Also you should read the maintenance schedule in the duramax manual. There is some breaking-in stuff you should be aware of, in particular, the Allison transmission is supposed to have the external filter changed at 500mi (?) to remove anything that accumulates during break-in.
Some guys say if you have the locking rear axle, you shouldn't do extended highway driving during the first few hundred miles also, because it needs to break-in and if it doesn't do so before you start taking highway trips with it, the gears can overheat. This might be why you went through some rear ends in your Dodge?
Thanks for the info on the transmission. I didn't know that and the sales person never mentioned a thing. It already has 320 miles on it, so I would probably eclipse the 500 mile mark and not know it if you guys didn't tell me.
Regarding the axle and the Dodge: Since you ask, let me tell the story. New Dodge ram comes out -- bold new big rig look, a fresh change from all the other P/U's. So we take a chance. Buy the Ram. No, it's not a work truck. It's a commuter -- drive kids to school, that type of thing. No long distance driving at all. No locking axle. Just plain jane Dodge ram. Window cranks, manual transmission and all. The only option of any significance was the AC. At the dealership, they pushed hard to sell their extended warranty while signing papers. Tell me that if we don't use it, we get all our money back. $2,5000, like idiots under the pressure, we bought it hook line and sinker.
12,000 miles mark, the truck makes a grinding noise. Sounds like truck is dragging a chain. Bring to dealer and they say axle bearings are shot (not the gears). Tell me MY fault because I didn't change differential fluid. I say WTF, make a ruckus and tell them that in all my years of buying vehicles, NEVER had a the differential go out at 12K miles, nor are we supposed to change differential fluid at such intervals. They point to owners manual which states during severe duty use.... but I say, listen: this is NOT a work truck. It looks immaculate. There is a baby seat attached to the rear seat and not a spec of dust in it. they begrudingly performed the warranty service.
23K miles, same noise comes back. I bring it in.... they tell me NOPE not covered since it's already 23k miles and I didn't change the differential fluid. I say, what? HOW do you know I never changed the fluid. In fact, YOU guys rebuilt the differential at 12K miles. Are you saying YOU put the old fluid back in it? They begrudgingly rebuilt the differential again.
Well, 34k miles, noise sounds like it's coming back. We decided there is no way that we were going to own a truck that needs a rebuilt axle every 12k miles. And due to how the dealer treated us the last 2 times, we had enough and weren't going to take a chance that we were going to be able to service the axle every time it goes bad. We were going to get rid of the truck and cash in our extended warranty. We figured since the factory bumper to bumper warranty had not yet expired, the extended warranty never kicked in, and therefore, we were due our original purchase amount back since we never used it. WRONG. We went in, spoke with everyone and their position was that even though the bumper to bumper did not term out yet, the extended warranty was always in effect so we couldn't get our money back. I say how is that possible? They say because the extended warranty offered rental car coverage when vehicle is being repaired. I reminded them that at no time did I ever accepted a rental car. They said doesn't matter... the coverage was there. So even though the extended warranty did not kick in yet, and I filed NO claims of any kind, I was NOT entitled to my money back. In other words, they told me a BALD FACED LIE when they pushed us to buy the extended warranty. I, my wife, and my kids all heard them tell us this lie when we bought this vehicle as we were all there. At this point, I tell them fine, they can treat us like sh*t, but from this point forward, I will announce to all my family (we have a huge family) all my friends and acquaintences about my experience and we will NEVER ever buy another dodge product again. If they don't value their customers, then they will have none.
At that point, we traded in the Dodge for a 3/4 ton Silverado. Since that Dodge, we have owned 2 tahoes, a Hummer H2, an Avalanche, a Lincoln LS, a Cadillac SRX, and now this new 2500HD. I have never ever before that Dodge, had a differential go out on any vehicle, and afterwards, never ever had any differential issues with anything else either. Except for the tranny going out on the first Tahoe at 50k, all the other vehicles so far have been completely trouble free. We forgot about the Dodge and moved on. But we never forgot. Since that time, we have had many people ask our opinions when buying new vehicles and after hearing our story, decided to buy something else. There is no telling how many sales Dodge lost because of our experience, but I think it would be at least several sales and maybe more. My memory is long. I will never forget how Dodge treated us, and how they made us justify the warranty claims like we were bad guys, and how they tried to slither out of them. It wasn't the first new vehicle we owned and every warranty service up to then was easy as pie. Needless to say, we will never buy another Dodge and will continue to lobby our friends against them.
I still buy American as I feel like if I'm going to throw money at a car, might as well feed someone here in the USA, but it would either be a GM or a Ford. Dodge doesn't exist anymore as far as I'm concerned.
On a side note: At the time I traded in my Dodge, I asked a friend of mine who was a tech at the BMW what's up with the rear ends going out. Seems he read something about Dana (the manufacturer of the rear end?) having some tooling issues with the 1/2 ton differentials. Seems to make sense since differentials were in my experience up to that point, rather bulletproof low maintenance components in normal non-work-vehicle environments. I figure an axle shaft might not be straight or something or the bearings not heavy duty enough for the applications. Never had a differential need rebuilding once in a vehicles lifetime, much less 3 times in 36k miles. Wait, I take that back -- I had a vette once with 100k miles having a high pitched whine but nothing like the chain dragging sound of the Dodge.
Anyhow, that's the story and why I will NEVER buy another Dodge again, no matter how good a product review they will get, the people behind the product is part of the package.
