dripley

One of of the symptoms my VP showed before failing was hard starting. It is very similar to the hard starting from an air leak the @Me78569 mentions. Scan the truck for trouble codes. It is normal for the lift pump to run for 20 seconds if you have bumped the starter with no engine start. At key on it should just bunp the lift pump for less than a second. This is controlled thru the ECM and not the VP.

Now thats what 50 pound dash pad looks like. I smeared a bunch of silicone on the back of my dash bezel to hold it together. Worked pretty good but I was scared to to pull it off for anything. The top was very fragile.

Cummins and Mopar are not the only companies that have others manufacturing for them. It is fairly common practice. The manufacturers get specifications to build by from their customers. If Cummins or whoever decides just to accept what they get without any quality checks of their own, then they are giving up control. To say they have no control over a product with their name on it is a bit misleading. I have used a Cummins and a Mopar. They did not work any better or worse than the other brands out there so I choose to save the money. Just another personal opinion.

Mine looks the same and it was from locking the keys in the the truck. Me outside looking at both my everyday set anf the my spare set sitting on the console.. I have just never tried to fix it. The guy used one of the small air bags to open the corner enough to poke the lock button. It happened again some years later with the spares in another state. Afraid I was not very gentle doing similar method, but got the door open.

Are headlights on in those pictures? They dont look like it.

Mine would have gotten the same way but I couldn't stand it anymore, plus I was getting a wiff of coolant every once in while and the evaporator was suspect too.

They do look better in the than I was thinking when boght mine. That and not knowing how the light was going is why I bought cheap ones to experiment with. I did look at same ones you bought. And the light output from the view of oncoming traffic is what I want see since you used HID vs the LED that I used.

As i remember, yes. Mine has near 7 years sitting in the sun. The OE did not start cracking until 9 or 10 years old. Never lost any big chunks of it until i pulled it out and as you can see it had a lot of cracks. IIRC you have to pull the dash to install it. Pretty sure you cannot get to all the screws from the front. Looking at yhe dates on pic I did thus back in November of 2012.

The LMC was a duplicate of the OE. Every screw that came out of the OE went back into the LMC replacement. No cutting or fitting of any kind needed.

After reading the reviews on Amazon for the one shown I would not touch it. Even the 5 stars reviews, all 2 of them had issues. Seems the manufacture has tried to overcome having to pull the dash for install. There are a good many screws that attach from the back in a factory install. To many weird things on the install. This is a good time to pull the dash and replace it along with pulling the HVAC box and doing a rebuild on it also. It is worth the effort. Just not sure I want a replacement that requires trimming and gluing things that should be screwed.. Just my opinion. You can read them for yourselves. https://www.amazon.com/98-01-DODGE-FIBERGLASS-DASHBOARD-REPLACEMENT/product-reviews/B06X931MKB/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_next_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=2

There are 2003 wiring diagram in the 3rd gen articles section. That appeasr to be all we have.

I used the one from LMC truck my self about 7 years ago. The fit and color was spot on. About $300 back then to the house. Shipping was pricey and I bought the extra washers they sold then for use on the screws at the windshield. It gas geld up just fine so far. Others offered at the time had alot of mixed reviews like you are seeing. Funny thing is I was looking at upper bumper covers the other day and Rock Auto had one for $20. Shipping about $85. LMC, the part was higher but shipping made it cheaper

When you get them aimed snap a pic from in front looking at them. They do look promising in the clear lenses. Yours have what appears to be the same style reflector as the ones I have though mine were cheaper and most likely less quality. But I really struggled getting mine aimed. I had to point them way to the left to get the light pointed down the driving lane. I stopped at the store last night on the way home and parked right up against the building and this is what I saw at about 1.5' from the brick. Way more light going up than I liked. But I turned the headlights off, parking lights still on. Not sure what do with them. They have no reflectors in them but the bulbs do have a projector in the front of them. Might try to find some without the projector. @LorenS how do your parking lights look since yours have reflectors?

Cheaper yet.

The whole not knowing drives me crazy. I like using it but sure would like to know what it is I am buying. Everything is a bit vague to say the least. And I have never seen any other pumps labeled Bio Mass only, other than the 2 in Tennessee. I did find this while researching again. FWIW. http://www.truckandenginemanufacturers.org/file.asp?A=Y&F=Facts+You+Should+Know+About+Biomass-Based+Diesel+Fuels.pdf&N=Facts+You+Should+Know+About+Biomass-Based+Diesel+Fuels.pdf&C=documents

Go to the articles section, 2nd gen 24v, engine, electrical and scroll down. About 12 or 15 articles down. Sorry I cannot link it on my tablet. On the lap top now here is the article. There is alot to read there but the mod is pretty easy.

I put a K& N on mine the 2nd year of ownership and ran ot ner 6 years. I never saw that much oil on mine the entire time it as on there. I even sprayed more oil on mine between cleanings, about every 50k or so. When I cleaned it, I soaked in the cleaner and agitated the filter in the clener, then rinsed with a garden hose with no nozzle on it at low pressure. I like @Dieselfuture did not know any better. Have since swithced to a BHAF also. To me they are much easier to deal with. I seemed to have suffered no ill effects from this though. I just replaced the head gasket and the cylinders were beautiful. This was around 465k and ton of idling hours. 492k right and still running great. I think cleaning the filter properly made the difference. This is just my experience but I would not go back to one.

Come to think my cel stays on with the key on until the engine stsrts. I don't know how different yours is from mine though.

Check it for dtc's. What year is your truck? Have checked for fuel at the head? Loosen 2 or 3 injector lines and you should see a pretty good flow.

Welcome to the forum. Nice looking truck and I love the miles on it.

See if you pull any trouble codes. Does your WTS light come on at key on?

Anything abnormal on your volt gauge? It should sitting on the 14 or a little above. Might ought to check it with a volt meter, engine running. Dont believe the ECM is going to like to much voltage. WTS light is controlled by the ECM. Will the truck start? Did anyone discover what kind of internal fault brought down the ECM? They all fail internally from different things.

The cam sensor can make the truck run or not all. Of course it is not an easy to change since its behind the VP. Did you clear the codes after previous repairs? Do you know what caused your ECM to fail the first time? If something shorted the old one and you did not fix that, you could hve damaged the new one.

Is this based on B100 or the B5 to 20 I see most available? I have never run B100. Never seen it offered either. Out my way anyway.

Thats a bit ugly. I replced all of mine not long before doing the ground mod.