Alright, well some of you may not know this, but any 04 Dodge Durango manufactured before May 17th, 2004 (almost all of them) have a Faulty WCM. The WCM module is the module that reads and learns RFID keys (The keys with chips in them) The faulty WCM does not permit any additional RFID codes to be learned by the vehicle. What does this mean? It means if you lose your key, or need a new one reprogrammed for any reason your S.O.L.! Even the dealership cannot reprogram a new sentry key for the truck until the faulty module is replaced.

Now here is the reason for this thread. Being a shop that installs remote starters we are aware of this issue and normally when we get an 04 Durango, we tell them to take it to the dealer and have it fixed before we do the remote start. Otherwise they have to give up one of their expensive Sentry/RKE keys. Because we can't program a new RFID bypass module. Well anyways, we havn't had any issues with them. We assumed since it was a manufacturer defect the dealer would take care of it, and they did, but we didn't realize that it is only covered as long as the vehicle itself is under warranty!! So i sent a guy up to the dealer yesterday and they told him since it wasn't officially a recall, and he was over the warranty and it was not covered so he would have to PAY to get this replaced!!!
I think that is complete BS! If the manufacturer knowingly puts a faulty part in a vehicle and doesn't tell their customers and then won't go good for it because the warranty ran out is really low! I know if I purchased an 04 Durango, and 5 years down the road I need a new key, It's bad enough I have to pay $100+ for a damn key because DC decided to put the RKE ON the key head (stupid), and then the dealership tells me I have to pay for this broken part that's been faulty since the day it rolled off the line, I would be furious!

Needless to say I wrote a letter to Dodge last night.

 

I just had to re-solder the board in my wifes key. The battery contact was not working for the unlock. Anyway I was thinking of getting an extra key. We have a little time on our warranty. Is there a TSB on this or is it a known issue at the dealers? Or should I just say I am installing a remote stater and the shop told me to come and get the WCM replaced?

 

I smell bull****.

 

You ought to try showering sometime....

 

What are you.........2 years old? Go wash your mangina.

 

Yes there is a TSB. All dealers got it. I have a copy of it, but no # for it.

 

How do you know (what source for this info) that May 17th is the date that this fix was installed into production vehicles? I just bought an 04 Durango with Sentry key Theft Deterrent System used that was delivered to the 1st owner on May 14, 2004 and was going to get a replacement key from eBay and program this myself acording to the owners manual. Are you saying that I won't be able to do this? Please advise before I throw money away on this. Thanks,Mark

 

I bought a sentry key for my 04 Durango Limited from the Dodge dealer for $95 + tax and had the local hardware store cut it for $1.00 .I followed the procedure in the owners manual for programing the key to the WCM and it worked just fine. The build date on my Durango that I just bought used last month is 4-17-04.

 

Not sure why it worked, but that is what the TSB said and I have personally seen it NOT work on 04 Durangos. We can't even get a bypass module to program to those vehicles. The particular customer I talked about in my first post we tried it on and sure enough it would not program. I can post the entire TSB if you'd like.

 

"A manufactureres issue exists with Durango vehicles built before May 17, 2004 and is covered under warranty. The WCM module is defective and does not permit ANY additional RFID codes to be added to the vehicle. This includes new ignition keys (Sentry Keys). Instead of recalling all Durangos for this module swap, Chrysler is only changing the WCM when a Durango owner requests a new transponder key. The WCM does not affect any other functions so is not a mandatory swap unless a new RFID is added. The PKU-CH2 supplies the vehicles with RFID and thus must be programmed if the Mfg date is after May 17th, otherwise the original WCM must be changed under warranty in order to program the PKU-CH2 to the Durango. The WCM replacement part number is 56038675AS."

That is the quoted TSB we recieved. All dealers should have recieved the same TSB. I've also contacted Dodge by email and they agnolidged the problem, but said the customer of the vehicle purchased would need to contact them directly. I believe I still have the email if you still don't believe me.