Welp, I thought I'd add my 2 cents on this subject. We picked a 98 Durango SLT, very clean, one owner, blah, blah. Driving down the road today & the "Check Gauges" light came on...0 psi oil pressure. My 1st hope was maybe the gauge was wrong or a faulty sending unit. After doing some homework on the Durango....WOW!!! It appears to be common place for the V8 Magnum to suffer from a sludge problem. After pulling the valve covers, sure enough, black crispy crap all over. I wouldn't call it so much sludge as I would a gritty carbon like build up...nasty! Seems like this has happened to 1000's of Durango owners despite how well the truck was maintained and taken care of. The flaw seems to lie in the over all design of the Dodge engine.

Here's the kicker. I've owned, repaired, modified and raced import cars for what seems like forever. In fact, it's how I make a living today. This is the 1st US car I've bought in over 12 years. I went out on a lime with this thing because my wife wanted one but deep down, I knew it probably wasn't the best idea. Before buying it, I convened myself that even though the US is still fair behind in auto advancements, surely they've come fare enough to make full production, reliable gas engines that are good for at least 200,000 miles. I mean, Japan has been doing 400,000 mile gas engines sense the 80's so it's not really asking much. Clearly I was wrong.

It's evident that Dodge hasn't been able to step up to the plate and admit that the engine is a flop. Right now, I'm not so upset that the engine locked up, but rather that the manufacture doesn't have a big enough ***** to admit their mistakes. I have a hard time respecting someone like that. They'd rather save loads of cash by not replacing the ones that have failed & the ones that undoubtedly will fail in the future. It also saves their "Name" and if the engine "doesn't have a problem" they save 4 fold by not having to design a new engine from the ground up. (very expensive) With that said, I guess I can understand why they haven't fessed up. But I...

A: don't like to be lied too. (especially after giving them that much cash)
B: don't want to be part of their genie pig program
C: refuse to be their stepping stone in the name of their inferior product development
D: most importantly, will not fund them so that they can turn around and stab their customers in the back by pushing the problem off on improper maintenance (no matter if the customers has all the service records or not)


Our new Durango will be sold (in whole or scrap) & be replaced with want should of been here in the 1st place, a import. Honestly though, it's not totally Dodges fault. I knew how the US car matched up against most Japanese so indirectly, I did it to myself.

 

I'm assuming you have the 4.7L? That's the engine that has been talked about the most in several Internet forums describing the sludge issue. Many have experienced the issue but the majority have not. Apparently it has to do more with how the vehicle is driven then with an actual "design" flaw. Repeated short trips when the engine fails to get warmed up is the recipe for failure. When buying used there's no way to know what the previous owner did or did not do to the vehicle. I have almost 75,000 miles on my 5.9L with virtually no engine issues but I've also had more then my share of what I call quality issues that should not have happened. My car history is also with imports that have lasted well over 100K miles with little to no problems. We bought the Durango because we wanted a "truck" type SUV for hauling and four wheeling, instead of a mushy 4Runner car type SUV. The Durango has several design flaws, has been expensive to maintain, and gets poor gas mileage.......I have accepted all that, regardless, it still is a real joy to drive and does the hardest jobs I ask it to do with no complaints. I drive it hard and my goal is to keep it as long as it makes sense. Hopefully 250K miles or more.

The Durango is just such a one of a kind truck that you get attached to, unlike any other vehicle I've owned.

Sorry that your experience has been bad and I wish you the best of luck getting it resolved.

 

you can't blame dodge for someones lake of maintaince i to have a 98 5.2L 165,436 thousand miles as of today chaned the oil every 3k with good oil. i pull a 5k lb trailer sevral days a week. i will make 200k miles on my D.

 

I like the "genie pig"

Used is always a gamble, there are many D owners out there with well over 100,000 miles I would really beg to differ that it is a design flaw. I (unfortunately) live in a huge apartment complex and I sit here in the mornings working from home over looking the area that most people park... Honestly there is one guy that actually warms up his engine before taking off in the morning and worse than that most people are running late for work so they typically get in, start their cars and punch it, shooting down the alley with thcik, cold oil buried in the bottom of the pan. Those vehicles, when sold with 80,000 miles on them will have some of the same problems and most of them are japanese makers. I have owned many cars and I did own a used Japanese Vehicle that I had to replace the engine on at 70,000 miles... I do know that it does not mean that all japanese engines are poorly designed or that all Suzuki's are crap...