First truck. Couple questions about

[Seso]

I just bought a 2012 ram 1500 with the 5.7. It has 139k on it and looking over everything the previous owner took extremely good care of it.

the only maintenance I’m kinda wanting to do is clean the intake valves by spraying crc into the throttle body.

is this a good idea?

also if you have any other items I should take a look at or add to the truck let me know!

edit:
I should probably mention I looked over all the fluids, air filters, suspension, etc. everything is good.

 

[tron67j]

Only thing I read about it a while back is don't spray the MAF. Don't know why, not sure if that advice has changed.

Good luck with the truck!

 

[Seso]

Only thing I read about it a while back is don't spray the MAF. Don't know why, not sure if that advice has changed.

Good luck with the truck!

Thanks! Yeah I’ve heard avoid the MAF too. Sounds like it can be done just like other cars I’ve owned.

thanks for the reply!

 

[kurek]

I just bought a 2012 ram 1500 with the 5.7. It has 139k on it and looking over everything the previous owner took extremely good care of it.

the only maintenance I’m kinda wanting to do is clean the intake valves by spraying crc into the throttle body.

is this a good idea?

also if you have any other items I should take a look at or add to the truck let me know!

edit:
I should probably mention I looked over all the fluids, air filters, suspension, etc. everything is good.

I'm a fan of routine maintenance to prevent unnecessary wear - not so sure about corrective maintenance when wear isn't a likely outcome. But there is probably no harm in running a top end cleaner through.

The transmission really should have its fluid & both filters changed every 60k miles - you said you "looked over" them, do you have information indicating when it was last changed? Transmissions are expensive, a drain and fill is cheap. If you're handy at all they're easy on the RFE and you can get a replacement pan that includes a built in drain plug if you want to keep the truck long term and make future changes easier.

The coolant for 2012 I believe was 5 year hybrid-OAT, don't think they changed to the 10 year OAT until the following year and even if they had you're still about at the end of life on it. Unless you know the coolant has been flushed in the past 5 years it's time to do that again. Drain, fill with distilled, run to operating temp, drain, refill with distilled, run to operating temp, drain again, refill with approved (specific to the year) coolant in the correct proportion. I believe they changed coolant type from 2012 to 2013 and they are not cross compatible. Concentrate is $25 per gallon and it's a 18 quart system. This matters because the coolant is also a corrosion preventative and neglecting it is how you end up with the joy of replacing heater cores and radiators. Again the fluid is cheaper than the parts you get to replace when the fluid is neglected.

These are fundamentally good machines with very few true Achilles' heels.. all they really need is solid maintenance and sober drivers.

 

[GTyankee]

Watch what you spray & where you spray it

Like never spray Brake Parts Cleaner on anything but brake parts

Things like the Throttle Body have a special coating on them, once that coating is compromised, you may have screwed something up

I would guess that other sensors need special care also

 

[Seso]

I'm a fan of routine maintenance to prevent unnecessary wear - not so sure about corrective maintenance when wear isn't a likely outcome. But there is probably no harm in running a top end cleaner through.

The transmission really should have its fluid & both filters changed every 60k miles - you said you "looked over" them, do you have information indicating when it was last changed? Transmissions are expensive, a drain and fill is cheap. If you're handy at all they're easy on the RFE and you can get a replacement pan that includes a built in drain plug if you want to keep the truck long term and make future changes easier.

The coolant for 2012 I believe was 5 year hybrid-OAT, don't think they changed to the 10 year OAT until the following year and even if they had you're still about at the end of life on it. Unless you know the coolant has been flushed in the past 5 years it's time to do that again. Drain, fill with distilled, run to operating temp, drain, refill with distilled, run to operating temp, drain again, refill with approved (specific to the year) coolant in the correct proportion. I believe they changed coolant type from 2012 to 2013 and they are not cross compatible. Concentrate is $25 per gallon and it's a 18 quart system. This matters because the coolant is also a corrosion preventative and neglecting it is how you end up with the joy of replacing heater cores and radiators. Again the fluid is cheaper than the parts you get to replace when the fluid is neglected.

These are fundamentally good machines with very few true Achilles' heels.. all they really need is solid maintenance and sober drivers.

First off, thanks for the reply!

I looked at the dip stick for the trans when it was at operating temp and the level was perfect and the color was pink/red with no burn smell. It looks like the previous owner was probably on a good routine with it, but there’s no way to know for absolute certain. I didn’t realize the truck had an Mds system so I was a little spooked when it was switching from 4-8 cylinders and vice versa. Didn’t know that was how it was supposed to be.

I tested the coolant with one of those little coolant testers that gives you the boiling and freeze point. It was at 265 boiling and -34 freezing which I believe is right where it’s supposed to be?

rear diff fluid looks good and clean. The truck didn’t have a hitch installed so I’m assuming this was just a daily driver for him.

any other tests I should run?

 

[Seso]

Watch what you spray & where you spray it

Like never spray Brake Parts Cleaner on anything but brake parts

Things like the Throttle Body have a special coating on them, once that coating is compromised, you may have screwed something up

I would guess that other sensors need special care also

I was planning on just disconnecting the intake tube where it meets the throttle body and spraying carb cleaner directly in there while I have someone revving a little bit.

will that be fine?

also do you recommend any other preventative services I should do?

 

[huntergreen]

You might to pull a spark plug out and check it. Your model year suggests new plugs every 30000 miles.

 

[Seso]

You might to pull a spark plug out and check it. Your model year suggests new plugs every 30000 miles.

oh! Good tip. Somehow that one slipped through the cracks when I was checking everything out.

any other things I should check out I might have missed?

 

[huntergreen]

oh! Good tip. Somehow that one slipped through the cracks when I was checking everything out.

any other things I should check out I might have missed?

Only things that come to mind are the brakes, air filter. Battery and terminal connections. Also keep in mind if you do change out the plugs there are 16 of them.

 

[huntergreen]

oh! Good tip. Somehow that one slipped through the cracks when I was checking everything out.

any other things I should check out I might have missed?

I would also change out the pcv.

 

[GTyankee]

If you are going to spraying anything on or into the Throttle Body
Use Throttle Body Cleaner

Carb Cleaner is for Carburetors
A Throttle Body is Not a Carburetor

Carb Cleaner would remove that special coating that is on a Throttle Body

 

[ram1500rsm]

Only thing I read about it a while back is don't spray the MAF. Don't know why, not sure if that advice has changed.

Good luck with the truck!

We don't have a MAF as far as I know so spray away. If we had one,it's still good to spray it with a MAF cleaner, just be careful not to touch the MAF filament. And its not that it can't be touched you just don't want to bend the little wire that's it.

 

[RickH]

I didn't see anybody else talk about it but along with the MAF cleaning you might consider running a can of injector cleaner through the tank. I noticed an immediate fuel mileage improvement on mine at 80K miles. Might not be a bad idea to do that annually.

 

[Treburkulosis]

Not to thread hijack what injector clean should I run. Mine needs to be done. Redline, Royal Purple, or Liquid Moly?

 

[Jeepwalker]

Um, I don't think getting on a thread that's several months old is really "Hijacking". You might want to post your own thread though, to get more responses.