ZenBlowfish
Junior Member
Hey everyone,
I just recently purchased a 2003 RAM 1500 SLT quad cab 4x4 with 122K miles; so of course for the past week I've been on here learning as much as I can. Just had a few questions that someone may be able to answer a lot faster than I could look them up (I've tried).
1. I used the VIN decoder on dodgeforum.com to try and get some info while I wait on Dodge to hopefully send me the build sheet soon. Do the results from this show whether the rear has a LSD? Also the decoder showed the rear being 3.55 Min / 3.92 Max..... not sure what this means. There is a small metal tag on the rear which has 3.9 on it... the results are shown here VIN Decoder - DodgeForum.com
2. Since I don't know the detailed history of this truck I wanted to run through pretty much all maintenance items like oil change, gear oil changes..etc. In checking the level of the rear differential fluid, I noticed it is kind of a honey color with a thick consistency... also I have to stick my picky in pretty far to get where the fluid is. Is that too low of a level and does it sound like the fluid is new? The dealer said some maintenance was done but i'm not sure if that was one of them.
3. The engine oil was recently changed by the dealer and am waiting for a few thousand miles to send an oil sample for analysis. Other than that I was going to do both differentials and the transfer case. Can anyone suggest some things to check out other than the obvious stuff I have listed?
Thanks for any and all help!
I just recently purchased a 2003 RAM 1500 SLT quad cab 4x4 with 122K miles; so of course for the past week I've been on here learning as much as I can. Just had a few questions that someone may be able to answer a lot faster than I could look them up (I've tried).
1. I used the VIN decoder on dodgeforum.com to try and get some info while I wait on Dodge to hopefully send me the build sheet soon. Do the results from this show whether the rear has a LSD? Also the decoder showed the rear being 3.55 Min / 3.92 Max..... not sure what this means. There is a small metal tag on the rear which has 3.9 on it... the results are shown here VIN Decoder - DodgeForum.com
2. Since I don't know the detailed history of this truck I wanted to run through pretty much all maintenance items like oil change, gear oil changes..etc. In checking the level of the rear differential fluid, I noticed it is kind of a honey color with a thick consistency... also I have to stick my picky in pretty far to get where the fluid is. Is that too low of a level and does it sound like the fluid is new? The dealer said some maintenance was done but i'm not sure if that was one of them.
3. The engine oil was recently changed by the dealer and am waiting for a few thousand miles to send an oil sample for analysis. Other than that I was going to do both differentials and the transfer case. Can anyone suggest some things to check out other than the obvious stuff I have listed?
Thanks for any and all help!
