my first truck...am I crazy?

[italmike2k2]

Hey guys,

So I just bought my first truck on Feb 13th...I guess its a V-day gift to myself. I picked it up the next saturday, the 20th. A 2013 1500 4x4 sport quad cab with 121k km...in that burnt orange. Orange is my favourite colour so I jumped all over it. I bought it from a Dodge dealership in my city. Drove it..fine.

I picked it up...fine. I had it 4 days when the engine light came on the first time. I called that dealership within 5 seconds ready to kill them all. I manged to get the truck in ( I work 2 hours from where I bought the truck). There were 3 SRV errors and one body control module error.

They took the truck, wanted me to pay to fix it. I told them I'd "RAM" that truck through the front doors of this dealership before they say a dime of money to fix this. Magically...they did a software update and said it was fixed...and waived any cost to me. Got the truck back on the weekend...drove it around great.

On my way to work monday, the engine light comes back on. Once the raged passed I called them. The service manager's exact words were "oh ****". They took the rest of the week to gather parts to do the "second stage" of the repair if stage one didn't work. I've just had that work completed now all I can get out of them is they've replaced the intake manifold. They said it's being covered as a sign of good faith. (Less yelling for me I guess) I've yet to drive the truck yet to see if that fixes it. Has anyone had this issue?

Since the software update, I've noticed when I start the truck in the mornings or going home from work (engine light on) the centre screen in the dash flickers.

MailBigFile® Free | Your Big File

I've captured what I see there. The dealership told me it'd be $1000 bucks to replace it. Its extremely distracting when its dark. I will see this weekend if it all works better now that the engine lights gone...I'm wondering if its connected to the BCM issue that pops up.

What the hell have I done here? I'm used to driving german cars but I haven't seen this much crap with a car I just bought. I've owned the truck 19 whole days and it's only worked for 4 of them.

If the service manager doesn't play ball here? Who do I go to? I bought from a dealership to get a working truck...if I wanted to **** my money away I could've gone to the Persian guy with "best deal bro".

I look forward to spending alot of time on this forum at work haha

Mike

 

[SilverStreak88]

In short - welcome to 4th gen, an electronic nightmare.

 

[Jerry1984]

So you bought a used truck with 75k miles, is there a warranty of any sorts? If no warranty I'd say you should be glad they did anything for free for you. Yes it sucks that issues are happening, but they don't have to if there's no warranty. 6 or 8 speed truck?

 

[Kap1]

It's normal, you don't know anything about this used truck you bought, you don't know how it was used or maintained, or whether it was just somewhat defective from the factory...and had history of such issues, maybe that's why the first owner got rid of it.

My truck had this sort of bs from when I bought it new and you can't do **** about it besides taking it to the dealership continously. Already took it in 10 times and only have 38k miles now. Some rams are good according to the forum community, but some of us get bad ones, and nothing we can do. Get a Tacoma or tundra if reliability is the most important to you, I wish I did before loosing all the money on a ram.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but welcome to the lemon ram club, it's about 15% of us on this forum.

 

[VectorZ]

Hey guys,

So I just bought my first truck on Feb 13th...I guess its a V-day gift to myself. I picked it up the next saturday, the 20th. A 2013 1500 4x4 sport quad cab with 121k km...in that burnt orange. Orange is my favourite colour so I jumped all over it. I bought it from a Dodge dealership in my city. Drove it..fine.

I picked it up...fine. I had it 4 days when the engine light came on the first time. I called that dealership within 5 seconds ready to kill them all. I manged to get the truck in ( I work 2 hours from where I bought the truck). There were 3 SRV errors and one body control module error.

They took the truck, wanted me to pay to fix it. I told them I'd "RAM" that truck through the front doors of this dealership before they say a dime of money to fix this. Magically...they did a software update and said it was fixed...and waived any cost to me. Got the truck back on the weekend...drove it around great.

On my way to work monday, the engine light comes back on. Once the raged passed I called them. The service manager's exact words were "oh ****". They took the rest of the week to gather parts to do the "second stage" of the repair if stage one didn't work. I've just had that work completed now all I can get out of them is they've replaced the intake manifold. They said it's being covered as a sign of good faith. (Less yelling for me I guess) I've yet to drive the truck yet to see if that fixes it. Has anyone had this issue?

Since the software update, I've noticed when I start the truck in the mornings or going home from work (engine light on) the centre screen in the dash flickers.

MailBigFile® Free | Your Big File

I've captured what I see there. The dealership told me it'd be $1000 bucks to replace it. Its extremely distracting when its dark. I will see this weekend if it all works better now that the engine lights gone...I'm wondering if its connected to the BCM issue that pops up.

What the hell have I done here? I'm used to driving german cars but I haven't seen this much crap with a car I just bought. I've owned the truck 19 whole days and it's only worked for 4 of them.

If the service manager doesn't play ball here? Who do I go to? I bought from a dealership to get a working truck...if I wanted to **** my money away I could've gone to the Persian guy with "best deal bro".

I look forward to spending alot of time on this forum at work haha

Mike

Sorry to hear about your truck. They ALL have various issues, just like the German cars do. I wouldn't expect to buy a 3 year old German car with 75k miles on it and not expect a few issues. I know, I had an E63, what a nightmare.

 

[chris1965]

Does carfax work in Canada? If so, you should check

 

[baum]

carfax is a hoax. its only up to a service center/autobody shop to report to it.

on a side note yes you purchased a vehicle that was out of warranty so unless you purchased an extended you are sol. some dealers near me will give a like a 3 day or 500 mile warranty, but that is only up to the dealer. in your situation its no different buying it from a private party and having this happen. you would have been on your own

 

[chris1965]

carfax is a hoax. its only up to a service center/autobody shop to report to it.

on a side note yes you purchased a vehicle that was out of warranty so unless you purchased an extended you are sol. some dealers near me will give a like a 3 day or 500 mile warranty, but that is only up to the dealer. in your situation its no different buying it from a private party and having this happen. you would have been on your own

I know you don't see anything- but I walked away from one I looked at, as I've seen that it had 3 owners in 2 years in a short period of time and was for 10 month on dealer lot and the tires was almost deflated.
It does not say everything- but it's an indicator. Also possible accidents are in there. Honest Dealers will provide a carfax without question.

 

[CMil527]

any pics?

 

[baum]

I know you don't see anything- but I walked away from one I looked at, as I've seen that it had 3 owners in 2 years in a short period of time and was for 10 month on dealer lot and the tires was almost deflated.
It does not say everything- but it's an indicator. Also possible accidents are in there. Honest Dealers will provide a carfax without question.

i agree an honest dealer will provide one, but its up to the dealers/shop that did any work to the truck to report it to carfax. that is where a lot of information gets missed. this is why i would never believe in one.

 

[laffs]

What are the codes it popped and what symptoms or problems is it exhibiting? Hard to infer what the actual problem was from your post aside from your apparent anger. You said truck was not working for 15 of 19 days, is it not running properly or is it just a CEL with no symptoms?

 

[Hootbro]

Might want to check the anger man. You bought a used out of warranty vehicle. Does not mean a thing since it was also a RAM dealership you bought from. Used is used and is "buyer beware". The fact they did anything was a courtesy.

 

[BlownGP]

75K on a 2013!!!!!!!! There's your problem.

 

[italmike2k2]

Its the 8 speed. I figured spending a little extra might save me some gas in the long run. I read good things about the ZF 8HP transmission.

The first time the CEL came on it was three P1004's, I can't remember the BCM code. I didn't read the code after it came back on again.

The unfortunate part is due to the Canadian dollar the way it is and the apparent lack of trucks to be found lately. 121k on a 2013 isn't as terrible as it sounds. The point of buying from a dealership is for piece of mind. I don't buy this ******** of buyer beware, that's the reason I didn't buy it at the side of the road. If they want the money, they'll do as they're told. There is nothing wrong with ensuring you get what you paid for. (I got new tires, new brakes and rotors, rear tailgate had a huge rusted dent that was completely repaired)

We do have carfax, any used car in Ontario at least must come with the car history. There was one owner and local too.

The warranty offered was bumper to bumper for about $3500 for 20,000km or 1 year. That would've lasted about 6 months with my mileage, so I decided to pass. Had this been a month into my ownership there wouldn't be a big deal...its a used car. But 4 days in means the guy before me obviously had an issue..maybe the dealership knew and tried to pass it off. Either way its over now (knock on wood) I'm content with their fix.

I do love everything about the truck. Seeing colours is just more vivid in a truck I find...and I also seem to have a deeper understanding of life.

I have some plans that'll slowly take place.

 

[Nightshade]

Sorry to hear about the issues. Heard quite a few bad things about DeWildt.

Hopefully your issues are fixed completely.. Nice looking truck, love that colour..

121,000km on a 2013 isn't that bad. I have 373,000km on my 2008 Charger Daytona (also a 5.7 hemi.. and still going strong).. Hopefully my new 2016 Rebel will be delivered next week..

 

[Sir John]

It's normal, you don't know anything about this used truck you bought, you don't know how it was used or maintained, or whether it was just somewhat defective from the factory...and had history of such issues, maybe that's why the first owner got rid of it.

My truck had this sort of bs from when I bought it new and you can't do **** about it besides taking it to the dealership continously. Already took it in 10 times and only have 38k miles now. Some rams are good according to the forum community, but some of us get bad ones, and nothing we can do. Get a Tacoma or tundra if reliability is the most important to you, I wish I did before loosing all the money on a ram.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but welcome to the lemon ram club, it's about 15% of us on this forum.

Ain't this the truth. I've been to the dealership 17 times in 23,000 miles. My F150, before the Ram, went to the dealership 2 times in 92,000 miles! As a matter of fact, I was just at the dealership today to get my tow mirrors led turn signal replace on the driver's side. The passenger's side has already been replaced twice!

 

[jasonw]

italmike2k2: Take posts from some on here with a grain of salt. There are a few people on every forum who get a lemon, and think it is now their duty to post in every problem thread they see about their issues, to warn everyone off from the entire brand. Its really quite comical after you see examples of it in every forum you join, that they have all these issues but they still own it and don't get rid of it.

This does not help you when your truck is the one having issues, I'll admit that, but every brand (yes, even the almighty Toyota *insert sarcasm here*) has lemons or Friday trucks. Every brand also has the vast majority of their trucks perform reliably or very close.

I am glad you got your truck fixed, and love your color choice.

 

[baum]

italmike2k2: Take posts from some on here with a grain of salt. There are a few people on every forum who get a lemon, and think it is now their duty to post in every problem thread they see about their issues, to warn everyone off from the entire brand. Its really quite comical after you see examples of it in every forum you join, that they have all these issues but they still own it and don't get rid of it.

This does not help you when your truck is the one having issues, I'll admit that, but every brand (yes, even the almighty Toyota *insert sarcasm here*) has lemons or Friday trucks. Every brand also has the vast majority of their trucks perform reliably or very close.

I am glad you got your truck fixed, and love your color choice.

i wouldnt even consider this as a "lemon". its a 2-3 year old truck with high milage. its plain and simple its been driven.

as i am a mechanical engineer you understand PM and reliability maintenance and how important those are. you have no record of that buying used.

parts on a vehicle are disposable they are not meant to last forever.

i give props to the guy that had another topic on here that was doing wheel bearings just because of his milage and not because one went out.

 

[Hootbro]

i wouldnt even consider this as a "lemon". its a 2-3 year old truck with high milage. its plain and simple its been driven.

as i am a mechanical engineer you understand PM and reliability maintenance and how important those are. you have no record of that buying used.

parts on a vehicle are disposable they are not meant to last forever.

i give props to the guy that had another topic on here that was doing wheel bearings just because of his milage and not because one went out.

Agreed. For all we know it was traded in because it was on the back end of the "bathtub curve" of its service life.

 

[italmike2k2]

I drove it this weekend, was able to get the engine light to come back on.

Went back to the dealership on Saturday and was accosted by the sales manager. I had to tell him to stop raising his voice at me. The sales manager wiped the code from the truck expecting that to pacify me but I had to say to him...now your service department can't fix the problem because there's no code. I went back this morning and spoke to the service manager. He's a good guy. He took the truck and gave me a rental. I'm confident they'll be able to fix it.

Everyone has issues. I didn't expect to get out of this process without going back a few times.

I read on the forums here to check out the fuse panel and make sure they're all set. I found nearly most of them needed to be pushed in to be seated properly. Could this cause the problem? I'm hoping its that simple.

I appreciate all your input on the subject!