10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 59,253 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
My 2011 mega cab 3500 was purchased in Nov of 2018 with only approx. 110K miles on odometer. After a short while of driving, a vibration started getting worse up until I took to a dealer at approx. 114K for a check on toe & alignment. It ended up being a total repair of upper & lower U-joints & ball joints. Also had to replace driver's mirror-had short, wiring harness on passenger headlight-had short, transmission shifter seal leaked, new pinion gear & seal, & few other items also. It seems like a diesel that has just started breaking in was falling apart on me before it's time. Needless to say, about 4 months or so after I made the purchase, I had to fork out a !!heap!! of $$$$$ for repairs that I couldn't recover. Funny thing is, before I bought the truck, another gentleman told me these years of Dodge trucks he had heard they were having a lot of front end trouble. I'm shocked there hasn't been a recall. It sure would be nice to be reimbursed.
- Prattville, AL, USA
Death wobble while driving down the interstate going around 50/60 miles I hit a bump in the road and the truck shakes out of control. The truck doesn't stop shaking until you slow down til about 30. It's very dangerous, just today I hit a bump going across a bridge on the interstate and the truck started shaking dangerously and another truck was behind me and on the side of me. The vehile on the right side of me had to hit the shoulder because while my truck was shaking the truck was going in that persons lane. I was scared out of my mind, it seemed that the truck just wouldn't slow down while I was on my breaks. This is very dangerous and an accident waiting to happen. These trucks need to be recalled and fixed correctly before a life is lost or someone hurt badly because of a faulty vehicle by Chrysler/Dodge
- Paducah, KY, USA
Driving on highway 101 in a northern direction driving in my lane and upon hitting a pot hole my truck went into a violent shuttering and shaking to the point of losing control of my vehicle pulling to the side of the road and coming to a complete stop in the emergency lane, then starting back up to drive until the next bump to send my truck into a front end shake athon, and violent shaking to the point of no ability to stear truck, this truck has been brought in to dealer 5 times and still it does the same thing after replacing stableizer shock absorber tie rod ends and new front shocks. The violent shaking is still continued on vehicle to this day and any bump on the road can set it off and the shaking will not stop unless I come to a complete stop!!!!
- Madera, CA, USA
The contact owns a 2010 (na) Dodge Ram 3500. While driving at high speeds, the front end of the vehicle shook violently after hitting a bump. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the front end ball joints needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 33,000.
- Poplar, MT, USA
The contact owns a 2009 Dodge Ram 3500. The contact received a recall notification for NHTSA campaign number: 13V529000 (suspension). After contacting the dealer and manufacturer on multiple occasions, the contact was informed that the parts needed to repair the vehicle were still not available. The contact was not given an estimated time for when the parts would become available. The VIN was unavailable. The contact had not experienced a failure.
- Campbellsville, KY, USA
8-10-10 3500 Ram E/B hwy 47 at 55 mph passing fruit stand heard loud pop and vehicle veered right jumping curb headed toward guardrail. I pulled as hard as I could to avoid ramming the guardrail and imminent injury to both myself and son in right front seat. Dropped about 20 down into ravine in 4 foot grass and struck pile of 4 foot logs thrown there by road.crew. Front end including steering tie rod had to be replaced. 10-8-10 while driving on mountain blm road in four wheel low. I stopped to backup and left front tire turned sideways. The tie rod lock nut had come undone fell off (unknown location) tie rod dropped to ground. Had to use hay twine to tie up and hold together in order to get back to ranch out of the mountains. It took 4 hours to creep home with my son walking the vehicle around every corner to assure the tie rod stayed together. Vehicle towed to and repaired by roseburg lithia Dodge. I filed safety complaint about tie rod safety hazard. Approximately a year and a half ago, noted loud snapping when turning front end. Tire shop could hear and feel, but we were unable to locate problem. Recall came out and recall parts had to be recalled. No repair. Just notified again of recall and had to have vehicle inspected to confirm recall parts needed. 6-4-14 wife took truck into roseburg lithia Dodge for the inspection to get the recall parts ordered. She brought the loud snapping to service writers attention. He advised approximately 70 customers ahead of us and it would be about 4 months till repair could be make. She advised problem getting worse and possed an imminent safety hazard. Service writer showed no concern for safety and advised the problem was between us and Chrysler. Should another accident or tie rod failure be proximate cause, both roseburg lithia Dodge and Chrysler will be held responsible for gross negligence.
- Azalea, OR, USA
The contact owns a 2009 Dodge Ram 3500. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign id number: 13V529000 (steering) and was unable to have the vehicle repaired because the required parts for the repair were not available by the authorized dealer. The manufacturer was notified of the issue but did not provide a date for when the parts would become available. The contact had not experienced a failure. Updated 4/4/14
- Granbury, TX, USA
The Dodge 3500 was East bound in interstate 40 West of cookville, tn. The Dodge was pulling an enclosed car trailer loaded with a 1955 Chevy show car. The Dodge had just passed an 18 wheeled vehicle and was in the left lane. When the pavement changed, a slight bump, the front tires of the Dodge began to bounce out of control, aka "the death wobble". operator was not able to gain control of the Dodge and it veered into the right lane and over passing the shoulder halfway into the grass. The Dodge and trailer would have gone into a ravine off the highway had the trailer brakes not locked up and brought the vehicle to a stop. Had this happened next to the 18 wheeler, there would have been a serious accident. Operator had no control over the steering until after the Dodge came to a complete stop.
- Nesbit, MS, USA
First occurrence was a bump entering an overpass. The truck went into a violent shaking and bouncing and went off the road on right shoulder. I had to have it nearly stopped for the undamped shaking to stop. On Nov 7, 2011 I was driving on a perfectly smooth piece of highway at 65-70 mph when the truck "exploded" into a violent bouncing and shaking. The truck was bouncing uncontrollably until I finally locked the brakes and skidded off the shoulder and into a bank on the side of the road. If any vehicles had be in the adjacent lane, I would not have been able to avoid hitting them.
- Darlington, PA, USA
We were on the freeway going approximately 75 mph and hit a pothole in the road and the truck began to shake violently. My husband was able to gain control of the vehicle. I thought we were going to wreck. The tie rod had previously been replaced about a month before this initial incident. This is very dangerous because you are traveling at a high rate of speed. We then replaced the stabilizer shock and thought we fixed the problem only to have it do it again. We then went to big O tires and talked to them about replacing the shocks. We took the manager out to show him what it does and once again, when we got up to about 75 mph it hit a hole in the road and began to shake violently, almost causing us to go off the road. This is very dangerous!!! the manager from big O wasn't familiar with the problem but did some research and found an article about the "death wobble" that has been occurring in 2500 and 3500 Dodge trucks between 2006 - 2010. The article said the problem is under investigation. In the mean time, how many people are going to crash and/or be killed because the problem is "being investigated"?? we paid a good price for our truck and want to be able to use it as it was intended. At this point we are not able to because we don't trust it. We called our local Dodge dealer, dale white motors, and voiced our concerns and they seemed like they weren't aware of the problem.
- Carlin, NV, USA
After backing out of my garage, at an approx. Speed of 1 mph, I turned the wheels to the left to run an errand, and the drivers side tie rod end broke. The drag link dropped and the wheel cocked to the full left. At this point I don't know if it caused any other damage. I spoke with the nearest dealer and was told that there are no recalls on this vehicle at this time. Unfortunately I need this vehicle and had to order a new tie rod end at a cost of $116. Bearing any other damage, I will also have to get an alignment, at an unknown cost at this time. Thank god that I had not been traveling at a higher rate of speed when this part decided to fail, because I am sure the outcome would not have been good.
- Mcadoo, PA, USA
- Pahgrump, NV, USA