intermittent squeak and steering wheel shake

[Rcornerranch]

I have a 2010 ram 2500 fwd. After using fwd in fall I got an error message on instrument panel. "service 4wd". This was when I switched back to 2wd. As I drove the mesage came on and engine virtually lost power. Stopped for 5 minutes and it was ok. It happened a few times a month apart so I finally went tothe dealer. They couldn't find anything. They finally changed the gas pedal? And said if it happened again to bring it back. The truck jas developed a shake in the steering wheel and a squeak in the front left wheel area. I took it to the dealer and they said the lower ball joint needs replacing for $600. I never did it and took it home and checked movement in all front end joints. There was no play in any of them. I cleaned everything up in all 4 wheels and lubed what I could. Put all together and squeak was gone until yesterday when I used 4wd in one of my pastures. Got to road and went back to 2wd and squeak reoccured and the steering wheel shake got a little worse. It seems to me that the 4wd isn't disengaging? Any thougfhts? Naturally my 60000 km warranty expired a month ago.

 

[quietpeen]

welcome to RF, that sucks that the warranty just recently expired and you have this problem. Maybe if you take it back for a problem they couldn't diagnose before when you were still under warranty you could get to to still cover it now.

 

[Trupiano]

When you went from 4wd to 2wd, did the squeak sound immediately? Also, any other shakes, sounds or anything besides your steering wheel?

I would try and trouble shoot by switching between the 4wd and 2wd modes to find out where exactly the sound or shake starts. Maybe have a friend walk next to the truck as you drive slowly in the different mods. See if he can pinpoint where it's coming from, and you can tell when the squeek/shake initiates, and stops.

Also, it's a 2010 so how is your tire wear? Is it even, and does the truck need an alignment, especially after alot of pasture driving?

EDIT: One more thing... wouldn't hurt to reset your PCM.

http://www.ramforum.com/f44/4th-gen-pcm-reset-17703/

 

[Rcornerranch]

Hey thanks for suggestions. I'm gonna try the dodge dealer again but my schedule hasn't allowed me to get there yet. The squeak comes and goes but I really believe the 4wd is sticking on (at least on the one wheel, if that is possible?) I'm also going to try the reset on the pcm. What does that do anyways?