About three weeks ago, I traded my 1500 in on a 2019 Ram 2500 Tradesman with the 6.4 Hemi. From the day I took delivery, there was a clunk/rattle sound that was frequent and annoying. Can't really hear it unless the windows are up. Seems to happen on rough patches of road. This is not a small rattle, a squeak, a hum, drone or anything like that. Just a clunky rattle that happens on washboard style streets. It happens when I'm not towing anything and it happens when I'm towing my boat, which is about 4,500 pounds trailer weight.
I've had it back to the dealer twice. First time, the service tech who was going to work on it rode with me and said he heard it. He said it was likely coming from behind the dash. I disagreed, saying I couldn't imagine anything back there heavy enough to make that kind of clunk/rattle. He disassembled the dash and secured some things back there and gave me the truck back. A freeway on-ramp two blocks from the dealership is rough. I immediately heard the rattle when running over the bumps. I called to get it back in, but had to go out two weeks to get another appointment.
I took it in and dropped it off two weeks later and they gave me a rental car to use so they could investigate. They had the truck for four days, each day saying they were troubleshooting it via "process of elimination" and had not identified the problem yet. On the fourth day, the service writer called and said they had opened a Star case on it. He said the engineers had suggested a computer flash or the "noise reduction module" they should try that may correct the problem. Two hours later, they called to say my truck was done.
I went to pick it up and they showed me a TSB for a drone/hum/booming problem in the cab of some 2500's that is supposedly fixed by this computer flash. None of the problems listed was even close to what I have reported. They told me everything under the truck was "perfect" and to drive it and see if the problem is fixed. It does not seem likely to me that a computer flash would fix this.
I asked for the Star case number, but was not provided with that. I asked for the itemized list from their service department on what had been checked, retorqued, etc. but didn't get that either. I took the truck and left - you guessed it - the rattle was there unabated as I hit the freeway ramp two blocks from the dealership. No way they could have test driven it and not heard the rattle after the flash was done.
I drove it over the weekend and think the following things may be true. It seems to occur when the right rear wheel hits the rough spots, but not so much when the front wheels or the left rear (driver side) wheel hits. At times, I operated the truck in Gear Limit mode because this works best driving in town. I didn't seem to hear the rattle as much when in this mode, but still can't be sure about that one. Does this make any sense to anyone?
My truck was built in March, 2019. I started noticing the clunk/rattle right away when I bought it in July. It now has 1200 miles on it and it still rattles. Even my girlfriend can hear it and she knows nothing about cars or trucks. Several of my buddies have admired the truck and then asked what the rattle was when I gave them a ride.
I love everything else about the truck, but this problem is really taking the enjoyment out of buying a new heavy duty towing beast of a truck. Has anyone else heard of this or experienced it? Any advice or suggestions for me going forward? I intend to call the service manager to get the Star case number and the service records I asked for but didn't get.
