Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
G56 Disappointment -- 1st time posting -- maybe not the G56 after all?
Hi all. Long time reader / first time posting. The information I read here is excellent and I find most of the posts / suggestions / observations are very similar to my experiences.
I've bought new and owned a 96 4x2 5 speed CTD, 97 4x4 5 speed CTD and a 2004. 5 4x4 CTD Auto. I've loved them all. Other than paint trouble on the 96, I never had a complaint on all 3 trucks. Even the 2002 PT Cruiser I bought new had zero defects and excellent build quality. The build quality on these Dodge Ram Trucks seems to be great.
But the events of the past month have challenged my views... .
Let me start at the beginning.....
I missed having the manual transmission on this 2004. 5 like I had on the 96 and 97 trucks I had several years back. It became evident to me that I made a mistake buying the 2004. 5 with the auto in the spring of 2004 -- not that there was anything wrong with it -- it just wasn't for me. So I traded the 2004. 5 Auto for a 2005 2500 4x4 Quad Cab Short Bed 6 speed Thunder Road which I ordered on Feb 22nd from the same dealer. They're 240 miles away from my home and I'm friends with my salesman.
After the vehicle was held up in storage for 5 weeks for some mysteriously unknown reason to me at the time (now known as the infamous G56 "hold"), it finally arrived at the end of May.
I test drove the truck (drive it 15 miles and took it over 70 mph) and all appeared to be fine and then took delivery late last month.
By the end of the 240 mile return trip the same day I was beginning to see problems as listed below in reverse order of severity. The first two are relatively minor and the 3rd is the biggie for me:
1) The throws of the gear shift seem to have to "pierce through" a series of resistent notches as you go through some of the gears. Going from 4th to 5th is particularly difficult and actually can begin to make your palm sore.
2) 6th gear on my transmission groans when there is negative tension on the driveline. Basically, you can hear it anytime you take your foot off the accelerator in 6th gear.
Here is the big problem and the primary basis for my dissatisfaction:
3) There is so much driveline slack with this configuration that you simply can't shift gears without constant clunking. I'm not talking about mild clunking -- I'm talking about clunking that reverberates through the floorboards. The only way to avoid this is to be sure to "float" the rpm's between shifts -- i. e. make darn sure you keep your foot on the accelerator between shifts, but not too much, so as to assure that you keep positive tension on the driveline at all times as you shift through the gears. Basically, if you have any change in tension on the driveline, you'll have a major clunk. This slack does not seem to be coming from the rear end or the U joints. It's coming from the floorboards / shifter area.
Please understand that this is my 3rd CTD w/manual transmission (and 4th overall) in the last 10 years. I'm an avid fan of these vehicles and like the "raw nature" of the CTD powerplant. I know what these are and know what to expect. I also understand that it's not realistic to expect it to shift like a BMW M3. But this driveline feels like something you'd expect from a U-Haul truck with 250k miles.
My feeling is that these are light trucks -- not midrage European Mercedes BOX Trucks with 30k GVW ratings. These are built for the American Market and sold as LIGHT trucks. I think that DC has made a huge error with the G56 and has gone backwards 30 years in NVH evolution (Noise / Vibration / Harshness) by implementing the G56 on a non-commercial grade 3/4 ton light truck. I couldn't in good conscience recommend ANYONE purchase a G56. Additionally, I would not feel comfortable towing anything of significant weight with this driveline slop.
So where does this leave me? I took the truck into my local dealership for service. This Dodge dealer is owned by the same parent corporation (AutoNation) as my selling dealer 240 miles away. On my appointment date, I took the service advisor AND a non-transmission mechanic (he was the only one free at the time) for a drive and demonstrated the clunk / slack and 6th gear moaning under decel. They both heard / felt the issues and sympathized. This was good -- a sanity check for me of sorts. I'm not one to spend time in service departments. (If there are minor problems with a new vehicle I often chalk them up to character flaws... . I even ended up accepting the peeling paint on the 1996 without a repaint. The peeling in the door jams and above the headlights was not severe enough to demand a repaint in my opinion. So I don't expect perfection. )
Back to 2005 -- So the service advisor wrote up the complains with the typical "See Me" for an explanation if the "driveline specialist / transmission guy" had any questions. The next day the service advisor called to tell me that the technician reported that there was nothing wrong even though the service advisor experienced the problems the day before when I dropped the truck off. He reported that the "driveline specialist / transmission guy" said that this level of slack and noise is normal for this new G56 transmission. Not knowing what to do, I went up to the dealer to discuss my concerns and dissatisfaction with the service manager. The service manager tried to pacify me by telling me I had such good taste in how I ordered the truck, how nice it was and how tough the G56 was -- essentially changing the subject. Essentially tried to make me like the truck with this unsatisfactory attribute. Bottom line is that his position is that driveline slack to this extent is normal for these G56 based trucks. They had no other G56 trucks on the lot to test with and there were no more on order or on the way to test drive.
I called the DC Customer assistance center and requested they have the service department manager get the DC district manager review the vehicle. After they called him, he called me back -- not too happy -- and now after a two week wait, the appointment has been set for 6/29/05 to have a DC district manager evaluate the truck.
I guess I'm writing this for two purposes -- the first is very selfish -- to vent about my frustrations and dissatisfaction -- and the second is to help others by asking them to please be sure to test drive a G56 truck that has over 300 miles before you buy one. How one can do that I don't know for sure as it's not a practical thing to try to do. But I don't believe that I experienced the driveline slack during my test drive before taking delivery and making the 240 mile trip home.
I'm still a DC and a CTD fan and think I always will be. These are unique and awesome trucks. I'm just so sorry that DC has decided to go away from the NV series manuals IF the G56 is the basis for this ridiculous amount of driveline slack.
Sorry for the long-winded nature of this post. I'm grateful to have a place to commiserate with fellow CTD fanatics. I appreciate any and all thoughts and promise to report back what the DC district manager has to say.
Thanks guys.....
Hi all. Long time reader / first time posting. The information I read here is excellent and I find most of the posts / suggestions / observations are very similar to my experiences.
I've bought new and owned a 96 4x2 5 speed CTD, 97 4x4 5 speed CTD and a 2004. 5 4x4 CTD Auto. I've loved them all. Other than paint trouble on the 96, I never had a complaint on all 3 trucks. Even the 2002 PT Cruiser I bought new had zero defects and excellent build quality. The build quality on these Dodge Ram Trucks seems to be great.
But the events of the past month have challenged my views... .
Let me start at the beginning.....
I missed having the manual transmission on this 2004. 5 like I had on the 96 and 97 trucks I had several years back. It became evident to me that I made a mistake buying the 2004. 5 with the auto in the spring of 2004 -- not that there was anything wrong with it -- it just wasn't for me. So I traded the 2004. 5 Auto for a 2005 2500 4x4 Quad Cab Short Bed 6 speed Thunder Road which I ordered on Feb 22nd from the same dealer. They're 240 miles away from my home and I'm friends with my salesman.
After the vehicle was held up in storage for 5 weeks for some mysteriously unknown reason to me at the time (now known as the infamous G56 "hold"), it finally arrived at the end of May.
I test drove the truck (drive it 15 miles and took it over 70 mph) and all appeared to be fine and then took delivery late last month.
By the end of the 240 mile return trip the same day I was beginning to see problems as listed below in reverse order of severity. The first two are relatively minor and the 3rd is the biggie for me:
1) The throws of the gear shift seem to have to "pierce through" a series of resistent notches as you go through some of the gears. Going from 4th to 5th is particularly difficult and actually can begin to make your palm sore.
2) 6th gear on my transmission groans when there is negative tension on the driveline. Basically, you can hear it anytime you take your foot off the accelerator in 6th gear.
Here is the big problem and the primary basis for my dissatisfaction:
3) There is so much driveline slack with this configuration that you simply can't shift gears without constant clunking. I'm not talking about mild clunking -- I'm talking about clunking that reverberates through the floorboards. The only way to avoid this is to be sure to "float" the rpm's between shifts -- i. e. make darn sure you keep your foot on the accelerator between shifts, but not too much, so as to assure that you keep positive tension on the driveline at all times as you shift through the gears. Basically, if you have any change in tension on the driveline, you'll have a major clunk. This slack does not seem to be coming from the rear end or the U joints. It's coming from the floorboards / shifter area.
Please understand that this is my 3rd CTD w/manual transmission (and 4th overall) in the last 10 years. I'm an avid fan of these vehicles and like the "raw nature" of the CTD powerplant. I know what these are and know what to expect. I also understand that it's not realistic to expect it to shift like a BMW M3. But this driveline feels like something you'd expect from a U-Haul truck with 250k miles.
My feeling is that these are light trucks -- not midrage European Mercedes BOX Trucks with 30k GVW ratings. These are built for the American Market and sold as LIGHT trucks. I think that DC has made a huge error with the G56 and has gone backwards 30 years in NVH evolution (Noise / Vibration / Harshness) by implementing the G56 on a non-commercial grade 3/4 ton light truck. I couldn't in good conscience recommend ANYONE purchase a G56. Additionally, I would not feel comfortable towing anything of significant weight with this driveline slop.
So where does this leave me? I took the truck into my local dealership for service. This Dodge dealer is owned by the same parent corporation (AutoNation) as my selling dealer 240 miles away. On my appointment date, I took the service advisor AND a non-transmission mechanic (he was the only one free at the time) for a drive and demonstrated the clunk / slack and 6th gear moaning under decel. They both heard / felt the issues and sympathized. This was good -- a sanity check for me of sorts. I'm not one to spend time in service departments. (If there are minor problems with a new vehicle I often chalk them up to character flaws... . I even ended up accepting the peeling paint on the 1996 without a repaint. The peeling in the door jams and above the headlights was not severe enough to demand a repaint in my opinion. So I don't expect perfection. )
Back to 2005 -- So the service advisor wrote up the complains with the typical "See Me" for an explanation if the "driveline specialist / transmission guy" had any questions. The next day the service advisor called to tell me that the technician reported that there was nothing wrong even though the service advisor experienced the problems the day before when I dropped the truck off. He reported that the "driveline specialist / transmission guy" said that this level of slack and noise is normal for this new G56 transmission. Not knowing what to do, I went up to the dealer to discuss my concerns and dissatisfaction with the service manager. The service manager tried to pacify me by telling me I had such good taste in how I ordered the truck, how nice it was and how tough the G56 was -- essentially changing the subject. Essentially tried to make me like the truck with this unsatisfactory attribute. Bottom line is that his position is that driveline slack to this extent is normal for these G56 based trucks. They had no other G56 trucks on the lot to test with and there were no more on order or on the way to test drive.
I called the DC Customer assistance center and requested they have the service department manager get the DC district manager review the vehicle. After they called him, he called me back -- not too happy -- and now after a two week wait, the appointment has been set for 6/29/05 to have a DC district manager evaluate the truck.
I guess I'm writing this for two purposes -- the first is very selfish -- to vent about my frustrations and dissatisfaction -- and the second is to help others by asking them to please be sure to test drive a G56 truck that has over 300 miles before you buy one. How one can do that I don't know for sure as it's not a practical thing to try to do. But I don't believe that I experienced the driveline slack during my test drive before taking delivery and making the 240 mile trip home.
I'm still a DC and a CTD fan and think I always will be. These are unique and awesome trucks. I'm just so sorry that DC has decided to go away from the NV series manuals IF the G56 is the basis for this ridiculous amount of driveline slack.
Sorry for the long-winded nature of this post. I'm grateful to have a place to commiserate with fellow CTD fanatics. I appreciate any and all thoughts and promise to report back what the DC district manager has to say.
Thanks guys.....
Last edited:
. Sam
