A good friend of mine has an 09 Dodge with their 6 speed automatic. Completely stock, and he would beat me in my chipped 7.3. It's a very strong truck. I have been told that a lot more power can be had out of the 6.7 for around $2,000.00. And he gets over 15mph in the city. Every bit as good as I get in my 02.

 

I bet he says Dodge trannies are the best too....he likes the ones that break down....that's how he makes his money

 

I know around here (the area is mainly blue collar and farmers) Fords out number Chevy and Dodges 2 to 1 combined. With that stat in mind I would certainly expect any repair shop to see more Fords. So in other words you have to have a ratio in mind anytime someone gives out a piece of information like that.

 

Maybe its not the ratio but what the mechanic see's when working on the trans. Like when I work on audis and nissans, I see stuff that is just **** poor designed and call them junk because of it, nothing to do with ratios.

 

Not at all ... we all make mistakes

No, seriously, I don't denigrate what engine others choose to buy, especially when it's a Ford. All through this discussion, I have tried to draw a line between what I want personally, and what others choose to do.

I spend a slew of $'s on gas. But nothing on unplanned engine/drivetrain maintenance. NOTHING. My manifold studs broke, I chose to put el-cheapo eBay headers on, and sold my stock manifolds on eBay for twice what I payed for headers. Net loss=-$150 (notice it's a negative loss) because I chose not to use the supplied bolt kit, I bought grade-8 galvanized. And a tube of RTV. So I had enough money left over for two cases of beer.

I've changed the rear u-joint twice (one was unnecessary), I just did the front brake calipers (also not really needed) and brake hoses, and I might have a bad ball joint. Those issues are not drive-train related, and happen all the time on other Superdutys because the rest of my truck is identical to the diesels.

Yeah, it's only got 40K miles on it, but it's idled and low-speed pulled and been floored most of it's life If anything can be considered severe-duty, it's this thing's life.

It's been (and will be for a long time I hope) the RIGHT choice for ME.

Oh well, stepping off the soap-box now ...

 

It has everything to do with ratios. If you have 10,000 Audi and Nissan vehicles and 10 of them have an issue than you can somewhat safely say it's not a common problem. What about 500 with the problem? That's a lot of vehicles to see and repair but still only 5%. Now what about 4,000 or 5,000? I would say that's a big problem.

 

But I am not talking about the amount of repairs. I am talking about working on just one car/truck and seeing stuff designed and built by the company that is just not well thought out and either is causing problems or will cause problems in the future.


The mechanic supposedly said "ford trannies are the worst". Maybe he saw and was commenting on something in the trans like small bands, weak couplers, or just plain bad design over all, not because he had to work on 1000 of them.


Like chevy trucks 92-96ish? have little car brakes in the front end and need to be replaced almost every year, thats a bad design and I would say "chevy brakes are the worst".

 

I guess I see what you mean but if something is the "worst" it must be because it needs repaired/replaced often. Otherwise you wouldn't consider it at all.

 

That's like comparing a 6.4L truck with your 7.3L truck. You're 100 HP down from him stock, of course he would be a bit faster. The Dodge certainly is more efficient than a 6.4L truck though.

 

That's pretty much it. When I bought my truck, I asked if he'd seen many problems (mind you we're talking about the 4-speed auto in my '04) in trucks like mine. I was leery since I'd been through one problem after another in my 700R4 tranny in the Suburban and was not anxious to start that spending spree over again. His exact words when describing Ford trannys was "stamped-steel POS" except he didn't say "POS". He said he frequently saw them in his shop with less than 40K miles. Mine now has 96K with no problems, nor do I know anyone personally with Ford tranny problems, but like most of you guys, the Ford/Chevy ratio is about 2:1 around here so that may be part of it.

 

I don't buy into ANYTHING any mechanic says. I know one machinist who I actually trust. And even he can be wrong about certain things.

If I went to any engine rebuilder around here, I'm sure they'd call the 4.6L a piece of crap. Why? Because they see piles of them coming in needing rebuilds.

DUH - it's an engine rebuilder, what do you THINK they're going to see, engines that do NOT need a rebuild?

Same thing with tranny shops.

Same thing with Internet forums

 

The diesel mechanic that replaced the engine in my '08 insisted to me that Ford owned Cummins, and that's what we were going to see in 2011.

 

An extreme example, but yeah ...

 

I know exactly what dodge, oops, I mean ram brand is all about. I hope I get my '03 back from the shop today with its new pinion and carrier bearings. It has 91,000 on the odometer, but only 55,000 miles on the bearings being replaced.

I tried the Ram brand the last two new trucks I had. I think I'll step away for a while.

 

I get about 10 average, but I almost never unhook the trailer.
It gets driven hard and idles 3-4 hours on most tanks.

I'm getting close to 200K and I have never broken down.
The oil gets changed, the air filter gets washed out and I just drive it.
Nothing else gets done unless it fails or shows signs of failing.

It feels like I am always changing something on the suspension that I have worn out or doing yet anouther brake job, but the powertrain is bullet proof no matter what I do to it.