— Dodge and Ram rotary gear shift problems caused a federal investigation which has now been closed by safety regulators eight years later.
The Dodge and Ram vehicles are equipped with electronic rotary shifters instead of traditional gear shift levers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the investigation in 2016 following 43 complaints about rollaway incidents in 2013-2016 Ram 1500 and 2014-2016 Dodge Durango vehicles.
Owners complained their vehicles rolled away after drivers shifted the vehicles into PARK and exited the vehicles.
At least 25 complaints alleged the rollaways caused crashes and eight complaints alleged at least one injury.
By the time the eight-year investigation was closed, there were 1,448 complaints about rollaway incidents regarding 2014-2017 Dodge Durango and 2013-2017 Ram 1500 vehicles.
Additionally, those rollaway incidents allegedly caused 649 collisions, 149 injuries and one fatality.
Also part of the investigation were peer vehicles from Fiat Chrysler, including 2013-2017 Ram 1500 trucks that were not equipped with rotary shifters.
NHTSA further expanded the investigation to include nearly 1.3 million model year 2014-2017 Dodge Durango and 2013-2017 Ram 1500 vehicles equipped with electronic rotary shifters supplied by Kostal Automotive.
Additional peer vehicles were also analyzed, including 2015-2017 Chrysler 200, 2015-2017 Chrysler 300 and 2017 Chrysler Pacifica vehicles, all of which were equipped with rotary shifters.
Chrysler had argued there was nothing wrong with the rotary gear shifts, but NHTSA was interested in these symptoms and problems.
- Vehicle movement after the driver attempted to shift to PARK while either the engine was running or had been turned off.
- Shift-by-wire system shifting to NEUTRAL or another non-PARK gear when the driver tried to shift to PARK (or when a driver thought the vehicle shifted out of PARK on its own).
- Difficulty or confusion shifting the vehicle to or from PARK or requiring multiple attempts to achieve PARK.
FCA provided NHTSA with the owner's manuals which show how Chrysler explained to drivers how the rotary shifters work. But drivers cannot be forced to read the manuals to learn about the gear shifters.
Rotary Gear Shift Customer Satisfaction Notification (CSN) Actions
In an effort to prevent shifting mistakes caused by Dodge and Ram drivers, FCA created CSN numbers U05, U06, U07 and U08 which are software changes to make the vehicles automatically shift into PARK under various conditions.
NHTSA closed the eight-year investigation after finding no evidence that rotary shift defects caused the Dodge and Ram rollaways.
Regulators monitored vehicles that had the software updates and found that even if a vehicle rolled away after the CSN actions were performed, no defects caused the rollaway incidents.
The customer satisfaction notifications have significantly decreased complaints, according to NHTSA.
The government will monitor Dodge and Ram rollaway complaints and take additional actions if warranted.
