Recalls
If you own one of the following vehicles and haven't been notified by the maker that your vehicle is under recall, get yourself down to your local dealer to find out if the recall affects your 4x4.
*'02 Dodge Ram: On certain 4x4 pickups, the rear axle flange welded to the axletube could fatigue and allow the brake caliper assembly to rotate, which could cause the brake line to separate from the caliper, resulting in a brake fluid loss. Dealers will install rear brake caliper reinforcements on the rear axle assemblies.
*'97-'98 Dodge Ram: On diesel pickups, the throttle linkage joints can corrode and cause the throttle to bind or stick, increasing the risk of a crash. Dealers will replace the rod ends and ball studs.
*'01-'02 Toyota Highlander: A fuel-vapor nozzle could leak during a front-end collision. Dealers will rotate clamps on the nozzle so they don't hit the underside of the vehicle body during a crash.
Chrysler's Engine MAGIC
Chrysler's engineers have been tweaking and tuning the standard 4.7L V-8, making little changes to make what they call "a giant leap in fuel efficiency." All tuning was done with no penalty to the engine's power, weight, or lifespan.
MAGIC stands for Multiple Approaches to Great Internal Combustion. The improvements cost $200 per engine and improved fuel economy 14 percent. When the engineers were done tweaking the engine by itself, they planted it in a Durango, made a few more changes, and bumped up the savings to 25 percent.
Among the tuning tricks: a 4-percent increase in compression ratio; swirl control valves to enhance flame spread during warm-up and partial-load driving; design changes to the crankshaft offset, oil-ring tension, and coolant jacket to reduce friction; and a reduction in parasitic loss through the oil pump.
Additional refinements to the Durango (code-named Apollo) include the installation of a 12-volt alternator/starter to allow the truck to shut down and restart in stop-and-go conditions, improved cooling technologies, improved chassis aerodynamics, and electrohydraulic power steering.
Department Of Corrections
We rarely make mistakes, right? We inadvertently screwed-up the phone number for Off Road Unlimited in the source box for the Super Duty Buildup in the October and November issues. The correct number is 800/947-7007, just like their full page ad shows in the November issue.
Calendar Of Events
Dec. 6-8 Las Vegas 200, Las Vegas, NV. Information: Best in the Desert, 702/457-5775, www.bitd.com
Dec. 7 Whiplash Point-to-Point race, Sonoyta, Mexico. Information: Whiplash Motorsports, 602/971-3730, www.desertracing.com
Dec. 14-15 SNORE Baja 240, Las Vegas, NV. Information: Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts, 702/452-4522, www.desertracing.com
Dec. 21 Sport/Utility and 4x4 Driver's Education and Training, Hungry Valley SRVA, Gorman, CA. Information: Harry A. Baker, 818/705-3930, www.4x4quest.com
Note to Event Organizers: We need your 2003 listings! If you are planning any sort of four-wheeling event, from trail rides and club runs to races and rockcrawls, send us the scoop so we can run it in our calendar. Please submit the event name, date, location, and contact information (phone number, Web site) to Calendar of Events, 4-Wheel & Off-Road, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048. Remember, our print deadlines are at least three months ahead of publication date, so send the entries in as soon as you can!
Naked Avalanche
We'll bring you a comprehensive guide to 2003 4x4s next month, but we didn't want to wait to share this news. Chevy listened to all of us who griped about how ugly the body cladding was on the Avalanche and will offer a version of the SUV/truck hybrid "without body hardware," as GM so euphemistically put it. The cladding isn't going away completely; you can still buy a clad Avalanche, though the composite body panels will be darker than the previous versions.