Hi, All

I have a 2005 Magnum R/T with 181k miles on it. Never had any issues with it, until a couple of weeks ago, when the ESB BAS and ABS lights came on. I took it to the dealer and lo and behold, they quote me $5485.73 in parts, not labor added yet. I was completely shocked.

They claim that I have a cracked rear frame, a cracked driveshaft, cracked control arms. Mind you, the car does not vibrate or leak anything.

The only thing I hear is a whinning sound that looks to be from the back while I am accelerating, but can't hear it if I take my foot of the pedal, even at speed.

Any thoughts will be appreciated. I just don't see a way for all of these things to be cracked.

Any feedback will be appreciated!!! Really love the car and want to keep it, but can't from $5-8k into it.

Hector

 

yes, this does happen. We just replaced a Rear subframe and drive shaft on a SRT-8 challenger recently. Cause? the guy has been doing burn-out with his car way too much. I mean, like 1 set of tire every 10k miles. But he's a cool guy.
for you, if could be simply due to age.

honestly, just get a Used unit with low mileage. Many salvage yard will sell you the whole rear assemby for fair price. And they tend to just give it everything including the brake assembly in one piece. Drive shaft? I have no problem with used unit either.
I don't expect them to charge you more than $1000 for parts.
And a lot of salvage yard gives waranty on their parts too!

If all you have to do is swap the entire subframe without transfering every single control arms and stuff, the job can be done in merely few hours.
While you have it out, make sure you ask them to replace the Axle seals on the Differential as well, only takes extra 10 minute if you have everything apart alrdy.

Make a few call to recycle yard, even check ebay!

 

Thanks. I am very unfamiliar with the drivetrain. What all is considered part of the rear unit. Not even sure how to spot the frame cracks

 

Update: took the car elsewhere for a second opinion. They found a speed sensor to be the cause of the ESP / BAS and ABS lights.

Unfortunately, they also found some metal shavings in the differential oil. Waiting on a quote to fix, but no mention of a cracked frame, driveshaft or control arms.