Bought a 99 Durango, 5.9L V8, SLT Plus
The engine would die and I was getting "no bus" errors after I'd turn it on and let it warm up for about 30 minutes. Turns out the ECM was faulty, which from what I've read is common for that year range. Dropped a new ECM from eBay in it for a couple hundred bucks and now the engine runs fault-free!
But while I was replacing the ECM I noticed a rather severe leak in the rear. The leaking fluid didn't evaporate so that ruled out gasoline which left pretty much only one other fluid due to the leak location - brake fluid.
The original owner lived in Maine and this truck was not spared at all from their salt laced roads. The brake line has rusted through in the rear so I will be replacing that next. Fixing that is not a huge deal but this truck has moderate to severe rust in other places. Thankfully from what I can tell, the frame itself looks sound and only has light to mild surface rust. But if the brake line has rusted through, it's probably only a matter of time before another component fails from corrosion.
Being from Texas, I have no experience with this level of rust damage. For those of you up north who have worked on rust damaged vehicles, what other damage should I look for? I want to get ahead of any other major failures like this brake system failure so if you can think of anything else I should consider replacing, I would appreciate it. Also, some of the body paneling has rusted through. I figure I can get some of these bolt-on quarter panels from a junk yard but what can I do about the rusty underside paneling that is spot welded to the body?
The engine would die and I was getting "no bus" errors after I'd turn it on and let it warm up for about 30 minutes. Turns out the ECM was faulty, which from what I've read is common for that year range. Dropped a new ECM from eBay in it for a couple hundred bucks and now the engine runs fault-free!
But while I was replacing the ECM I noticed a rather severe leak in the rear. The leaking fluid didn't evaporate so that ruled out gasoline which left pretty much only one other fluid due to the leak location - brake fluid.
The original owner lived in Maine and this truck was not spared at all from their salt laced roads. The brake line has rusted through in the rear so I will be replacing that next. Fixing that is not a huge deal but this truck has moderate to severe rust in other places. Thankfully from what I can tell, the frame itself looks sound and only has light to mild surface rust. But if the brake line has rusted through, it's probably only a matter of time before another component fails from corrosion.
Being from Texas, I have no experience with this level of rust damage. For those of you up north who have worked on rust damaged vehicles, what other damage should I look for? I want to get ahead of any other major failures like this brake system failure so if you can think of anything else I should consider replacing, I would appreciate it. Also, some of the body paneling has rusted through. I figure I can get some of these bolt-on quarter panels from a junk yard but what can I do about the rusty underside paneling that is spot welded to the body?