CarComplaints.com Notes: The first year of the new Dodge Dart had a rough start, with owners reporting a disproportionate number of engine and transmission problems.
For transmission, the main complaints are transmission failure & rough shifting. So far, average mileage for transmission failure is 25,000 miles. Not good.
For engine problems, it usually starts with the engine light coming on for any number of reasons: bad sensors, ignition coil replacement, bad wiring, faulty gas cap ... dealers are replacing various components with varying degrees of success, or telling owners they can't duplicate the issue.
I bought the car 2nd hand from Crossroads Ford Dealership, Wake Forest, NC. It was used with about 30k miles, I thought I was getting one hell of a steal.....and I now see why. I must say I enjoyed it for a full year and some, in July 2018 the car now had 70k miles (heavy heavy use, back and forth to NJ several times), I've driven manual cars since 17 (now 40), I can count how many times I stalled on one hand prior to this car. I've had a turbo vehicle in the past as well, Jetta, Nissan 300z and never stalled like this. I stalled about 4-5 times on this one car alone, thought it was just me due to age and or new car for me.
Last week, 7/28 the car was in gear and when I went to change gear, it just wouldn't gear up, when I let go the gear, noticed it didn't raise again. In the middle of the road, now I am getting upset and try to cluth in and out, kick the damn pedal from the ground push it up, but as soon as I put my foot on it, it would drop and not lift up again on it's own. Well, rush hour and all, pushed my car into Starbucks....they weren't happy as only entrance was drive thru, kept a pushing (with help of others now) into a made up parking spot. Blocking half entrance.
Now my car is stuck and Starbucks said no problem, but half in the roadway, one more time to pushing to hope it's not hit by time wrecker/tow truck arrives.
Come to find out dealership has vehicle. They said it was the master clutch cylinder, PART # 52104854AB. The part is on back order, therefor he can't guarantee he can get it, and of course, he can't give me ETA. So I've been UBER'ing myself back and forth to FT job, PT job, and had to make arrangements for kids to get rides when necessary if wife isn't home w second car. She's had to adjust her schedule as well.
Dealership cost is $673 parts and labor, not bad as I was able to find 6.5 hr labor for this type of work.
Seems this task has been done on MANY MANY DARTS!!!! Something has got to give that Dodge, even if outside of warranty, if it's defective, it's a matter of time it will fail. This should be covered. I just missed my warranty in Feb 2018 (car was supposedly made 2/2013, hence 5 year warranty just expired). I am at a loss, is this going to happen again? Something else going to go wrong with the clutch, just a different part of it??
PLEASE HELP!!!!!
Update from Aug 8, 2018: Now they said the hydraulic filled release bearing was also blown and needed to be replaced. This is another $1,000 to add. $1,700 now total. 2 weeks w no car. All out of warranty so out of pocket. The hydraulic they say need to remove entire transmission out. 6.5 hrs of work. Damn my pockets hurt!!!
Clutch was blown to pieces.... only had 48k on it when it went, had every thing replaced costing me 1800. Didn't think the clutch would be bad already, so I didn't think it was that till every thing else was replaced... my garage guys said he never seen anything like it before so I'm guessing my dart won't make it to 80k with out the clutch blowing up again
I was driving down the street and heard a big boom. The clutch had went out on my car. I have been driving a stick for 18 years and not one of my cars have the clutch went out. When I talked to the dealership they said they have never heard of that problem. There is something seriously wrong with this car
- shavonr,
Seattle, WA, US
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I bought the car 2nd hand from Crossroads Ford Dealership, Wake Forest, NC. It was used with about 30k miles, I thought I was getting one hell of a steal.....and I now see why. I must say I enjoyed it for a full year and some, in July 2018 the car now had 70k miles (heavy heavy use, back and forth to NJ several times), I've driven manual cars since 17 (now 40), I can count how many times I stalled on one hand prior to this car. I've had a turbo vehicle in the past as well, Jetta, Nissan 300z and never stalled like this. I stalled about 4-5 times on this one car alone, thought it was just me due to age and or new car for me.
Last week, 7/28 the car was in gear and when I went to change gear, it just wouldn't gear up, when I let go the gear, noticed it didn't raise again. In the middle of the road, now I am getting upset and try to cluth in and out, kick the damn pedal from the ground push it up, but as soon as I put my foot on it, it would drop and not lift up again on it's own. Well, rush hour and all, pushed my car into Starbucks....they weren't happy as only entrance was drive thru, kept a pushing (with help of others now) into a made up parking spot. Blocking half entrance.
Now my car is stuck and Starbucks said no problem, but half in the roadway, one more time to pushing to hope it's not hit by time wrecker/tow truck arrives.
Come to find out dealership has vehicle. They said it was the master clutch cylinder, PART # 52104854AB. The part is on back order, therefor he can't guarantee he can get it, and of course, he can't give me ETA. So I've been UBER'ing myself back and forth to FT job, PT job, and had to make arrangements for kids to get rides when necessary if wife isn't home w second car. She's had to adjust her schedule as well.
Dealership cost is $673 parts and labor, not bad as I was able to find 6.5 hr labor for this type of work.
Seems this task has been done on MANY MANY DARTS!!!! Something has got to give that Dodge, even if outside of warranty, if it's defective, it's a matter of time it will fail. This should be covered. I just missed my warranty in Feb 2018 (car was supposedly made 2/2013, hence 5 year warranty just expired). I am at a loss, is this going to happen again? Something else going to go wrong with the clutch, just a different part of it??
PLEASE HELP!!!!!
Update from Aug 8, 2018: Now they said the hydraulic filled release bearing was also blown and needed to be replaced. This is another $1,000 to add. $1,700 now total. 2 weeks w no car. All out of warranty so out of pocket. The hydraulic they say need to remove entire transmission out. 6.5 hrs of work. Damn my pockets hurt!!!
- Reynaldo R., Raleigh, NC, US