I have a 2005 Hemi Durango 2 wheel drive. Originally the vehicle would die during low speed turns. I don't know if the new problem is related but here goes. I live in the country so very rough black top roads are the norm. When traveling down these roads the instrument cluster goes nuts. The first thing to go is usually the Tach, followed by the Speedo. If you hit enough bumps in succession the vehicle will actually die (radio goes off, A/C quits, etc). If during the 'stall out' phase you happen to be going in excess of 50 mph the vehicle will restart (key is still in the 'on' position.). There is also a red LED that lights up as the vehicle restarts. This LED is not an ICON like the check engine or brake lights. It is just a little red light, Of course my dealership has no idea what this light was for. Their solution was to charge me $87 to tighten up my battery terminals. Another symptom is that sometimes if going slow while in the rapid succession of bumps the engine will actually not die but will continue to run at approx 800 rpm. You can floor it and it goes up to 1000 rpm. The transmission will go into Reverse - Neutral - Park - and Drive but the engine will not rev high enough for forward movement. The problem is intermittent sometimes going weeks between failures. I have asked the dealer to call in a specialist and they swear they could fix it if the could find the problem.

 

Caytos:

Sounds like you ought to be taking a drive with the tech in the car, and hopefully the issue will rear its ugly head for you.

An important thought is does your D have the 7/70 powertrain warranty intact?? If so, you might get lucky if the issue involves wiring related to the powetrain system

The PCM should also be covered under a Federal 8 yr/80k warranty. Sounds to me like there is loose ground or connection of some type. Could be a connector not seater properly in the harness somewhere.

Don

 

I have given the tech a ride and shown him the issues. But when the they get back around to it actually trying to fix it they can't duplicate the problem. Next time it starts acting up i am going to go back by their and 'we' are going to work on it immediately. I am a field service engineer by trade and live by my t-shooting skills. I just don't have the equipment to t-shoot effectively. I can somewhat duplicate the problem by (don't try this at home kids) turning the key off and back on while driving down the road. I don't actually even have to restart. If I'm going fast enough the vehicle will basically push start the motor. Since discovering this I disassembled the steering column to take a look at the ignition switch. Couldn't find anything wrong there. Anyway the dealer finally told me they have a diagnostic machine that is portable. I will go by on Monday and hopefully we can make some headway. Thanks for your help. I hadn't thought about the 7/70 ptrain warranty. I currently have 49950 miles on it.

 

Update:
After numerous other issues I won't bother going into. We have discovered the root of the problem. Seems Dodge ran the battery cable bundle right next the the EGR tube (very HOT) and the insulation melted on the positive cable going to the starter. Which in turn arc'd to the EGR tube and cut a hole in the EGR tube (a hole in this causes issues idleing). The scary thing is the positive cable is also shorted to the negative cable. Since there is no circuit protection this could have caused a fire or battery explosion. This vehicle is normally in my garage. Which means my whole house could have burned down because Dodge ran these cables right next to part of the exhaust system. I tried to make this an issue related to the emissions system covered by the 8yr 80k warranty (thanks n8ech for the tip) but the Dealer said the EGR valve and Sensor were covered but not the EGR tube itself. Either way it's a $450 fix. $200 parts and $250 labor.