1995 Dodge Truck Losing Power

Tiny
RGP60
  • MEMBER
  • 1995 DODGE TRUCK
  • 6 CYL
  • FWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 81,000 MILES
My truck after driving about 5 miles loses power. The engine doesn't labor or ping, the transmission works normally, but it won't go much above 40 no matter how much gas I give it. In one case, I was driving further than 5 miles and the truck continued to lose power over the next several miles. After a meeting of 1 hour, the truck started fine and run OK to home since I took back roads at about 40-45. In two other cases, I drove to the store (5 miles) and parked for about 15 minutes. When I started home, the truck started fine but I couldn't get it to go faster than 40.

I asked my dealer to check it out and they said my brakes had locked due to the wrong brake fliud having been put in (silicon based). I am the only one to put fluid in and as far as I know, have never used other than DOT 3/4. They want to change out everything from top to bottom for $2800 which is far more thant the truck is worth.

Is this a diagnosis I should trust or might it be something else? Additionally, do I really need to change out all my brake system or just change the fluid and do some other minor repairs. Please remember, while I am driving the truck for the first 5 miles, it works like it always did and the brakes work fine. I must admit that at least once I noticed a smell like something burning but thought it was antifreeze related and that system looked OK.
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 AT 1:05 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
  • MECHANIC
  • 2,262 POSTS
Let's rule out the brakes first, that's the easiest.
Go out to your truck and touch the center of each wheel.
Cold aint it?
Go drive around until the truck starts loosing power again.
Get out and touch the center (or near the lug nuts) on all 4 wheels.
If you can keep your hand there without screaming, then I doubt that your brakes are dragging.
If your brakes were dragging that bad, the brake fluid would probably boil and you would loose brake pedal pressure until the fluid cooled back off.

Or find a hill, and while you are driving down it, put it in neutral and coast down it.
Drive around a bit until the truck starts acting up and go back to the same hill and coast down it again. If your brakes are dragging, you would go a lot slower the second time.

After the brakes check out, (which I bet they will) come back and post in THIS thread again.
You'll pop back up on my radar and we'll start looking into engine management problems.

Good luck
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 AT 8:52 PM

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