Hope everyone's weekend went well. Mine was super expensive.

About a week ago I started to hear this whistle which turned into a hum, then later a grinding from the rear of my truck. First thought was a bearing going, thought no big deal, just find it and replace it.

So I stated to dig into the rear axle, checking the outer bearings, u-joints, pinion bearing, carrier bearings, and found nothing visually wrong. Now I never actually pulled the carrier and looked at the bearing chases.

I planned a trip down to see my brother in law, who owns one of the best auto shops in Indiana and has over 30 years of experience. Once we got the truck on the lift and stated tearing into the truck, the list of items began to grow.

If I would have known this list was gonna be so long, I would have sold the freaking truck.

- Rear drum pistons leaking
- Rear drums out of round by 1/4"
- Rear drive shaft out of balance
- Rear u-joint ticking (transmission side)
- Rear axle inner and outer pinion bearings destroyed

Now moving toward the front of the truck
- Front drive axles out of balance by 1/2"
- Lower control arm bushing destroyed, which had to be cut off.
- Front diff inner and outer pinon bearings shot
- Carrier bearings shot
- Needle bearing shot
- Front housing has some type of either (casting marks on the inside) or they tried to do a factory repair and sell me a brand new truck with a messed up front differential. I will take pictures of the front diff and get your guys opinion on the matter. I think its a flaw that they tried to cover up and it has weaken the housing and caused most of my issues in the front.
Since I did not trust the housing I have a used one heading in from a 2011 crashed Dakota with 9,000 miles
- Then to top it all off, the rack that I replaced 8,000 miles ago was pissing fluid out of both inner and outer seals on both sides.

I would personally like to thank anyone from Dodge for this wonderful truck that they designed.
No vehicle that only has 80,000 miles on it, never abused, never off the pavement should go through all the issues that I have and many other have.


I personally could not afford to replace the truck at this time and had to fix the truck. Since I did most of the labor, he is cutting me a break on the labor

All in all I will be lucky if I get out under $4000

Now to add to this list of everything else that has been replaced on this truck before we even got to the list above.

- Shocks and stuts at 40,000
- Rear axle bearings (4) times before 36,000
- Front hub bearings at 40,000, then again at 60,000
- Ball joints 4 times
- tie rod ends 4 times
- upper control arms twice
- sway bar links and bushings front and rear twice
- Intermediate shaft
- rack and pinion
- Pinion seal front 3 times
- Pinion seal rear 6 times
- Unstoppable rust because of the continued use of FOAM on exterior panels
- Lack of anti seize anywhere on the truck
- Excess lock-tight on everything
- And probably plenty more I have not thought of

Dodge knows they have flopped on this truck and would not give you the time of day if you had issues. I had this truck in several times under warranty explaining all of these issues to get no resolution. And now that I am out of warranty, they wont even talk to me. So much for spending 30,000 on a piece of junk that I will be luck to get another 2 years out of.

This is my opinion, but anyone who comes looking for a newer Dakota should run.

I have owned 4 Dodge vehicles in my life, each one is worse and worse.

I will never own another Dodge in my life.
I figure I have spent over $15,000-20,000 to keep this truck on the road over its life so far.

My rant is over, continue with normal forum functions

 

there have been days where i wonder what the reaction would be if I drove my truck to Chrysler headqtrs and lit it on fire.....

there have been days I have pondered it.

Sorry to hear about all of it. hopefully there is very few factory parts left on your truck.

 

You are not alone. I want to buy a big red ribbon and drive it right into the dealerships showroom window.

I am actually thinking on some new vinyl for my truck "DO NOT BUY A DODGE" then list everything wrong with the truck across the side of the truck and park it near the dealership

 

I like those ideas. I even called Dodge and thanked them personally for designing a truck to fail. The person just took it down and asked if there was anything else they could do for me.

Yeah, buy the darn truck back so I could go buy a Ford....

Never another MOPAR product. Never.

 

Maybe it's time we all put big decals on the sides of the trucks saying "Don't buy dodge they make unreliable trucks" and then put lists of the problems.

 

ouch,man i hate this for you eimer..reports like this are why im hesitant to do much more to mine.

with fairly low mileage ,other than the front end stuff & shocks everythings been ok
but sometimes i wonder if i should keep it or trade it off while alls well & skip my plans for a body lift & building a stronger 4.7.

this is my 3rd dodge truck,i havent had too many issues with the others,seems like if you get a bad one you get a really bad one from what i hear.

 

I'd buy one of those. Maybe next time there's a place doing license plate frames, I'll get one made....

 

Lifetime Powertrain ftw!

You haters... all vehicles have issues, both big and small. You just need to look for the issues.

 

^^Truth. My Dak did not have the issues a some of the trucks on here seem to be afflicted with, the thing was Cherry..... but I have owned other makes that did have issues with the suspension or transmission or ball joints or wheel bearings, yada yada yada...point is...like Billy says....everything breaks eventually, some sooner, some later, some when you don't think they should. The reliability of my Dodge Dakota influenced my decision to buy another Dodge (Journey) and the Ram after I sold the Dak. I have owned and worked on more that a few makes and models and though I agree there are some front end issues with these truck, it is nothing enough to make me abandon the manufacturer altogether. Haters hate. I love Dodge. If they made a Challenger or Charger in the 90's I would have one of those instead of my Z.

 

I'm harder on my truck than anyone else here, and all I've had to do was replace ball joints and tie rods and i'm certain that was due to my lift... oh and a wheel bearing... but that's just cheap parts. I don't get why you guys have so much trouble.