So my truck finally went over 30k miles and my struts have caught up with everyone else's. I go over highway interpasses and I'm getting sea sick. So I do the natural thing my warranty is still good and my struts are bad- I schedule a service appointment today to have them fixed. I get a call at 10:30 telling me that nothing is wrong with the truck. The service guy says he personally rode in the truck too and said Chrysler officials came down to that dealership because they had changed so many Dakota struts. He said the officials said that it is just the trucks DESIGN. Whatever! Service said there's no leak in the struts so nothing is defective about them. I told them the truck was fine until recently but I was told it doesn't matter. Dodge won't find anything defective with the struts so they will charge the service dept back for the replacement. Because of that dealers won't swap them out. I asked how much to have Service just do the labor runs about $600. Nope, I'll do it myself thank you.

I'm pissed off that I own a truck with poorly designed struts and Chrysler knows it but doesn't care. I am a design engineer so I just can't live with that answer personally but I don't think it will for any other individual's job titles either. I'm also pissed I have Dodge's warranty plus an extended warranty and they're both useless. I feel jipped.

I'm going to copy this link to my dealer's general manager and Dodge. I want the G/M to see it's going to Dodge too. I personally think they need to recall these crappy struts. I'm starting this thread so that all our Dodgeforum family will post responses to dodge. We need to spread this out to other dakota forum relatives too. Bad strut topic comes up like every week. I mad enough now to try to change Chrysler's mind about fixing this. Because if they don't it's the last Dodge I'll buy including Chrysler as a whole for that matter. It may only be a few months when I'm sitting at home collecting unemployment and pulling out a bag of popcorn from the microwave as I listen to the downfall of Chrysler on the news. Oh and Chrysler if you're actually reading my email I'm not sorry for my attitude toward as I'm not just mad I'm completely pissed off.

Anyways, I think we should all send an email to our dealer and Dodge and let them know this is not just ok.

 

couldn't find a good email address through Dodge.com, if anyone knows a better address than their sites own email forward service post it.

 

Oh sheit... dont be telling me this... My trucks got 15k on it and the front is more free moving than 10k miles ago, I am hoping that they dont get any worse! I feel your pain though man... the good guy always gets phucked in this world! Always trying to make a go at it and be something and someone or something is always pulling ya down!

 

Considering our current economic state, it make sense why Chrysler would not do anything here...however, that does'nt make it "right". I paid for a brand new vehicle and expect that Chrysler followers through.

If this thread does go to Chrysler, here is my 2 cents.

All I have owned are Chrysler vehicles. Assuming that Chrysler is still around in a couple of years, my next vehicle will be a 2500 Power wagon in the new body style. The fact that I am not getting any support for my purchase of a brand new 06 Dakota leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully, you guys figure out your current position and give us what we paid for. I would hate to leave the Chrysler family and I can only hope that this situation clears up.

On a happier note, my struts are trashed.

 

Well let's see, never done any off-roading, it barely even sees rough roads. Two blown front struts before the TM kit even went on, one afterwards. Also 3 broken sway bar end links and a set of sway bar bushings and now a shot lower right ball joint. My truck has just under 28,000 miles on it.

Memo to the designers: You made a great truck overall but you dropped the ball on the front end...

 

It must have been a Friday design....

 

you know i have been hearing this forever...but i have 61k miles on my truck, have bottomed out, been in the air, and gone nuts with mine and the struts are still good. Grnted the truck has never been as smooth as a rolls royce suspension, but they sure dont do what everyone else says :/

 

Who knows, maybe lack of abuse is the killer. Yeah front end sucks. There needs to be a full aftermarket kit developed by energy, or someone. I've replaced just about everything in my front end, except for balljoints. Now I've got some popping....probably balljoints. And my truck is a highway queen. If this goes to dodge.....you guys suck for this crappy front end. Especially the crappy shocks (go rancho). If an aftermarket company sees this, you're missing out on a great opportunity

 

So far I'm threading the needle...30,500 miles with no issues. Knock on wood. The shocks are holding their sht together for now, and if they can tolerate another 5K miles I'll call it a win.

 

66600 miles and still going strong.