Well you can see all the complaints before this one so I'll spare the redundant details, but sludge made the engine toast. To put it in 3 words the point I would really like to drive home isn't that you should never buy a durango, it is that you should never ever ever even if it is only $1.00. DO NOT BUY A DODGE. There are exceptions but those are from the early 70s and older. I have had nothing but trouble with every one I have ever owned and parts are astronomically priced and fail just as fast as original junk they came with. And that goes for chrysler too. I am convinced its a scam to keep there union chimployees busy, and I'm sure they are with my 100% fail rate on the half dozen or so I've owned and another 100% rate on the half dozen my family has owned. Dodge chrysler is a hole you'd rather avoid, don't learn the hard way. If you do buy one, set aside 5k so you have it ready, you will need it. I don't understand how defective their vehicles can be unless designed that way. They look nice but what good is a good looking yard ornament? Don't buy don't buy don't buy, never ever ever. I hate dodge on top of the guaranteed breakdown and the sticker shock for parts that will give you a stroke they make all repairs even simple ones almost impossible to do. That's why they need to pull engine to diagnose. i could go on for an infinite amount of time but please heed my warning. You buy a dodge or chrysler after reading this, then you asked for it dummy.

We have properly maintained this vehicle and have had no major problems with it. It has 107,000 miles on it. I went to drive home from work, started it up, drove about 100 yards and it sounded like rocks and rubber were flying everywhere under the hood (loud knocking sounds). I immediately pulled it over and had it towed. The mechanic is telling me that despite regular oil changes and no warning lights of any kind the oil has turned to sludge and there is a broken rod. The engine needs to be replaced. This will cost about $5000 to repair!! I still owe almost $8,000 on the vehicle and do not have the funds to get it fixed. Dodge is telling me that there is nothing they can do to help. This is a CRIME!

I am a single mother who lives in the country, this was my own vehicle, I still owe $5,000 on it, and the motor is gone now due to this slugging problem. Not only do I owe 5k on it, I also owe the Tom Ahl dealership $400 just to tell me it's not running and $35 to the guy who towed it to Tom Ahl.

This is beyond a pain in the butt...this me hitting a financial brick wall that is probably going to leave me with 7+ years of bad credit. Who has $5k laying around to pay a car off? I don't even have enough to have it towed back to my house now.

The wife was driving in town, when oil light on the dash came on. she drove it home... less than 5 miles.. by the time she arrived the Durango (our only car) was Clanking and growling.

- Spun Rod Bearing -

- zero oil pressure -

The cure: Complete engine replacement. I am the third owner of this car... and now I find out that it is in the Carcomplaints.com 20 worst vehicle list. I still owe the bank 2 more years of payments on this SUV that I cant afford to fix. This vehicle was a huge investment for my family... its reliability was vital to us. Now I am at a complete loss to find a solution.

Purchased this vehicle used from carmax.Vehicle has been a workhorse since purchased in 2007.Started out 7/9/2010,drove for about 25 miles and the oil lamp came on and shortly after that the engine started knocking.I shut it off and had it towed

to autolab who stated they would have to pulled the engine to check it out.I thought I should send to the nearest dodge dealer"Arigo Dodge"in tamarac to see if there had been some type of recalls that I didnt know about, who listened to the knocking and stated that It would take 7 hours to pull the engine a to check out the problem and 7 hours to put it back at 99.00 per hour.They secondly suggested that I replace the engine with a used one for 5000.00.Or they can replace it with a remanufactored engine for 7000,00.My guess at that time they'd seen this problem quite a few times or so to make such suggestions.Called the chrysler company who as you know"Politically Blew Me Off"and said since Im the 3 rd owner of this vehicle there is nothing they could do. So here I am with this beautiful massive vehicle just growing weeds around it."Does that well if I might ad"

My truck started out running great when i purchased it in 05. I still have 8 mons to go with,120,219 on the odometer. All of a sudden my truck started running hot. I change the fan, fan clutch, flushed the radiator, change thermostat all kind of stuff. I would notice the when i drove it sometime it would try to run hot, a lil above normal. I didnt pay it much mind. Later, in June of 09 i notice it gettin worser & worser. I had pressure checks done to see if my head gaskets or the heads are going bad. They told me know at the dodge place, then had a 2nd look at different shops. Still the same answer. On June the 26 my truck ran completly hot! This has became a real pain in the ass for me, cause now these guys tellin me that i got to get a new motor. That it only cost 5 grand to fix. Its a recession out here. who actually got that kind of money jus laying around? I can tell ya i dont! Im now jus lost. Dont know what to really do. Guess i can trade it in or jus keep payin for somethin thats about to blow up. If there is anyone out there who can help me out please contact me or something. lord knows im in need.

My.my .. Have always been a dodge fan... The first week in April was hell My husband travels for his job... He is heading back to Florida from S.C. and I get a call saying that his rear end just tore up on his dodge truck... We tow it home and fix it at our expense. The next week he drives my durango back to florida and the motor goes out once he gets to Daytona. No doubt he still has about a 2 hour drive left to go .. once again we tow it home at our expense... Both of our vehicles just ran out of warranty . The oil sludge was so bad i have to replace the engine .. Could not imagine two vehicles tearing up within a week .. I was looking into getting me me a new charger since my durango was paid for until this happened.. No more dodges for me EVER... They got me this time but wont again ..Bad for me now .. bad for them later since my husband always try to update my vehicle every four or five years...

My husband and I purchased a used 2004 Dodge Durango in May of 2005. It has 14,000 miles on it.... Then a little over a year later we was going down the road and my oil light came on. The engine immediately started knocking and I pulled over to the side of the road and turned it off. After setting for a minute when restarted the engine smoothed out and the oil light was off. We drove on to the house that night without any more problems. When we purchased the vehicle we also paid 1400.00 for the extended warranty supposedly covered everything from the ground up, the platinum warranty... So the next day I called my dealer to set up an appointment. I took the vehicle in and was told there was nothing wrong with it and sent home. I continued driving the vehicle as this was my only vehicle. A couple thousand miles later my oil light come on again after the vehicle had warmed up and started knocking again. I again pulled over to the side of the road and shut the engine off.. Set there a few minutes and started it back up and the oil light was off, engine was not knocking, so I continued to that dang house. I again called the dealer the next day to set up another appointment. Told them the oil light had come on again and they scheduled me another appointment about a week later. In that week of driving the Durango I learned that the oil light would always come on after the vehicle had been driven about a hour or so then when starting off if you took off kind of fast, you know push the engine a little, hell its a 5.7L Hemi, the oil light would come on and the engine would start knocking. So when I took it in to the dealer this time I told them of about having to get it warmed up first. Had to leave my vehicle and take a little cheap car as a rental! They said the inspector had to come from out in the eastern part of the stated to look at it. Two days later they called and again said they found nothing wrong. I asked if they warmed it up first and drove it a little while he replied no they had not..... So this time I went and picked up my Vehicle I asked them what I should do that I knew there was something wrong!! They said once my engine light come on that would put a code in the computer and then they would be able to tell a little more. So I took my vehicle home and drove it for a while no problem, then one day my engine light come on. I thought finally! Now they will be able to find out what is wrong and fix it. So I called and made yet another appointment with the dealer. I took the Durango back out there and they hooked it up and read off the code. They said the code said that I had run it out of GAS!!!! WHAT??? I have never ever ran it out of gas. But in other words this did not help anything! So now the dealer finally said that he could pull the valve cover off and drop the oil pan with my permission. He stated that he would need all of my oil receipts which I had EVERYONE of them, and that if for some reason my warranty did not cover it I would have to pay to have all this done. Well I knew I had took very good care of my vehicle so I never hesitated to give my permission as I wanted my vehicle fixed. Few days later they called to tell me my engine was full of sludge and that warranty was not going to pay for it. They wanted to know what I wanted to do. WOW, my mind was blown! I told them not to touch it that i wanted to see this for myself as I was blown away as to how a new engine that had the oil changed like clock work had damn sludge! I got out there and it was unreal! My valve cover and all over the inside was nothing but thick chocolate cake icing looking sludge.... The dealer told me they could do some kind of flush but it would possibly blow out the seals and everything and they would all have to be replaced so being really mad at the time I just told them to put it back together and not do anything.... Ended up costing me over 500.00 just for that and the expenses that I ended up having to pay for the rentals. So I went to talk to a lawyer that was gonna do my case on a pro bono basis or whatever. He looked over my warranty papers and wrote my warranty company a letter. Needless to say there was a clause in my warranty papers stating that it would not cover sludge.... So the warranty apparently covered everything from the ground up EXCEPT my problem. They stated that if I could prove what caused the sludge that I might have a case but how do you do that. I had already showed them all of my receipts for all the oil changes! Anyways, there is my complaint..... I certainly will not be a customer of Daimler Chrysler again if there is not something done about this problem. People have enough trouble trying to make a living with the gas prices and falling economy without being ripped off by everyone else........

My husband and I bought our 2004 dodge Durango in May of 05 with 14,000 miles on it.... We traded my 1993 jeep and gave 17,000 for it... Everything was going great until about a year and a few months later when we was going down the road and the oil light came on and the engine started making a really awful knocking sound.. Pulled over to the side of the road and turned the engine off.. Got out and checked the oil and everything and everything was as it should have been, plenty of oil, etc.. Started it back up and it run fine the rest of the way home which was about 25 miles. Called the dealership next morning and made app. to take it in.. Took it in and they said they could not find anything wrong with it... So got it back and drove it for a few weeks and it done it again. So called the dealership made another app. to take it in. Took it back to the dealership and once again they said they could not find anything wrong with it.. So alright, got it back and drove it again.. Now the Durango was where you could drive it and get it warmed up about 30 min or so and then step on the gas a little hard and the oil light would come on and engine started knocking... So now thinking I could tell the dodge place how to make this happen again we made another app... Took it back and told them it would have to be driven for 30min to a hour then stomp the gas and it would come on... The inspector came 300 miles so they said and they drove it for 15 minutes and could not get it to come on... I was getting really aggravated by this point and told them so. So the main tech guy at the dealership said we could authorize them to pull the valve cover and the oil pan and if there was a problem then they would know and my extended platinum warranty would cover it... So pulled all that off just for them to call and tell me my engine was full of sludge, and they wanted receipts from my oil changes. Ok so it took me a few days but I did manage to find all the receipts from my oil changes and took them out there (I am the worst pack rat and keep everything but for once was thinking good good). Well apparently even having the receipts did nothing!! They called and said that my platinum warranty that was suppose to cover everything from the ground up does not cover engine sludge... and that a new engine was going to cost me right at 10,000... Hell that is two thirds the value of the whole vehicle at the time... Well now it has been almost two years later and we are still having all kinds of hell from this vehicle... We ended up having to pay for the rental vehicles we had to have every time we took it to the dealership, had to pay $500.00 just for them to pull the valve cover and oil pan off and put the damn things back on... Now I have finally found a motor that we went almost 800 miles to get which has 37,000 miles on it and am worried that it will sludge up soon too though... Its funny that they had to recall all the 2000-2003 Durangos for engine sludge, you would think they would have fixed the problem instead of sending out more pieces of crap. I had the receipts to prove that the oil changes and all necessary maintenance had been performed but still denied... I would not give that much money for a vehicle not to take care of it. There will not be any worry of me ever buying another dodge product though and certainly would not recommend them to anyone.. No one should have to go through all the crap we have went through with a new vehicle. You buy a new vehicle so you don't have to worry about breaking down on the side of the road or your damn engine failing due to oil sludge..

OK, this sounds like everybody else. My 2004 Dodge Durango with the 4.7 V-8. Well I started out having the problem of the trany not shifting out of 3rd gear. It would also start out in 3rd gear. Took it to my local shop and he tells me that it needs a tune-up. I said OK and had the tune up done, which was approx $300.00. After picking up the Durango, my wife drove to my parents house which was about 3 miles from the shop, she said it drove fine. Later that evening I drove it approx 8 miles and the same thing happens will not shift. Due to money we took the Durango to another shop, which I know the owner verywell and he is the one that replaced a transmission in a 1999 GMC Yukon we had and it went out. Anyway following up with the Durango, he tells me that the engine pan has sludge in it along with metal flakes and that the engine is fried and will need a new one. By the way it sounds to me with all the other complaints I have been hearing, Dodge needs to get it together with the sludge build up. I change my oil at the appropriate times. There is no need for engines and tranny's to be going out at 90,000 miles. This whole ger up is going to cost me around $8500.00. That is a big hit to the pocket book, especially after Christmas. Dodge thought there sales are down now, they keep producing jacked up motors and they will be in a hurt. I have no other options but to replace the motor because who will take a dead Durango. The payoff is more than the motor is. That is my gripe

My husband and I purchased a brand new Dodge Durango three years ago. It currently has 91,000 miles and the oil light intermittently came on. We checked the oil level and it was fine. We always had the oil changed as recommended as we do a lot of driving with our kids. One day I was on my way to pick-up my daughter and stepped on the brake. No brakes, nothing. I had to step on the emergency brake to stop the truck. I was able to get it home this way as I had just left. I brought it down to the garage and found out it was the master cylinder (another adventure in itself). While it was there it stared making a loud noise. My garage told me it was the oil pump but it was too big a job for him. I had the truck towed to the dealer (which suddenly went out of business) and was told that my engine had seized and that I couldn't have done the oil changes. I did but of course can't prove every one. The options offered to my were to buy a remanufactured engine or wait for another Durango to crash and take the engine from it if it was damaged in the crash. I was told that Dodge does not make this engine any longer so I could not get a new Dodge replacement engine, not that I would want one now anyway. So, now I am stuck with the option of buying a $6,700 remanufactured engine or waiting for someone to crash. I'm stuck as I still have three years on the loan and will only get around $7k as a trade if I am lucky. Dodge doesn't care at all. They told me it was my fault and that they had never heard of any problems with sludge in the durange engine. Bull.

From the moment I bought this car l have had problems. I took it back four times with this. I kept telling them there was something wrong. They kept telling me 'no we don't find anything'. Tell me how a 4yr old car can have the engine blow up. I have always had a dodge. I had a Dodge Caravan that I bought used and it had 99,000 miles on it and drove it till 189,000 kept maintenance up on it and never had a problem. This one particular dealer and I should have known better. I ran a car auction and I know a lot about cars and enough to know something was wrong. How can people get away with this.

Below is a complaint letter sent to Dodge about their Durango!

It got me no where.

My wife and I had purchased our third Dodge from our local dealer, Tim Marburger Dodge. Most often I speak with Brian Marburger at that location. In the past month our 2004 Dodge Durango suffered a major engine failure on March 17, 2007. I experienced a loss of oil pressure and then complete shut down of the motor.

I had the vehicle towed to Tim Marburger Dodge that night and contacted them on Monday morning around 8:30. I spoke to Owen who informed me that he should know something soon. By 5:30 that evening I had to call Brian Marburger because I had not heard anything. Finally Owen took my call and advised that since the vehicle has 47,790 miles on it that it was outside the warranty but would be covered in the Dodge Power Train Warranty.

Tuesday morning at 10:40 I received a call from Tim Bridle the service manager who stated that he needed my authorization to pull the oil plan and perform a bearing and oil sample. I advised Tim that I would let him know shortly. By 11:40 that morning I called back to Tim to ask a series of questions around the test he was having performed. Namely I wanted to know why this was occurring. He stated that it is a standard procedure and that �the burden of proof is on the dealer and not so much on the owner�. I asked Tim what was going on and he told me this was done to confirm coverage under the Dodge Power Train Warranty. This started to make me nervous. I asked what Tim�s experience has been in situations like this and he replied that in his eleven years of experience he has only seen one warranty denial. Now this statement puts me at ease. Tim asked about receipts from oil changes. I told him then that I may not have all of them. He said that was fine as most of the decision is based on an oil and bearing sample anyway. With that, I advised Tim to proceed with the sample.

By the end of the week I still had not heard any response from my dealership. I contacted Tim Bridle again. He informed me he was waiting for the results of the test. I asked Tim how I can track them down. He gave me the name of the vendor used by the dealership to perform this work. I contacted a company named Stavely at 800-346-4994. Michelle gave me a different number for the Cleveland, OH office at 800-726-5400, ext.243 where I had to leave a message for Debbie who finally called back to let me know the status of the test. Debbie advised that she could not release results to me but only to the Daimler Chrysler Zone office in Orlando, FL. She advised me that the results were sent to Dan Armstrong in that office and he could be reached at 407-826-7044. I called Mr. Armstrong only to learn he was out of the office from March 26 through March 28. I would still have to wait.

I finally received a call from Owen on Friday, March 30 to advise me that my claim under the Dodge Power Train Warranty had been denied due to lack of owner maintenance. I have already learned from one of my prior conversations with Tim Bridle that the cost to replace an engine is between $5,000 to $6,500. Imagine my shock when I learn that my third vehicle from Tim Marburger Dodge which has less than 50,000 miles and it needs a new engine. I had no idea what to say. I told Tim I would have to think about it.

I spent the weekend doing research and talking to an auto mechanic friend of mine. My research turned up a lot of people with stories that were very similar to mine: loss of oil pressure, complete engine failure, warranty work denied due to �lack of owner maintenance�. I also learn that Daimler Chrysler has a class action lawsuit against them for a similar set of circumstances on the 2.7L engine that has major engine failure due to sludge in the engine. Now I�m starting to get upset that I find this is not just a fluke occurrence.

I called Brian Marburger on April 2, 2007 at 1:00 pm. I called again at 2:00 pm. I called again at 3:30 and spoke to Qwame Jackson asking that he have Brian call me back. Again I called at 4:00 and left a message to receive a call back. Finally at 7:30 pm I received a call from Brian Marburger who spoke to me at length. The end result was he was sorry but there is nothing he could do as the warranty claim was denied by Chrysler Corporation. He continued to advise that my only recourse was to take this issue to Chrysler Corporation. I told Brian Marburger that I was at a point where I would spend my Saturdays walking in front of his dealership with a sign that read �Don�t by Dodge: Their Engines are Junk� and on the other side it would say �Dodge Doesn�t Stand Behind Their Warranty�. Brian asked why I would do that if my issue was with Daimler Chrysler. I told him that his dealership was the closest I could get to Daimler Chrysler.

I went by Tim Marburger Dodge and found Brian Marburger. He took me back to look at the Durango up on the lift. I walked around and under the vehicle where Brian pointed out what looked like chocolate fudge in my engine. He then showed me the oil pan from which the sample was taken to see the junk in the bottom of the pan. While viewing that I noticed the �tool� the mechanic used to take a sample of the oil. He made use of a used medical prescription bottle with the label still affixed to the bottle. How is the use of equipment like that considered a valid test?

At this point I was not available for a week and could not pursue my complaint at this time. I resumed on Monday, April 16th when I called the service center at 1-800-853-1403. At 1:15 pm I spoke to Joy who took basic information on my issue. She advised me that there was an outstanding warranty item to resolve on the instrument cluster and the put me in touch with Michele in your service center. Michele proceeded to contact Tim Marburger Dealership with me on hold. She came back on the line and advised she spoke to Owen in the service department and then proceeded to tell me that my claim was denied due to lack of owner maintenance. I explained that I already knew this but was not satisfied with her answer. Michele advised me �there is nothing that they could do in this office to overturn that decision�. I asked to speak to a supervisor. She put me on hold for a minimum of 10 minutes and then came back to advise me of the same response. I kindly told Michele that I knew what her answer was but that I had asked to speak to a supervisor. Again I was put on hold for at least 10 minutes. Cindy finally came to the phone and repeated the answer again. When I asked Cindy to speak to her supervisor she refused and advised that I should go back to Tim Marburger dealership to complain and also speak to their business center and District Manager. When I again asked to speak to her supervisor she refused and would not allow me to continue the discussion. She then HUNG UP on me after spending 50 minutes on the phone. I had to cool down for a day after that experience with your Daimler Chrysler Service Center in East Tennessee. I waited until April 18 to call where I reached another service representative named Alex. He did as he was supposed to and tried to handle the call first but I explained my problem from Monday, April 16 and he told me he would find a manager for me but not before he read through the notes and told me that it was documented in the notes that I had disconnected the call before a manager could come on the line! So now I learn that when I complained to Cindy she does not even have the skill to document a customer complaint call when she completes it. Finally Robin came on the line. I advised Robin that unfortunately I had to disconnect but asked for his extension so I could call back. He gave it to me so I could resume our conversation.

I contacted Robin on April 19 at 4:00 pm. Again I spent about 50 minutes on the phone with Robin and received the same treatment. I would not be allowed to speak with anyone higher that his level of authority. He advised that the dealership made the decision to deny the claim. His position was to stand behind that decision and communicate it to me. Additionally he advised that my call to Alex yesterday where I learned that Cindy failed to document the call was incorrect. Cindy did truly document the call after all. So now I don�t know if Cindy or Alex lied to me but someone did. Robin then proceeded to show me where in the owner�s manual in indicated that any evidence of maintenance could be requested to satisfy a warranty claim. I asked Robin how many pages were in his owner�s manual as mine had about 360 pages. I also asked Robin if when he purchased a vehicle he read the entire owner�s manual. He advised he did. I commented that was a substantial amount to read and he recanted his statement and then said well he only reads the part that pertains to his responsibility. Now I feel I have been lied to by Robin! I asked Robin if he could understand my frustration at the way this was going and how I was treated. I told him that I was about to the point of standing in front of Tim Marburger Dealership with my sign and Robin�s response was that I should do whatever I felt was necessary.

I am floored at the way a major corporation is so willing to treat their customers. I have been lied to at least twice. I have been bounced back and forth between your customer service department and the dealership with each claiming that the other party made the decision to deny my claim. I have no satisfaction of speaking to the person who made the call. If I turn in a claim to my insurance company I at least get to speak to an adjuster who has the decision making authority to adjust my claim. I do not appreciate the way I was treated by first your Service Center. Nor do I appreciate the answer I receive when my engine fails and I�m told I did not have the engine oil changed. Now I know I had the oil changed. I just don�t have copies of the receipts.

I do not understand how you can afford to treat customers this way. I will be glad to spend as much time as I can explaining to everyone I know how much of a failure Dodge vehicles can be.