RAM with Hurricane - Anyone Drive One Yet?

[Snakebitten]

Question was "How does Ram keep selling trucks with the misfire?"

Answer was "Same way Ford and GM with <insert your example of their issue ........>

But that didn't in any way compare or draw similarity between the 3?

My mistake, I guess.

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[redline]

Well ford sold defective cam phasers for 10 years

 

[JExpedition07]

Well ford sold defective cam phasers for 10 years

More, add the 5.4 to the 3.5 EB and you get 2004-2020 of bad camphasers. Why they didn’t just use the 5.0 camphasers in everything is interesting. I guess engineering only cared about making the V8 reliable to save face after the 5.4 lol.

The difference is the locking pin in the phaser, 5.0 has always been metal since 2011 launch and 3.5 was always plastic.

 

[v8440]

Question was "How does Ram keep selling trucks with the misfire?"

Answer was "Same way Ford and GM with <insert your example of their issue ........>

But that didn't in any way compare or draw similarity between the 3?

My mistake, I guess.

Yes. Same WAY, not necessarily the same severity of problem. Way meaning, HOW does ram keep selling trucks with the misfire? Nothing in this addresses severity of issue, I was simply talking about the process by which manufacturers keep selling defective stuff-which is, they simply keep selling it.

 

[Chili]

As said above I wouldn't jump on the first model year of the engine. Only thing dodge has ever made that I trust is the Cummins.

And Dodge doesn't make the Cummins... Cummins does.

 

[Chili]

My buddy has the 3.0 SO and imo my 5.0 is alot nicer motor. My V8 sounds better, averages 2 MPG better, and when we romped on them the 5.0 walked away from the Hurricane in the upper part of the tach. Down low they were close.

The Hurricanes issue is it can’t rev up high, so on the shifts it falls off the power band hard. The 5.0 revs 1,000 rpm past the 6,000 rpm horsepower peak so she doesn’t fall off 400 at any point when wide open. The hurricane may touch 420 but it can’t sustain it, hence it lost every roll.

I have seen a very, very wide range of performance results on their 3.0 standard output. Makes me think there were some hot press vehicles out there.

 

[v8440]

I have seen a very, very wide range of performance results on their 3.0 standard output. Makes me think there were some hot press vehicles out there.

I wonder if differences in axle ratios and ambient conditions account for that? When it runs right, my '25 laramie with the standard output and 3.55's will move on out pretty decent. In sport mode where it engages auto 4wd, it doesn't spin at all even with a boosted launch. Based on my butt dyno, I'd have little trouble believing it runs well down into the 13's.

 

[v8440]

Here's an update on the saga with my '25 ram laramie for anyone interested: I stopped by the dealership that has my truck and talked to the service manager. He has been driving my truck around some here and there trying to get it to mess up. Last time he did, which I think was this morning, the check engine light came on and code 0302 got stored. He had whatever equipment they use for capturing freeze frames hooked up, and it got a freeze frame. He let me see the printout, and the one thing that jumped out at us was that all 4 oxygen sensors were reporting a temperature of -40F. This is plainly impossible, given that the truck was in the middle of being driven and the actual ambient temperature outside is some 90 degrees warmer than that. Who knows where this will lead. Other than the fact it's my truck we're talking about, I find all this terribly interesting. He also mentioned that he thinks workers may have been sabotaging some new trucks at the plant. Not necessarily mine, but he said they've had a bunch of '25's come in with no airbox, missing the parking brake module (located on the caliper), parking brake module damaged in a way not really possible in transit, and various other suspicious things. Given that there was a strike there recently, this could well be. I've read more than one account of cars in the 70's built right around the time of strikes having coke cans and such put inside doors, occasionally with notes written to whoever finally found the item. Not saying that's going on, but I wouldn't be shocked to find out it's true.

 

[Snakebitten]

Fascinating.

I don't care if Stellantis is considered Fiat. I don't care that Mercedes was once bound to Chrysler.
I DO care that Americans have 3 manufacturers of good Ole American Pickup trucks, if you know what I mean.
And I absolutely desire for companies like Toyota and Nissan being in the fray to keep things competitive.

I sure hope Ram gets this new turbocharged I-6 sorted. And I believe truck consumers will only benefit, if Ram can come out of the Stellantis mess healthy.

I am an obvious fan of Blue Oval trucks. But I'm not naive. Competition is the biggest factor regarding what future product choices I will have and if they will warrant my investment. I'm really interested in what's going to be available around 2030.

 

[Jerome10]

Not for the motor comparison surely.
The power isn't even close.

Ha nope. HEMI was enough. I just needed the Pro Power for work purposes.

 

[Jerome10]

I was surprised to see MPG being poor as well.

I'd like to drive one. Wouldn't buy one. General policy that I give things a LEAST a year, if not more. And even then its how well does the engine and transmission hold up after that.

Liked the HEMI a lot but it was definitely dated. Have a bit of a soft spot for I6 engines as well after having a couple BMWs.

May be getting slightly beyond the topic here, and I'm not a basher or fanboi of really anyone. Like I said, nearly went RAM myself. Owned Honda, BMW, Toyota, Lexus, Ford, Mazda over the years. Liked and disliked them all for various reasons.

But the bits of news I keep catching sounds like there might be a mess going on with Stellantis lately. Seeing bad sales on the RAM, which I'm not sure why as its still pretty modern truck, rides well, well equipped, CR top pick for full-size trucks. Not sure if pricing has hurt them or what. I don't see competition being vastly better either. So surprised me they'd struggle. It isn't some ancient product dead on the vine.

But then also seeing that apparently Jeep is REALLY struggling? I'm not sure how the smaller jeeps ever sold but I guess Renegade and Cherokee are gone? Grand Cherokee is not selling as well as hoped. Same for Wagoneer. No idea on the Wrangler or Gladiator. Jeep was always a money factory. Grand Cherokees everywhere. Wrangler prints cash. Again, what might be happening?

My spidey-sense says something within the Stellantis umbrella is not working right. I might be able to blame the product... except for the most part RAM and Jeep are up-to-date and still competitive. So the only thing that has really shifted is the FCA to Stellantis changes.

Are they somehow being neglected with marketing? Just a complete miss on price changes adjusting for inflation? Have there been issues between dealers and the corporate office?

Something weird is going on there. Stellantis definitely has too many brands, but I don't think you could ever argue RAM and Jeep are 2 of them. My opinion they really shouldn't be struggling.

 

[v8440]

My truck went back to the dealer svc dept again yesterday, for the 4th time. Same issue-obvious, bucking and jerking type misfires, stalled once at a stop sign. The difference-last time they had it, an updated pcm reflash was applied. The only apparent difference is that now it WILL NOT turn on the cel for misfiring, seemingly no matter how bad it is or how far you drive it like that. I read on a ram forum that this reflash was to keep the cel off and misfire codes from being stored so that owners of misfiring trucks can pass their state's emission testing if their state has that. This seems to be to be at least subversive on ram's part, it not outright illegal. I do not know for sure that the purpose of this latest pcm flash is to hide misfires, but it would not surprise me. The normal misfire codes I get stored when it acts up showed up as pending, but it refused to save them as hard codes. This also hobbles efforts to fix the vehicle, as the service tech told me that freeze frame date is not stored unless a hard code is set. With the pcm now resisting storing anything related to misfires as a hard code, they can't get freeze frame data. When I took my truck in yesterday, I purposely did not turn it off so that they could at least verify the pending codes, which would have been erased had I turned the truck off. This is getting very old...

 

[Snakebitten]

I'm just guessing, of course, but at this point the issue your Ram is experiencing isn't unique. So neither would the solution be.

In other words, the problem is both widespread and known to the manufacturer and service dealerships. Your trucks freeze frame data would be identical to the other trucks with the malady. And until they come up with THE solution to ALL of the trucks, they won't have a solution for yours.

I'd be surprised that nobody at Ram knows what is causing this. But I'm not surprised that they haven't solved it yet.

Those are 2 very different things.

 

[v8440]

Correct on all accounts.

 

[Larrymoe]

I was surprised to see MPG being poor as well.

I'd like to drive one. Wouldn't buy one. General policy that I give things a LEAST a year, if not more. And even then its how well does the engine and transmission hold up after that.

Liked the HEMI a lot but it was definitely dated. Have a bit of a soft spot for I6 engines as well after having a couple BMWs.

May be getting slightly beyond the topic here, and I'm not a basher or fanboi of really anyone. Like I said, nearly went RAM myself. Owned Honda, BMW, Toyota, Lexus, Ford, Mazda over the years. Liked and disliked them all for various reasons.

But the bits of news I keep catching sounds like there might be a mess going on with Stellantis lately. Seeing bad sales on the RAM, which I'm not sure why as its still pretty modern truck, rides well, well equipped, CR top pick for full-size trucks. Not sure if pricing has hurt them or what. I don't see competition being vastly better either. So surprised me they'd struggle. It isn't some ancient product dead on the vine.

But then also seeing that apparently Jeep is REALLY struggling? I'm not sure how the smaller jeeps ever sold but I guess Renegade and Cherokee are gone? Grand Cherokee is not selling as well as hoped. Same for Wagoneer. No idea on the Wrangler or Gladiator. Jeep was always a money factory. Grand Cherokees everywhere. Wrangler prints cash. Again, what might be happening?

My spidey-sense says something within the Stellantis umbrella is not working right. I might be able to blame the product... except for the most part RAM and Jeep are up-to-date and still competitive. So the only thing that has really shifted is the FCA to Stellantis changes.

Are they somehow being neglected with marketing? Just a complete miss on price changes adjusting for inflation? Have there been issues between dealers and the corporate office?

Something weird is going on there. Stellantis definitely has too many brands, but I don't think you could ever argue RAM and Jeep are 2 of them. My opinion they really shouldn't be struggling.

I rented a Gladiator for 2 of the 4 weeks while my RCSB was getting the shipping damage fixed. I own a 95 Wrangler and love that thing. Spacious, bulletproof, fun. That Gladiator I couldn't wait to get rid of after 2 weeks. Cramped, features for no reason, was pretty worthless bed space wise. I always liked the way they looked and had considered one. But I'm glad I rented it. I would have absolutely been irate if I'd have bought that thing.

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