Since day one, took fantastic care of my 2001 5.9 Durango, and it took care of us, wonderful truck...until i'm going DOWN "the grapevine" ( a 25 mile stretch of highway at a constant 6% grade) connecting the central valley of California to SoCal...Truck starts to overheat fiercely quick GOING DOWN HILL!!! We pull over and the upper radiator hose had came off the radiator, so we bought a hose clamp and anti-freeze, got back on the road and 2 miles later POP!!!! The other side of the upper radiator hose blew off the coolant filler-cap housing taking chunks of plastic with it. Apparently much PSI in a system designed for not much. We're stuck at the macaroni grill until family arrives to get me to a local auto parts store, bought all new hoses, fail-safe t-stat and housing, filler cap and housing and anti-freeze. Sure enough 2-3 miles later still overheating quickly after for 4-5 hours of sitting...got towed home and replaced water pump and relating parts, radiator, fan clutch and everything else that was under warranty from overheating problems 8 MONTHS AGO!!! After putting all new cooling component parts on again...NO DIFFERENCE THIS TIME AND FINAL DIAGNOSIS IS A BLOWN HEAD GASKET AND OR WARPED HEAD!!!!! Yup found coolant in my oil, looks like chocolate milk!!! I have taken such meticulous care of this vehicle this has to be a factory defect to happen at 141XXX miles, it was running better than ever moments before this ridiculous adventure. So we gonna drop in a new 5.9 with the upgraded cylinder heads. Apparently this is a real common problem.

Update from Jul 2, 2013: I used the $60 Bottle of Blue Devil in my 2001 Dodge Durango with the 5.9 engine. Found out the head gasket failed between the 3 & 5 cylinders and after following the instructions carefully, all symptoms went away. White smoke stopped puffing out of my exhaust, misfire went away, no more water in my exhaust, changed all my plugs and now idle and acceleration are smooth. Flushed/changed out nasty anti-freeze contaminated oil, all new anti-freeze, cleaned out throttle body and intake, OVERHEATING IS 85% FIXED, Still dont trust my ride to go very far but was well worth using, now being able to get place to place around town. Around $200 spent after everything said and done (Mostly fluids, hoses and plugs)

Thought about buying another Durango that needed a motor, $1700 used (my cost- I'm in the field) started reading all the complaints on here makes me wonder. My 2001 (x wife has) is around 135000 and has been an excellent SUV, no oil issues. In fact the only problems were with window regs and just replaced radiator other than that it has been ideal. My routine was to change oil every 5000 miles (good quality) change trans fluid every 30,000. Truck still runs great. I bought this one with 26000 miles on it.

Well.....I hate to mention just one failure on this piece of sh*t but I guess I will limit this to just one item. Wife lost oil pressure on the way to daycare.......Only loses pressure when the engine is up to temperature......Failure is due to oil sludge buildup.....Flushed the engine. Put new oil in...ran fine then lost pressure. I bought a 100,000 mile warranty. I bought it used with 35,000 miles. from 35,000 to 100,000 it was in the shop for three transmissions...an engine surge due to a vacuum leak the dealership could not even diagnose...and electrical failure to windows door locks etc....All I need to decide is if I will try to fix it this time or have it destroyed so no other poor sucker gets this piece of sh*t. Oh and by the way Dodge has an unlimited lifetime drive train warranty going now. I thought of buying a new dodge just so I could jam it in there ass for the next 10-12 years. But the problem lies in the fact these assholes can't even fix there own vehicles. I had to bring it to a real mechanic to get it fixed correctly. He's my friend and laughed when I told him the problem......he said you did buy a Dodge right?

My Dodge Durango Nightmare - I purchased a brand new 2001 Dodge Durango in September of 2001. In late September of 2002 the motor went out. The vehicle began overheating. I took in for repair several times only to get it back and it continue to overheat. The motor finally gave out.

My vehicle had 49,000 miles on because I drive 100 per day. After filing a Lemon Law complaint with the State of Texas I finally, after 3 months of arguing my point, got the motor replaced by Dodge. The dealer even verbally admitted to me that there is a flaw with the motor.

Today, my vehicle has 85,000. When the motor got replaced back in October of 2002, Dodge gave me a 100,000 mile warranty.

Today my husband took my vehicle to get inspected and it didn't pass emissions testing and the vehicle is leaking fluids. The mechanic asked my husband if the car had been overheating. My car is back in for service and I have a bad feeling that the engine is going out again based on what the mechanic told my husband.

I also know by searching the internet that there are several recall parts for my vehicle yet I have not recieved ANY recall notices from Dodge. I get Ford recall notices on parts just fine!!!!