20165.3Eco

My 16 has 62,000 on it. Purchased at 21,000. I do love the way the truck drives and tows. It looks good and is very quiet on the inside. Informant is good and the radio sounds nice (especially like carplay). I just serviced the transfer case and the fluid looked like old motor oil. Next up is transmission/axles/coolant. The 5.3 gets great MPG and I love the low end torque of the DI high compression engines. Problems so far: -Engine tick (fixed by sealing up the boot for the steering column) -Bad battery at around 25,000 -Display screen going blank (Fixed with 2 software updates) -Various annoying interior rattles all fixed by me -Motor mounts for rough idle -Going on the 3rd soft tailgate lowering bushing (nothing ever heavy on the tailgate) -Heater is awful. Can drive 15 miles with it blasting on high/full fan and still not "Hot". -Shakes from 70-80 mph that I can't get to go away (was smooth as glass when I purchased it) -Clunks while down shifting (normal symptoms) -Rotors warped by 40,000 -Noisy steering angle sensor -Literally cannot get wiper blades to work on it. They shake skip etc. I have stripped the windshield bare and waxed it, rain ex, silicon lube etc. Adjusted blade angle tried all different brands. I think they got the spring pressure too heavy because it seems to mash down the middle of both of the blades while the ends of the blades shake and skip along. I did squeeze the ends of the arms (fitting where the blade clicks in) tighter which took up lots of play and that did help but I am still extremely unimpressed with the wiper performance. I can't remember any car I have ever owned with fresh blades that I said hmm these suck.

Ha, I don't know if I would call it awesome but it sure is quiet. I am too busy to mess with it much right now but I will probably try and either install a new boot or make a quality piece with one of my Bridgeport capable buddies in the spring. If this one comes off I will just cut another 10 cent tube plug and install.

Morning update: Put about 70 miles on the truck last night/this morning. Highway and city crappy streets. Still completely quiet. I can hear the slightest of engine noise at 1000-1200 rpms high load I.E. right before it would downshift to a lower gear but its likely only audible by the best of ears so it doesn't bother me at all. I presume with a nicely built piece and some deadening material on the part it would be basically silent.

Keep in mind this is extremely crappy and only for testing theory. I would like to build some sort of split collar from plastic or aluminum that clamps onto the steering shaft or the boot and stays stationary or spins with the shaft. Also, something more solid could House some pre cut sound deadening material.

UPDATE: My truck didn't seem to respond as well to grease as others. It shaped up quite a bit when I tried it but over a few days it returned to almost normal. I think it was getting hot by the exhaust manifold and leaking out. I had dielectric handy with a good dispenser to get up inside that but I think it may be a little less heat resistant than white lithium. This morning I made up a little cover to test. Where I work we have hundreds of plastic pipe caps laying around. I cut one to a "close" id to match the steering shaft. I slit it up the side to go over the shaft then zip tied it to the end of the steering boot where the shaft goes inside. This isn't permanent but I could see something that was designed properly helping here. I think it does 2 things. The ID of the plug is slightly contacting the OD of the shaft. It A) keeps it from bouncing around down there and B) helps block noise just because an extra piece of material is there. I oriented the slit in the cap to the drivers side away from the engine. This is the quietest the truck has been since it started making noise. I feel the dealer probably boogered up my boot a bit while changing out my steering column. Also, I hope the TSB listed above will maybe spark an updated steering boot we can buy to replace the original design (time will tell). I will keep driving it as is and report back if the noise comes back or stays away but on my initial test drive it seemed to be completely immune to all types of bumps/throttle application etc.

Anyone found more info on the repair side of the TSB ? I looked up the seal and it looks like a 25-35 dollar part pending where you price it. Totally worth no ticking if it comes to that. Side bar, I tried compressing my seal towards the end with a clamp and it must have a fairly stout collar inside the rubber as it wouldn't collapse with a reasonable amount of pressure. I think there may be a secondary seal or lip inside behind the shroud on the steering shaft. Worst case, we could make a dynamat piece that would attach to the seal or the shaft to take up the gap between the seal and the shaft and block more noise.

They did put a steering column in mine under warranty. (dealer was awful). I had a steering noise they diagnosed as the column but I figured it out after it still made noise after replacement. Was the steering angle sensor. Seems as if they could have disturbed the boot assembly in a way that made it worse. The truck was dead quiet prior to about 40,000 miles when they did the column.

Greased mine up with some thick dielectric grease last night. Its probably 80% better than it is at its worst. I am going to play with the boot more and see if I can get it to be 100% gone.

Right, it was just going to be for testing purposes. I am going to grease it up tonight and see how it sounds. Since the temps here in Indiana have dropped it's been much harder to make it tick lately. Or it is because I was messing around with the boot when I had my inner fender out.

Good job guys, I was going to throw some zip ties around the nose of that tonight to see if it made a difference but looks like I will be grease packing. So the noise is normal but the fact that it gets into the cab is not. Makes sense now that I messed around with it a bit, there is a little up and down side to side play in the end and the thing isn't very stiff. The bouncy nature of the ticking while hitting bumps seems inline with the way that boot moves up and down. Also makes sense that heat makes it worse and cold makes it better. Stiffer rubber moving less in the winter.

Sweet, thanks for posting this. I highly doubt it will be covered under power train warranty if this is the case but I am still going to try and get my truck in to document it before my PT warranty expires in a week. This weekend I rotated my tires, while I was at it I pulled the inner fender out of the truck and tried to see if I could get a better look at anything on that side. Everything looked fine but I tugged around pretty good on the steering boot and my noise seems to be much quieter all weekend. Still there and acts the same with bumps but much quieter. Side note, my truck just ate another bushing for the soft lower tailgate. The dealer put in a new one less than 8 months ago. I don't really load anything heavy on the tailgate. Mostly carry tools and ski gear on the weekends.

Ha, I just picked up a 95% rust free 88 Dodge D250. It has AC and Cruise control and is pretty darn quiet inside/rides about as good as this truck. For about 3000-4000 bucks I can toss in a spare overdrive trans I have and add EFI with a freshened up 360. Should make 350-400 ft/lbs and tow pretty well. 5000 dollar truck that doesn't tick seems like a pretty good option right now.

I think it's pretty silly we are all chasing what is clearly a design/quality issue. When the truck is quiet it's such a pleasant vehicle to be inside. When it ticks it is like someone is tapping an ice pick into my brain.

I have a question that may amount to nothing but here goes. Of you all who have the annoying tick, how many had your motor mounts replaced for rough idle per the TSB? I had mine done, the truck was dead quiet before. I didn't notice the noise for a while but it started after I had put maybe 5000 miles on after the motor mount swap. Just curious.

It always drives me bonkers. It's the worst when towing on the highway or when in V4 on the highway. This happens to be how I do most of my truck driving. I agree with 16LYCC, It has to be fuel system/transmission/or inside the cat. Not interested in wearing myself out trying to diagnose it.