In 2005 my 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 2x4 crew cab-long bed truck went to the dealer to figure out why it shook terribly when driving down a smooth road. It had fairly new tires, but dodge told me that it was the tires and would not look further. So I replaced the pricey Dueler AT Revos ($900), still had the vibration. Then they told me it was my brakes and rotors. I had them replaced ($250), no change. By now the thing shook so bad it would shake a soda flat in about 1 mile. For $100 deductible they rebuilt the rear end, no change. For $100 deductible they replaced u-joints, no change. Then they told me that they needed to order a special tool to balance the drive shaft. I kept calling week after week, but they still didn't have the tool. I had to go out of town to care for a sick parent, which turned into months of care and guess what...it went out of warranty. Gas went up and I hardly drove it after that, but since then the whole dash fell apart, and the A/C system developed leak under the dash, in total they want $2400 to replace the dash and the heater core. The passenger window works intermittently, and never seems to fail when at the dealer, so they don't know what to repair on that. Finally I took it to a local mechanic who quickly discovered a bad ball joint and a leaky, loose rack and pinion that is days from failing. I don't have another $1000 to fix the front end that I've been told was most likely the culprit for the vibration all along. The mechanic won't touch the dash, says there are too many parts to break once you rip it apart and told me to take it to the dealer. Dodge should be ashamed of themselves. They kept putting me off hoping the truck would go out of warranty before they had to fix the vibration, and it did. A 40K dollar truck should not need major repairs after just 3 years. Now the beast sits in my driveway, in a puddle of fluid rotting because I can't afford to fix it, and no one wants to buy it.

in the past month and a half i have now went through 5 rack and pinions, and my truck is now sitting in my driveway after trying to help my family clean the following day after my wedding! my local mechanic no longer wants to help because this problem is obviously something that they have no control over and cant keep installing one every week for me, because this is a manufacturer defect and they dont get paid from me if the part that they sell me brakes. so now what? pay the dodge dealership $1500 to fix it and let them deal with it every week until they decide to tell me to get lost?

Mechanical grief with our Dodge began with the replacement of the rack and pinion, upper control arm, along with the upper and lower ball joints, and the tie rod ends. To top it off with an alignment. Thinking all was well with the truck now, we were severely wrong. Was making a sharp right turn and heard a loud popping noise come from the front right passenger side. The boot on the rack and pinion was twisted, ripped, and leaking large amounts of power steering fluid. We've replaced the rack and pinion three times within the month thinking we kept getting faulty rack and pinions. Nope, this last time it got really scary because the steering actually locked up when I was pulling into the shop. But finally the shop discovered that the steering knuckles are busted which is causing the tire to turn too far ripping the rack and pinion boot and popping the seal. The only place you can get steering knuckles is from the dealership at $356 each. Because of the steering knuckles being faulty its busting the rack and pinion wich is draining the power steering fluid causing the very expensive, very dangerous domino effect.

The day I picked up my new "used" truck at the dealer, I started it up and heard the PS pump squealing. Shut it off and went in to the salesman. He brought it into service and had them fill up the empty PS Fluid. Never investigated as to why it was empty. Drove it home and went to work the next day. When I started it to go home the same thing occurred. They wanted me to drive to the dealership to take a look at it. My husband said "NO!". Drove it home (3 miles away) where my husband demanded they bring a flatbed to pick it up. The dealership put a "clamp" on the hose fitting and claimed fixed. That held for about a week or two. Problem reoccurs. Back to dealership where they replace the line and give us a hard time about whether or not it is covered by warranty!!! I just BOUGHT it!!! I should have known then about that service department, but the crap continues on in other problems I have listed.

Well I am another disappointed Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 owner. Here we go again within a year my rack and pinion failed. I will fix it this time and get rid of it. I wonder if anyone has been in a wreck due to this failure...A piss poor design...

Update from Aug 30, 2009: Well it's been a week or 2 trying to sell this truck and here it goes again blowing the rack seals just turning super sharp in a car wash..this sucks..to clean it to sell my truck,,Back to repairing ,The boots on the rack and pinion are as big as arnold swartzinager in training..full of power steering fluid leaking from the rack seal that are wasted Warranty is my first thought ..ok someone please tell me why if you turn sharp I mean all the way left ot right you blow the rack seals out??? This is bullshit.. $800.00 for 2 weeks come-on I won''t even leave the repair shop until

I twist the wheel all the way left then all the way right about 200 times.. what a shity deal..

I think I have most of you guys on here beat...Im going on my 6th..yeah thats right 6th steering rack and pinion in my Ram 1500. All of them have happened within around 5000 or less miles of each other starting about 11 months ago. And I blew ANOTHER one today. Granted my truck is lifted but only professionally done with a CST lift kit and lightly street driven never abused off road. This is all on top of getting a complete new cooling system, Transmission, Rear end, and countless other parts totaling around the 12,000 dollar mark. SO believe me I have felt the dodge ownership pain, and it is NOT fun by any means. I will never in my life purchase another dodge vehicle.

I am on my fourth steering rack....what the hell...The supplier replaced the first one on warranty but then I had to pay again for the third..Now after the fourth rack, the supplier said that it might be a pump problem.. Every time it broke, I'm turning or I have full throttle passing, I hear a poof...and I know exactly what happens after that..I near hit the ditch due to not having any steering and with two kids in the truck, that's scary. I'm off to the store to get a pump, If this doesn't fix the problem, then I have a truck for sale and I'll be off to the Toyota dealership to buy a real truck.

I purchased this vehicle in 2003 used with 18,000 miles, five years later only 57,000 less then 8,000 miles a year. Every recall has occurred to this vehicle, steering column smoking, ac blower replace, drivers side power windows control panel replaced, radio volume not working properly, mirrors on truck just spinning, and now I'm leaking power steering fluid all over. Stealer told me its the Rack and seals need to be replaced about an $800.00 job. Service manager not sure if covered, what the hell!!!! This truck has road tires on it, never been in mud pampered, and still has problems. I am not going to buy another Dodge/Chrysler product, they just seem to fall apart under minimal strenuous activity. I am so disappointed.

2002 Dodge ram 1500 ihad to have the rearend replaced at 38000 had to pay 100.00 deductible Had body rot for the third time it took one year of fighting with dealership and a threat of painting the side of my truck if you want sh*t work and sh*t service take your truck to s in Syracuse that worked but when i went to pick up the truck the body shop had missed a strip one inch wide by three feet long they wanted me to take my truck home and bring it back some other time i told them i wasn't taking the truck until it was done right.ALSO while the truck was there i asked them to look at a leak in my power steering you want to guess what they told me??? my rack and pinion is shot and with 46000 miles on it I'm out of luck. Great truck nothing put problems from day one

Honestly...you'd think that a truck new at $30K would last at least to it's first major checkup without totally falling apart. Low and behold, Dodge found a way to make it happen. I'll go into detail here about the problems and then add them individually to boost the exposure. First, at about 30K miles, the rear differential completely shelled itself, luckily under warranty. A $1200 bill avoided. Next, got into my truck one day using the hand grip on the driver side just inside the door and it FELL OFF!!! I guess Dodge didn't find it necessary to make a part that needs to withstand a little pressure out of metal. It's still barely hanging on, so I guess I need to fix that. I also saw a check engine come on at about 50K, took it in hoping my pride and joy wasn't on its last leg. The dealership told me that it had a blown fuse most likely caused by a bad A/C fan. They had heard reports that Dodge was having trouble with that particular A/C fan. They weren't sure that was it, but if it happened again shortly, then it definitely was the A/C fan. You guessed it, it happened about a month later. Lastly, I'm driving around and hear what seems like the power steering pump going out, I was ecstatic. I open the reservoir to see that it's bone dry and see that there is a boat load of power steering fluid on the drivers side steering rack and nearby parts. So, needless to say that the truck will be sitting while I drive my wife's 120K mile 2002 Trailblazer which hardly ever gets an oil change and drives great. Reading how this happens quite a bit with this truck (my dad also owns one, a 2004, and is having the same problem too) and noticing that it usually costs around $600 to $800 to fix, I am definitely going to do what another poster has recommended and try to file some type of formal complaint. This is horse s**t.