I took my truck in for repairs to the back up camera and step bar. I inquired about the tie-rod end recall and was told my vin number was not in the recall.

I fractured a tie rod end already and spent months and thousands on lab work and repairs because Dodge denied responsibility even though my truck had less than 20,000 miles. My dealer said there was a bad batch of tie rod ends and my truck did not get one since it was not in the vin number batch in the recall.

DODGE PLEASE CONTACT ME THROUGH THIS FOURM SO I CAN TELL YOU WHY YOUR TIE ROD ENDS ARE BREAKING BEFORE IT COST SOMEONE THEIR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have attemped to contact Dodge by every means possible and left many messages, and have never got a response.

The tie rod is not failing due to faulty construction or because it is weak. It is failing because it was not porperly installed from the factory!!!!!!!!!

If anyone that reads this has a 2010 or later 2500-4500 pick up then you need to lay under your truck and make sure that when your trucks front wheels are pointed straight down the road your tie rod ends are not cocked or rolled forward or backward. They "MUST" be square or level not cocked. If they are cocked they will fail due to binding when turning. It is only a matter of time. Dodge needs to call back every truck they manufactured for inspection of the tie rod ends to insure they are installed properly. If they were your fine if they were not you are driving a truck that will lose its steering at some point due to tie rod end failure.

John Vaughan

 

Have you filed with the national transportation safety board? If enough people do, they can force Dodge to do a recall and make things right.

 

I can't wait to hear this one, lol! Well Kbabiasz06, I'm waiting, lol!...

 

So if it is only the 2500 and up, why have I had to have two tie rod ends replaced due to excessive play. I'll bet this is going to lead to the 1500's as well.

 

I am not sure where you all live getting poor service as you call it but if there is a problem with defective tierod ends how does that make it the dealers fault? It is whoever engineered the front end or more like being built with crappy recycled steel from China or Japan or wherever they get it. It is not just Dodge read a few Chevy or Ford forums they are having their issues too a lot similar. Someone already said that.
My dealer is great they go out of their way, probably because we bring 3 cars for service there, except I am not falling for the BS schedule every other oil change costing me over a hundred bucks because of fuel injections cleaning or tire rotation, or piece of mind service, that all should be done as part of an oil change you can see the brake pads thru the wheels so they can check the brakes, but they want extra for all that. Other than that they have fixed me up fine.

 

I can't beleive the Chrysler guys on here haven't commented on this yet. They must still be on their lunch break...drinking beers and smokin doobies, lol!

 

John Vaughan says that he is getting it from both the dealer and the corporation...sounds convincing to me.

 

This is why they snap. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater

 

I filed a complaint with ntsb nearly a year ago. My truck has been repaired and has had no issues with steering since. If you look close at all these tie rod ends including the one in the picture in this forum you will see the flat spot where the stem was binding. It is not faulty material. The stems are being bent over and over as they bind against the housing of the tie rod end until they crack and finally break. Have someone turn your steering wheel and watch your drivers side tie rod end. It will roll to allow for the turn. If the tie rod end is installed in a cocked position the roll causes the stem to bottom out and the power of the power steering will bend the stem until failure. I figured this out after studying my truck for hours because I feared it would kill someone and no dealer could tell me why they broke. To confirm my conclusion I sent my parts to a metal lab and had the fractured parts tested. They confirmed the metal was not weak but was repeatedly placed under intense pressure flexing in the same direction multiple times until fracture. It cost me $2000 but was worth it to know my truck was now safe to drive. I have driven to every dealer within a hundred miles to share my findings and called dodge multiple times because i felt a responsibility to get this information out before someone was injured or killed. Not one single dealer has even listened intently. They all complain about Dodges lack of communication and honestly I dont think one of them even understood what I was talking about. Dodges 800 number has noted my calls and i have repeatedly asked to talk to an engineer only to be told all they can do is note my call.

Wow!

John Vaughan

 

I remember when you first brought this information up about it breaking and the troubles you were having. Chrysler can run your vehicle vin by using just your name and pull up all of your service records and when ever you call them that's what they do. They ask for your name and pull up your entire vehicle service report so they imediately know your service history but play dumb. And I wouldn"t put it past Chrysler to purposely remove all vehicles vin numbers that they refused to repair from the tie rod end recall list to protect themselves. Your truck fits the recall along with the other 240,000 plus and they are refusing to admit that they were initially wrong. I'd be willing to bet my life that your vin number is black flagged and I wouldn't give up persuing your money back for the repairs and then some. I'm sure that there are plenty of others with the same scenario that are going through the same thing as you are and you need to somehow find and contact them. You need to run an add about this in your local newspaper and beyond searching for such people...Facebook and Twitter as well. If you recall, back in 2009 not long after they came out, some of the dealerships were forced to shut down. This sounds not likely but it could be that the dealerships were told to keep a lid on the problem until sales picked up "or else"...I wouldn't put it passed them. Either that or they just feared for themselves knowing that they could be shut down for stirring up a hornets nest. I imagine that a dealership is like a franchizee just as private owners of McDonalds where the franchize is boss and in full control...you either comply with the franchize or else, good luck!