Critical failure while the vehicle was in motion. No standard signs or symptoms of failure ahead of time. While traveling on a straight level road, decelerating from 45mph prior to turn the passenger side outer tie rod end de-coupled from the wheel's backing plate. I instantly lost steering. I was able to torque steer the vehicle around the corner and bring it to a rest on the adjacent street. The worst part was it failed on a bridge over a 100 foot drop - had it failed 1 second earlier I may not be here. I purchased the vehicle with almost 50k miles on it and have only put about 5k miles on it in the last year. I only drive it on paved roads - the previous owners did some off-roading that the dealer did not mention.
I recommend that RAM re-evaluate it's torque specs as the tie rod nut was no where to be found - the tie rod was completely separated from the backing plate. I also recommend that RAM do a little policing of the secondary market to prevent damaged trucks from tarnishing their brand name. Due to this experience (and the other 8 times I've had this truck in the shop over the last year) I'm NEVER buying a Chrysler brand vehicle again!
Critical failure while the vehicle was in motion. No standard signs or symptoms of failure ahead of time. While traveling on a straight level road, decelerating from 45mph prior to turn the passenger side outer tie rod end de-coupled from the wheel's backing plate. I instantly lost steering. I was able to torque steer the vehicle around the corner and bring it to a rest on the adjacent street. The worst part was it failed on a bridge over a 100 foot drop - had it failed 1 second earlier I may not be here. I purchased the vehicle with almost 50k miles on it and have only put about 5k miles on it in the last year. I only drive it on paved roads - the previous owners did some off-roading that the dealer did not mention.
I recommend that RAM re-evaluate it's torque specs as the tie rod nut was no where to be found - the tie rod was completely separated from the backing plate. I also recommend that RAM do a little policing of the secondary market to prevent damaged trucks from tarnishing their brand name. Due to this experience (and the other 8 times I've had this truck in the shop over the last year) I'm NEVER buying a Chrysler brand vehicle again!
- jacobk, Forestville, US