BlownGP
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2013
- Posts
- 6,082
- Reaction score
- 1,573
- Location
- Houston/Baton Rouge
- Ram Year
- 2018 RAM Harvest New Holland Blue
- Engine
- 5.7
Update on my situation:
I took the truck to the dealership on the advice of Ram Cares in case they can help with the situation and costs. They said make an appointment and go from there. The appointment was for this morning and the dealer just called and said both sides, left and right, had broken bolts. Not surprising. I asked if the bolts had snapped or corroded and they said corroded, and OK lets see the bolts. So I asked if I have them put stainless steel bolts on and they said 'we don't have those here.' Seems like a logical fix to me if they were in fact corroded.
The dealer quote was 1,500 which is consistent with others on here. I am waiting to hear back from Ram Cares and see if there is something to be done, but I have not heard anything back.
My rationale for going to the dealer is basically gambling that Ram Cares will come up with something to help on the costs, and that there is a 2 year warranty on the repair, and I don't really plan to have the truck past 2 years. The old bolts lasted 65K miles, so I suppose I could reasonably expect at least 50K anyway with the replacements (not super logical but my thoughts aren't always so). I was hoping to get 150K out of the truck but I fear there are other time bombs that are ticking as well as this known time bomb. Might be well short of 150k before it becomes someone else's.
So it's probably not going to be the best repair money can buy, but it will be the economical one for me given my situation and plans.
It's not like you can't drive with broken manifold bolts.
I did it for 5 years and over 70K on my orange truck.
It would sound like **** on a cold start, but after a minute the manifolds warmed up and expanded and it was quiet.