Bought my (new to me), truck in August. Truck was well cared for. Everything worked fine.

About a month ago, my heater controls stopped working. The heat worked fine, but blew out of the panel only.

I searched through the forum here, found other people with the same issue. Heard that you have 2 diverters that could break, and estimates of $800+

Guess what... just got estimate from Johnson Dodge here (these are pretty good guys by the way), said probably $800ish to fix, and they'd probably have it for 2 days (so obviously a parts and labor issue).

Anyway, this seems to be common problem. Any way we can pressure DODGE to FIX this, as it seems to be a design flaw.

My truck is well out of warranty (80,000+ miles now), and 4 years old. But this is not an uncommon problem on the newer ones as well. There is no hope for mine, but still.

Anyone?

 

i see this problem occuring moreso on the 02-05s than the 06+, but some 06s have it. im sure they have fixed it by now on the newer rams i would hope. you could try saving a few hundred by doing it yourself, but it is a pain in the a$$ to get the dash off. it does suck that it costs soo much but the parts themselves are pretty expensive anyways. maybe you can find a small shop around that can do it cheaper than the stealership as the stealership is always the most expensive labor wise. did you get a warranty with the truck when bought used at all? no 6 mo-1 year warranty? sorry to hear your having to spend that kind of money for something soo simple. its tough.

 

Better make sure they put your dash back together properly or it will be squeek/rattle central! It's more labor charge than parts charge. If your handy, I would say wait until Spring and do it yourself.

 

Mine is in the shop now getting fixed, $60.00 part and 4 hours labor. I am having them replace the dash that is all busted up while they are at it. I am not that good at putting stuff back together once I take it out.

 

Thanks guys.. neah, their labor rates are better than some of the mom & pop shops around here (yeah NJ rates!)... yeah the parts nothing, the labor I am sure, at 4+ hours of tearing the dash apart.

Yeah, heard putting dash back together wrong can be a rattle trap, another good reason to let them deal, as they can fix if it rattles!

Finally, yeah, got a limited warranty on the truck, 3 months or 3,000 miles. I had the option of extending that, but opted NOT to (would have been, drumroll please, another $800)... Plus, the warranty place would insist on THEIR repair place. So although it'd not cost me as much probably in the long run, I think I'd rather the option of taking it to someone of MY choosing!

Thanks for the quick replies though. ALSO I am glad to hear that '06 plus doesn't seem to have the same problems.

By the way, otherwise a cool truck. Already have towed 7000# with no issues. More to come in the future I am sure.

 

Only if they don't claim that it was like that before hand.

My father bought a brand new truck years ago. Something behind the dash needed a repair after only 3weeks old. The truck was a rattle box after that. They attempted to fix it and then it didn't work so they just gave him the cold shoulder and told him they were kind enough to look at it once and how could they be sure it wasn't already like that????? WHAT!!!. He ended up taking the whole thing apart himself little by little so he could narrow down the problem and used good ole crap paper to solve the problem....lol

 

Good luck with the pressuring Dodge to fix it for free, admitting it's a widespread issue or issuing a recall. I had to replace the blend doors on my Grand Cherokee (like everyone with dual climate control on a GC has). No recall, no nothing. $1400 at stealership or $200 in parts and giving up an entire saturday, like 7+ hours to pull the dash an replace them myself. Only good thing, is it was a known issue when I bought it used and calculated into the deal. So I REALLY saved myself the $1400 twice over, once by getting it taken off the price I paid for the SUV and again by my doing it myself.
But yeah, no way they'll bow to any pressure - can you say "C-Clip"???

 

ahhh the c-clip hahaha. how much wasted money in warranty work was wasted by dodge with the c-clip issue? WAY TOO MUCH..

 

That's one thing Dodge is horrible with is recalls. My Dakota had the ball joint issue, and it took them FOREVER to admit it was a manufacturing defect. Thankfully, they reimbursed me (even though it was quite a while later) once the recall was finally issued, and I even got a second free set because the ones they replaced the factory ones with were also defective. I can only hope the ball joints on the Rams are better.

 

I figured I would share... Total for the door repair was $845. They did it in one day, but put 2 mechanics on it, to get it done in 6 hours.

The service tech showed me the door... Crappy design. Plastic shaft, with 2 mini-doors attached. Easy to break.

Oh well. Works good now!