Anyone feel less safe driving theirs or having one near them on the road?What are we supposed to do with our vehicles, wait to hear from Dodge or initiate contact with them? Guess their value dropped a bit, eh?
I drive an '01 dakota and my wife drives an '01 durango.It makes a terrible squeaking and popping sound in the front suspension.I have heard about the ball joints being bad,but don't want to pay for their crappy design to be fixed.About time they had to do a recall.
I've been complaining about those noises since I bought the car and was told it's normal operating sounds. I wonder if that's why the brakes don't last very long either?
My dad has a 99 Dakota. This summer his truck failed PA inspection because of a bad ball joint. I wanted him to replace it with a better made unit (like Moog, Spicer, or whatever you like). But after some thought he decided to take it to the dealer to have it replaced, so in case there was a recall. Getting refunded the cost wouldn't be so complicated that way. The dealer replaced only the bad one, where they should have replaced both, and they used the same exact ball joint that went bad. The bearing on that side went bad too. Not sure if that had anything to do with the bad ball joint. Maybe it loaded it or something to make it go bad.
My mom's 99 durango threw a rod at 15k miles. Thank god for warranties. Never had a problem with the front suspension (other than casualty damage from when she was hit) though.
What about the H-2s having the front spindle breaking. Well I know that the tie rods on them are very weak. Tim
If auto manufacturers would put grease fittings on things anymore this might not even be happening. So what if this costs Chrysler a lot of money, IMO it's their own fault for being so cheap and not using a 1 cent grease fitting. :bglasses:
I have had a 99 Dakota and had to replace the balljoints (all 4) at 60,000. I did not get the factory units as their books showed that a whole upper control arm needed to be ordered as tha ball joint in riveted to the control arm. I bought aftermarket through Car Quest. At 90,000 they started creeking and popping again but they were still tight so never replaced them, just made sure to keep them greased. As far as the brakes go, at 40,000 the rotors were warped beyond turning. Still had about 3/8 inch left on the pads though. o No: I replaced the rotors with aftermarket crossdrilled rotors with carbon fiber pads.(anybody want them? send me a pm) After 60,000 miles they are still perfect and still have about 3/8 inch of pad left. The truck stopped better to boot.
Joe, we also replaced the driver's(?) side bearing on Eric's Dakota. Timken makes a replacement bearing for it, but cost was near $300 through Car Quest with a discount from the repair facility. (He let us have it at his cost) I did some checking when I went to work the next day with the Timken Number and found out I could have gotten it at Precision Bearing locally for less that $125!! So, if need be again, check to see if you have a local Precision Bearing and try to find it there. If you want, I can find the bearing number for you. Icidentally, they are identical for both sides, so the other one may be ready soon, although Eric's Dakota has 115K on it and still no problem from the other side. o No:
Well, as of right now, everything's fine with pop's truck. It cost alot more than I would've spent, but if there is a recall he wanted no complications with a refund for that work. My cousin (a certified mechanic) and I both agree that when the ball joint got wasted it stressed the wheel bearing in an unusual way. If it were my truck I wouldv'e looked for the cheaper but equivelent alternative for the bearing. I would've used better ball joints, something with zerk fittings is better than the crap they put on, and then done it in the driveway. It's funney how two of the ball joints on my 96 F-150 are still good. Non-greasable with 138,000 miles and often submerged in mud. I had to replace two in May. I used Moog, a very nice piece.
Is this true about the Dakota/Durango? I know most SUV type cars these days have grease fittings in the suspension. My wife has a 99 Astro and anything in the steering or suspension that moves, has a fitting in it. The sad part is that the part is just something that Chrysler buys from a company I'm sure they thought was providing a good part! I'm not trying to back them here and truth be told, don't really like them but from what I heard on the news, it was a part that they buy. I don't think a car mfg. car be 100% sure of every part they use to build the vehicle but they can sure lose a lot of customers should a part prove faulty! Ken
Somebody correct me if I am wrong..........but don't these suppliers manufacture parts according to Chryslers specifications? It would seem to me that if they wanted a grease fitting in there it would be there. Grease fittings these days only appear on the aftermarket parts. :bglasses:
OK, I called the local Dodge dealer (Daytona Dodge, if anyone's interested) and was told by their 5 Star service department: "we don't have any information on any recall for ball joints for Dakotas" ou: I politley asked if they read/watched/listened to news reports about the problem and was told: "Chrysler hasn't sent us anything about any recalls for Dakotas" Can you belive that? I did call another dealer, New Smyrna Dodge who will be handling my vehicles recall issues after the first of the year.
Gary, This just seems to be the way my world works too. I had a motorcycle needing some recall work and the dealer didn't have a CLUE to what I was talking about. I even took them a copy of the letter from the mfg. that I got off of the internet. It did give me the chance to find a dealer that knew of the problem and ended up providing me with great service with a few other problems I had too. I guess the lack of care and knowledge they had really helped me to find a much better dealer so in the long run, I was better off! Ken
FYI, Jeep Liberty also has a recall on Ball Joints. I got letters on both of ours at work 4 and 6cyl.
