100k / Pre-Camping Season Service

[shorthorn]

Hey yall... sitting here on this crazy cold day thinking about upcoming camping season...

I bought my 05 Ram 2500 4x4 Cummins (QCLB) with 95k on it... It now has 105k.

Wondering what service I should do to the truck before camping season gets in full swing?

Last year I did new rear brakes, Front axle u-joints, and front hub bearings.

This year I was thinking of doing the following:

-Trans Fluid / Filter. Adjust Bands
-Transfer Case Fluid
-Differential Fluids
-Serpentine Belt

Anything I am missing? How many miles are others getting out of driveshaft u-joints? What about coolant/water pump? I have no idea when anything like that was changed, although it looks very clean for 100k.

Of course this baby needs to last me a long time and I want to make sure I don't have any break downs pulling the camper around the Midwest...

Thoughts?

 

[Regcabguy]

Keep a spare water pump with you.

 

[Grizzly]

Check brake pads, rotors and tires. You may also want to show your signature.

george

 

[lpennock]

Coolent interval is specd at 100K or 5 years. Sounds like you are due for Flush and Fill.

 

[Grizzly]

Perhaps the most important item to have with you as you travel is a AAA Plus card, which will provide emergency roadside assistance and tow you 100 miles.

george

 

[JR]

Fuel filter if you haven't already done it and at a minimum give the air filter and box a good look over to make sure its sealing properly. I would also add a secondary fuel filter for better filtration if the P.O. didn't. CR injectors are $$$ and the sub standard OEM filter is not good enough on its own.

 

[inlinesix3million]

Water pumps are cheap. I would replace it along with the fluid. (coolant)
I understand that if the water pump fails, you then have to change your coolant anyway. Do some searches on this site about water pumps and their longevity. I bought mine used at
130,000 mi and the pump had been recently changed along with the coolant by the original owner. I understand that they are easy to change and do not cost much. You would want to
do this in your shop and not on the side of the road.#@$%! I changed my T case and diffs with Royal Purple products and have had no issues in the last couple years. I added a Mag-
Hytec rear cover for extra cooling and capacity as soon as I got mine and did the synthetics in everything but the engine. I feel that they will give me some longevity as well as much
peace of mind. I change the engine oil every year so I feel that it was not as necessary. Do some searches on filter recommendations. Get a Glacier Diesel MK2 or equivalent. AH64ID
has done much research on which filter to install in your stock housing and on your MK2 ( or equivalent ).
One suggestion for the various U-joints and wheel bearings is to use an infrared thermometer on them after you operate your truck long enough to get everything up to temp. Look for
abberations from one side to the other,for example. You can pinpoint problems before they become audible or tactile. You can discover wear patterns on your tires before you realize
that your wheel bearing is on it's last legs- but you just lost 10,000 mi of tire life. The thermometer would have alerted you before.
There is a bit of a learning curve with these trucks ( this was my first one ) but I enjoy mine very much. Have fun with it.

 

[p-Bar]

Ya as said do the water pump they only seem to be good for about 70k . If it's factory coolant you can go 150k . The belt just carry a new one with you . I'm still running original with 168K on the clock

 

[Mathes308]

Any signs the water pumps aren't carrying their load? Preferably before signs of overheating.

 

[p-Bar]

Not really they just start seeping . Usually the bearing/bushing go south

 

[magic carpet pilot]

2 summers ago I changed my radiator because it had a leak in it. There were about a 150,000 on the truck. Since I had easy access to the front of the engine with it out I changed the water pump, the power steering pump, and harmonic dampener. The summer before that it got a new AC system. When I took it all apart I found...

Water pump: Was still in great shape. Bearing was smooth with no play. Impellers didn't show any sign of wear. But replaced it and held onto the original. Flushed and changed the coolant. Just recently, I put a Sinister Diesel coolant filter kit on, and am very pleased with it. I am editing the video of that and will put a link to it up in the near future.

Power Steering pump: It need to be replaced bad! It was whinny and weak. Make sure you use a press to put the pulley back on, I missed that note, used a hammer like an idiot to pound it back on and had the pump fail shortly there after... while on a long road trip. It was not awesome!

Harmonic dampener: Was right at the tolerance limit so I replaced it with a Fluidamper. I don't think I would recommend that, maybe stick with an OEM one. The Fluidamper is larger then the factory one and makes putting the serpentine belt on a real struggle. It sits so close to the fan drive pulley that you can't get the belt through the opening. I had to remove the fan pulley to change the belt. Found that out when the power steering pump failed on the side of the road. It was insult to injury for sure! If anyone else has a Fluidamper and knows a trick I would love to hear it.

Serpentine Belt: That was the first time I replaced it, but the original was still in good condition. Replaced it shortly after that, again, when the power steering pump failed it got shredded.

You also asked about U-joints.

The rear wheel drive lines went out really early, at like 40,000 miles. They replaced them under warranty. I now have about 173,000 miles on the truck and they are still in good shape.

The front wheel drive line and axles went out at about 130,000 or so. It is pretty easy to crawl under the truck and check them for play, but I didn't notice it until I tried to use 4 wheel drive and it was clunky and making all sorts of not good sounds.

My biggest recommendation is to do something about filtering the fuel NOW if you haven't already. My injectors went out at 110,000. The factory filter does not do a good job filtering, don't quote me on this, but I have heard that it does't meet Cummins Spec for filtration. That was a major contributor to the injector failure. When they went out the shop that changed them for me also put a Glacier Diesel filtration kit on. The kit mounts a filter under the air intake horn. I uses a 2 micron filter. It is inline and after the factory filter. Was only about 100 bucks if I remember right. There are plenty of filtration options out there, but do something about it NOW. Those injectors are NOT cheap.

I am hope this helps!

Also, TDR has a high milage club. Get an awesome looking 100,000 mile and counting badge to put on your grill. It looks killer, counting down to the 200,000 badge because I am with you in trying to make this baby last forever. Aircraft mechanics say if you take car of your truck as well as they do aircraft you would only own 1 your entire life. I am trying to take that advice and follow there lead!

 

[shorthorn]

Thanks yall...

I did recently do all the fluids. Got a spare serp. belt to take with me and saving up money momma doesn't know about to get me a GDP or CAT fuel filter setup. I also added the Edge Insight CTS to monitor the truck... Stock tuning so I don't anticipate any issues, but feel better having some gauges. Will add a real oil pressure and EGT gauge in the near future as well.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Flush your brake fluid if you haven't done so in a few years.

 

[shorthorn]

Great point prairie dog... I had the right rear brake caliper lockup last summer.. when I replaced calipers and lines in the rear at that time I did flush out the fluid. Makes a big difference!

 

[magic carpet pilot]

Also when you do the fuel filter the Cat Filter (Cat Part # 1R-0750) is way cheaper if you go to the Cat Dealer. I think I paid 15 bucks last time.