph but I couldn't hear anything through the chassis ears. I could hear gears working and such but not the whining noise.
He had the leads hooked up to fins near the pinion and transmission and transfer case. Could not hear the noise through the headphones. Just the normal sounds of the gears.
We went back to the dealership and he told me that he had called RAM and that was no help, that they hadn't had any problems reported like mine.
He really did seem to be trying to find the problem.
He basically told me there was nothing further they could do because there is no physical evidence that leads them to believe that a total rebuild or whatever of the rear end needs to be done because they cant find out what the noise is.
I politely told him that was BS and left and told him I was going to a different dealer or rear end shop or something because bottom line is I just want my truck fixed properly. Its still brand new in my book 8500 miles.
He told me he hopes they can find the problem and fix it for me.
So that the point Im still at today.
Rear end still whines and clunk in front end under passenger floorboard.
What are you guys thoughts on this?
Do you agree with me in saying pinion preload is wrong or bearings damage on pinion.
Have any of you had a similar issue.
What should be my next step? Another dealer?
I did make sure that all this was documented properly and it is all in the RAM database.
Please help,
Chad