I purchased my 2012 Citadel in July and so far I have had it back to the shop 5 times. Not including a 2 hour oilchange.

7500 miles and I need a new Water pump?

The bigger issue is that the steering wheel is off center with the way the car is driving. On a straight road, the wheel is turned about 2 or 3 inches to the right. after the 3rd attempt, I thought they fixed it, but it has returned.

Why so many problems with this car?

 

Have them check all 4 corners, mine was the same way off the lot, after the 3rd allignment by the dealer they said they did all 4 and found the rears where "pigeon toed" slightly from the factory. How that through the steering off I have no idea, but its been straight ever since.

 

Sounds like more of a dealership issue than a factory one. If it's being returned to you and it's not 100% then shame on the dealer. Time to find a new one.

 

Well, sometimes the problem is the Rear Toe bolt or Front lower control arm Camber bolt wasn't torque down from the factory, that's probably why problem returns after an alignment. Your dealer probably just adjusted the tie rod end and didn't bother to adjust all 4 wheel.

 

Lefty,

If the dealership is not correcting any issue you are experiencing with the Durango you should contact the Chrysler Customer Assistance Center so they can get a Chrysler tech involved to help solve the problem. Numbers below.

800-992-1997 United States
800-465-2001 Canada

 

The question regarding the steering wheel should be is it out of alignment or just the steering wheel is off center? The steering wheel is a quick fix that most dealers won't even charge you for. Mine was to the right so after verifying that the alignment was fine, I asked them to move it one "tooth" to the left, now it's perfect.

That said, it's worth noting that your steering wheel will usually be slightly to the right or left when driving due to the crown of the road. Normally you don't notice but when you become fixated on it due to an issue, you start to think you're going crazy, one minute it's fine, another it's to the right, then the left.

The best way to check is on a large, flat parking lot. It will still will have a slant to it for rain water to run off so figure out which way it's slanted and then drive up and down the slant rather than across it.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

So regarding the water pump. The one that was in the car was dead. Leaked out. Odd for7500 miles.

The steering issue:
the car was alignmed serveral times by the dealer. If you let the wheel go while your driving, the car drives straight. However, the wheel is turned to the left about 3 inches. when I first got it, it was turned to the right. they "fixed" it and now it is turned to the left.

The dealer that I bought the car from told me to go to another dealer to make sure their alignment equipment was broked. I thought this was odd, but nonetheless, I did it.

Is it unreasonable for me to demand that this be fixed? The issue was first reported with less then 100 miles on the car. When is this considered a lemon? It has been back to be fixed 4 times now.

 

hmmm, one more possibility, have you by chance rotated the tires since the steering wheel position swapped from right to left?

The other thing that can make the steering wheel off center is a bad tire. The alignment can be perfect but a bad tire will make it feel like it's not. Rotating the tires (bad one to front or to back) will make this change. And since, in my opinion, the factory tires suck, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the culprit.

 

So the dealer fixed my water pump. Replaced the Serpentine belt. All of a sudden the steering is better???

The issue with the steering was that the wheel wasn't lined up with the wheels. It was off about 2 inches. They tried to fix with an alignment 4 times. Water pump goes, gets fixed and now the steering is fixed???? They said they didn't touch the steering.

How can this be??? On 7500 miles

 

When you say wheel wasnt lined up, do you mean steering wheel?
So they just moved the steering wheel a few clicks?