9.3
really awful- Typical Repair Cost:
- $1,680
- Average Mileage:
- 146,750 miles
- Total Complaints:
- 6 complaints
Most common solutions:
- not sure (6 reports)
60 miles from home after a 2,000 mile camping trip, the truck suddenly stopped running. With large slide in camper in the bed of the truck and on a road in Yellowstone Park with no cellphone service and snow falling the dash lights started to flash and the truck died, I was just barely able to pull off the narrow road. With the emergency flashers not working and trucks barely able to get around us we feared for our lives. l opened the hood and smelled burning plastic the TIPM had melted in spots. A kind motorist finally stopped to see if we needed help. They had to drive 20 miles to find service and call a towing service. The tow truck was able to get us to the Dodge dealership in Bozeman but it will be 2 weeks before they can get to it.
- Ronald S., Bozeman, US
On the morning that the problem occurred, I went out to the garage to get into my truck and the horn just started going off for no reason. At first I thought I accidentally hit the panic button on the key fob but when I couldn't get the horn to turn off, I knew there was probably another issue. The horn finally stopped on its own after approximately 5 minutes. I didn't think any more about it and went to work. While driving home in evening, I was traveling at about 50 miles an hour when, without warning, the truck shut completely off. The truck lost all power for steering and brakes, and the warning lights on the instrument cluster lit up like a Christmas tree. I was able to coast the truck and force it partially off the road. I was extremely lucky that traffic was fairly light at that moment and that I was on a straight stretch of road or I could have possibly killed someone or at a minimum killed myself. I had the truck towed to an auto service center in my neighborhood. After a bit of diagnostic testing, the technicians determined that the TPIM had failed. A number of error codes were generated including one for a program mismatch. Our local Dodge dealership said they could replace the TPIM at a cost of $5000.00. I opted for a remanufactured TPIM and my local auto service center - not the dealer - is repairing the truck for about half the cost of what the dealer wanted to charge me.
Although my truck is a 2007, I've taken great care of it from the day I bought it new. I initially thought this was just a one-off problem until I started researching it. Evidently this is a very common - and dangerous issue that Dodge has refused to do anything about. I understand that parts can fail over time, but there is no excuse for allowing a faulty designed part to affect so many people. It's because of this that I will never buy another Dodge/Ram product again.
- Richard K., Grovetown, US
I was driving down the street in rush hour traffic when all of a sudden the dash board lights up like a Christmas tree and the truck goes dead. Then all of a sudden it comes back on for a flash and then dies completely. I can smell plastic burning so I jump out and pop the hood and my fuse box is smoking and I'm thinking its going to burst in flames and I am going to get run over in the traffic. No way to turn emergency flashers on. A very scary situation. I thank God for keeping me safe. If I had been on the highway doing 65 and the truck died like that I might not have made it out alive.
This is very very serious. There is no warning or nothing. The fuse box shorted out and burnt the panel inside. I have pictures. My son disconnected the battery terminals to kill any kind of power to the electrical system. As i am looking for a replacement I found out this has been a problem that I never knew about and have owned a Dodge for the last 20 years. my 07 is the newest year though and that seems to be the year all the fuse box problems started. Its a VERY SERIOUS ONE!!!!!!! i can see why people could get killed. if your driving on the interstate and a semi is behind you and your car dies you are probably gonna die to.
- lainhart, Skiatook, OK, US
This has caused the AC compressor to stop working.
- jessecothren, Chandler, AZ, US
Truck quit running doing 55 on hwy 74 in Hemet,CA. Had to hard steer into center median with no power whatsoever. Towed truck to Hemet Dodge/Chrysler and they diagnosed the problem as a bad fuel pump which was $750 installed. Then I got the phone call telling me that the new fuel pump didn't fix the problem, so then I'm told it's the TIPM. They install a new OEM TIPM (another $800) and now they tell me that they can't find the software to program the TIPM (What does that mean?). Well it seems that when Chrysler updated all the TIPM software, that they forgot to add my year & model truck, Seriously!!? So Chrysler told the dealership to use aftermarket software, which they tried and it failed. So now they are looking for an aftermarket TIPM which come preloaded w/the software & of course they are on back-order and the estimated wait is approximately 90 days, WHAT?? So now the dealership says they're calling all over the U.S. to try and find this awesome piece of Chrysler technology. Yikes! So I guess the "Built Ram Tough" isn't so tough after all!
- Gerry B., Nuevo, CA, US
After diagnosis was done (fuses were not blown and I was not getting signal to the reverse lights. Pulled the fuse and wasn't getting power to the reverse lights to begin with. Bad tipm was diagnosed. To add to the ongoing electrical problems, my truck's alarm will randomly go off while truck is running, headlights will sometimes not illuminate after turning off high beams unless I turn off all lights and switch back to headlights. Error with headlights is inconsistent. Bad tipm may potentially be the problem if one of my cigar lighter sockets has power but other 2 don't, haven't figured that out yet but fuses are good but I'm not getting power to the harness plug that plugs into the cigar lighter socket itself. 2007 ram 3500 Laramie mega cab 5.9L
- Brady Y., Suquamish, WA, US