I'm new to the Dodge Forum, so hello all. I bought a 04'Dakota Quad SXT 4x4 this past July. I only have 39,000 miles +/- on it. I absolutely love my truck. In the last month or so I noticed that my steering was tight in a few spots. The colder it gets the worse it is. I talked to a guy at Advanced Auto about it and he told me to flush the power steering pump. I did and it help a little for about a week. I went to go to work the other day and it was so tight that I had to strong arm it back and forth a couple times to loosen it up. On my way to work I went to pass a Big Rig on the expressway and I almost sailed into the median. The steering tightend up when I went to pass him and when I pulled to wheel to correct it, I almost ran right into the Big Rig!! I had to pull over to catch my breath. Scared the @#$% out of me!! Is this a common problem with these? I've read a couple posting about people with the same problem. I hosed every movable joint that had to do with my steering down when I got to work. Seems to have helped a bit. Any other ideas??

 

Welcoem to the site. I will move this thread to the second generation Dakota section,
FF

 

Just had the same thing happen to me and it was the power steering high pressure switch.

 

I had this same problem about a month ago. It is no fun to drive your truck around with this problem, and it is definately not safe lol. I talked to a mechanic who is pretty familiar with dakotas about it. He drained my powersteering fluid and flushed the lines, then he replaced it with transmission fluid. The transmission fluid is thinner. I have not had a single problem since. Hope it works!