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Intermittant pops, cracks from rear

Bigtone

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I'm posting this as informational to help if someone else has the same problem, but there will be a bit of a rant at the end. My 2019 Laramie has made a loud crack noise from the rear suspension since new when first accelerating from a stop and when braking. It seems like when the direction of torque would change on the rear differential. It was very intermittent at first. The dealer I bought it from could not duplicate the problem but performed the stabilizer bar retorque bulletin. That was last May, as of recently in the cold here in PA it has gotten alot worse, along with accelerating from a stop and braking, it would make the noise when hitting a bounce and turning hard. Local dealer, who I did not purchase from, said they could not duplicate it. Although I told them twice it was from the rear, in the paperwork they stated they checked bolt torque in the front suspension. Can't tell one end from the other I guess. At any rate, I'm leaving on a long trip in a few days, the dealer I purchased from could not schedule an appt before I left, so I started looking at it myself and found the rear lower control arm forward bolt was not tight. While laying alongside the truck, I rocked it back and forth and I could see it walking in the bracket. Tightened as best I could and noise is gone. Now for the rants. One, my local dealer worked on the wrong end of the truck, plus Ram building trucks and shipping them out with loose bolts. No excuse for that with a $50k+ vehicle. I'm typically not one to complain about my Ram because I really think it is a great vehicle, but this issue got to me a little because I never had that sort of problem with my 2014, or any of my other Rams. Plus, I buy new vehicles now because I'm getting too old to be crawling under them anymore. LOL
 
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Dookie

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On your issue....At least you found and fixed the problem.

On your rant....I heard a small rattle when going over a railroad crossing a few days after I bought my truck (Just before Christmas) which sounded like it was in the cab but was metallic sounding. Think metal on metal. I began looking into it and when I lifted the passenger side rear seat and had a look under there, I saw something with "Snap-On" on it. I grabbed it and lifted. It was an 18mm high angle socket sitting on top of an un-finished tightened rear seat bolt. The bolt had about an inch left to be fully tightened. I finished the job that someone at the factory didn't and threw the socket in my metric drawer in the toolbox. I guess a shift change happened and the person figured..."Ah, screw it" and went home for the day. Really has me worried about the rest of the truck. So far so good though, true story.
 

Bigtone

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On your issue....At least you found and fixed the problem.

On your rant....I heard a small rattle when going over a railroad crossing a few days after I bought my truck (Just before Christmas) which sounded like it was in the cab but was metallic sounding. Think metal on metal. I began looking into it and when I lifted the passenger side rear seat and had a look under there, I saw something with "Snap-On" on it. I grabbed it and lifted. It was an 18mm high angle socket sitting on top of an un-finished tightened rear seat bolt. The bolt had about an inch left to be fully tightened. I finished the job that someone at the factory didn't and threw the socket in my metric drawer in the toolbox. I guess a shift change happened and the person figured..."Ah, screw it" and went home for the day. Really has me worried about the rest of the truck. So far so good though, true story.
Interesting.....Many years ago I knew a guy who bought a new 1973 Dodge Charger. It had a rattle in one of the doors. When the dealer opened up the door panel, they found an empty coke bottle (they were glass back then) laying in the door.....
 

Dookie

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Was born in 71, they were glass for the better part of my childhood too. Friends and I used to troll the ditches and pick up the empties to turn in for arcade money.
2 liter...Jackpot!

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MBORO19RAM

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Had the exact same problem and I re-torqued all rear trailing arms bolts as the front bolts were loose. I had this to the Dealer on 3 occasions and they couldn't find it. They kept going to the front of the truck.

Simple fix and mine is quiet as a mouse.
 

Bigtone

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Had the exact same problem and I re-torqued all rear trailing arms bolts as the front bolts were loose. I had this to the Dealer on 3 occasions and they couldn't find it. They kept going to the front of the truck.

Simple fix and mine is quiet as a mouse.
After I found the one loose bolt on front of the lower control arm on the passenger side, I went with a torque wrench and checked all the other ones, they were tight. I did not have the spec so I went with the ASME spec for that size, 80 ft/lbs.
 
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Bigtone

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After I found the one loose bolt on front of the lower control arm on the passenger side, I went with a torque wrench and checked all the other ones, they were tight. I did not have the spec so I went with the ASME spec for that size, 80 ft/lbs.
Noise update. Although tightening the control arm bolt eliminated almost all the noise, after a trip from Pa to Florida I could still hear the noise, although not nearly as bad. Great work by a dealer in Florida that found front holes elongated in both control arms on the passenger side and replaced them. Truck is fine now. They stated they have seem that problem before. I had a case opened with Chrysler so that info was fed back to them also.
 

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