This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The contact owns a 2005 Dodge Ram 2500. The contact stated that while driving 70 mph over a road bump, the front end of the vehicle started jerking violently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who was not able to diagnose the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure who advised the contact to call a different dealer for a second opinion. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 20,000 and the current mileage was 170,000.
I just purchased my used 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 and decided to take it on a 1500 mile round trip to test it out. At speeds over 55 mph, I experienced the death wobble whenever I would hit uneven pavement. My conservative estimate is that it happened no less than 50 times during the trip. It was very scary and dangerous as many times I was traveling 70 mph with semis right beside me. The Dodge dealer quoted me over $1200 to replace the steering dampener as well as the ball joints, with no guarantee that it would even fix the problem. This could have very easily caused a death if someone less experienced than myself was driving. I am very surprised that Dodge has not intervened with this obvious design flaw as it could very well cause serious injury including death.
Dealer had my truck twice since the recall. He told me that there was a tie-rod assembly, steering linkage and front end needed. I only have 49,000 miles on it and there's a recall for these defects with Chrysler id 11V350000 - they old me that it would cost me $3,000 the first time and then I came back to get parts and now they are telling me they will give me a break on parts - this is fraud if there's a recall plus they should have fixed it the first time for free - it was totally under warranty at both times.
My Dodge Ram 2500 truck has a violent death wobble issue. At freeway speeds when hitting an uneven bump in the pavement the truck goes into a sustaining death wobble type motion in the front end. It is extremely scary, and quite dangerous. The truck is completely out of control and must be slowed to approximately 30 mph for the wobble to stop. I've taken my truck to the Dodge dealer several times and they cannot find the problem. I've replaced everything, the axle, steering dampener 3 times, ball joints, alignment adjustments, new tires. The problem goes away for a short time but then always returns. I'm afraid to drive my truck on the freeway and my kids are afraid to drive in my truck period. When it happens it's very wild and scary. All the traffic around me slows down and swerves to get away from my truck. It's not only dangerous and scary, but embarrassing too. I don't know what to do. I've tried everything and nothing is working. Dodge is pretty much useless. They turned their back on me since all the components check out fine. They said there's nothing that they can do. I need a resolution for this problem.
- Simi Valley, CA, USA
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We bought an 05 Dodge Ram 2500. On a trip with a small trailer after hitting a bump the front end started shaking violently. (death wobble) after slowing the truck shaking went away. Problem recurred several times on this trip. On way home no issues. Trailer empty. Issue recurred while wife was driving truck to work, no trailer. Bumps an potholes seem to set it off at speeds over 55mph. Took to dealer they found no issues. Put 2" spacer lift on truck with different tires. Problem seemed to go away. Over the past several years truck drives O.K unless hooked to a trailer. Last occurrence was 10-2-11 on trip to South Dakota. Problem recurred 3 times in 5 miles. I made adjustments to equalizer hitch (tightened 1 link) and had no more issues on this trip. This is a major safety issue with these trucks and need to be addressed. Web searches show this is a very common problem. It would be nice if Dodge would issue a recall and fix this issue.
While traveling westbound on ga 53 towards rome, ga. As I entered a very long sweeping right curve at 60 mph, I hit a pothole or something in the roadway. It may have just been the raised tar strips from the dot's patching job, they are pretty rough. My steering wheel starting teetering left and right extremely violently at about a 20-25 degrees. Within seconds the entire front end was hopping to and from causing the truck to move in a straight path even though I was in the middle of a right handed curve of a state hwy! luckily there wasn't any traffic in the left-hand lane because that's where the truck went. I applied the brakes hard and slowed to about 20 mph and it just stop and was all normal again! as I was reeling from the experience and hoping it didn't break anything in, under or on my truck, I realized traffic was rapidly approaching from behind so I accelerated quickly and at some point around 55mph it started again! this time I applied he brakes more slowly and it seemed to worsen until suddenly at 30 mph it stopped again. After that I played with my speed and steering to try to get a feel for what was going on with my truck, as I have been hearing of this "death wobble" for several years, but never had experienced it. As I accelerated past 40 mph and turning the steering wheel even as slightly as just changing lanes it would start up again, but if I straightened up the steering soon enough, it would stop before getting to a full blown wobble again. This is extremely scary and I haven't let my family in the truck since. Please do something with Dodge about this before someone gets hurt or killed!
I was driving on a 2 lane asphalt road at approximately 55mph. I was crossing a bridge and when I got to the end, there was a low spot in the roadway. When the truck hit the bump, the front end started shaking violently and uncontrollably and I had to hit the brakes and slow to 25 mph before it quit. On 12/17/2010 my wife was driving this vehicle at 70 mph on I-35. She said she hit an expansion joint in the roadway and the truck started shaking violently and she could not control it and went off into the center median before bringing it under control.
I have a 05 Dodge Ram and I snapped my axle for the second time! the first time I did it I slid into a curb and snapped the end of my axle clean off with the whole brake system still attached to rim and tire which was completely intact. All hit had damaged on it was a scratch on the rim. I thought it was a freak accident so I took care of it myself and purchased the same exact axle. A couple weeks ago I was driving on a flat dirt road at about thirty miles per hour when a coyote ran out in front of me. To Dodge it I swirved into a dry up mud rut which is usually no big deal to drive into but when I went into it my truck quickly turned sideways then whipped me back around in the direction I was heading in. I got out of my truck and saw that my driver side wheel ripped completely off! I went around to the passenger side and saw that my axle was snapped in the exact same way that I did it the first time! like somebody cut it off with a knife! I was furious to see this so that next weed I called Dodge and complained because one time is a freak accident but two. The man told me he has never heard of an axle breaking and that is not suppose to happen and my warranty should cover it. Dodge sent out a warranty adjuster to look at my vehicle and after that I got a letter in the mail saying that they will not warranty it becauce the damage was do to impact. I researched the web and found daimlerchryslervehicleproblems.com and saw alot of bad info on Chrysler vehicles. I even saw a video of my exact same truck with its axle snapped just like mine was! I also read that Dodge has problems with there axles shearing/hubs seperating causing wheels to fall off! Chrysler lied to me saying that they've never heard of axles braking when it clearly shows on that website that they have this problem and do nothing about and refuse to fix there broken products. These vehicles are dangerous and something needs to be done about. Its been a month and my knee is still swollen.
2005 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel 4X4 truck experiences frequent sudden loss of control due to front wheel shimmy (death wobble). Received recall notice but dealer stated my vehicle is not included in that recall. There is a tsb (22-005-006)on it but it should be a recall.
I own a 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 4X4 and am constantly experiencing what is known as the death wobble. This is when the front end starts shaking violently, to the point where the vehicle loses all control. This happens every time I hit a bump, pothole, bridge, anything in the road. This is experienced at speeds of 30mph and above. I experience this issue about once a week. I am not the only one with this issue, there are hundreds and hundreds of people online that are experiencing this issue. The issue is none of them know to file a complaint on here to get the ball rolling against daimler Chrysler.
I was driving on an access road with my wife when a vehicle pulled out in front of me. I hit the brakes to avoid hitting the other vehicle. I maintained control of our vehicle and stayed in the same lane not hitting anything, but we heard a pop and the vehicle started shaking making it hard to control. I could not keep the steering wheel straight anymore. Then we smelled a burning odor and heard something scraping the ground. We pulled over and saw that the 4 wheel drive shaft was hanging down. We then talked with the service advisor and he informed us in his opinion that this was the result of an accident and we would have to file under our insurance. We looked at the damage and saw a small dent in the front differential casing, broken drive shaft, two suspension arms bent, and dent in oil pan from the axle being pushed back. We informed the service advisor that we did not hit any vehicle or any objects in the roadway. We are not going to make a false claim on our insurance for something that is a manufacturing defect with the truck. The service advisor believes that we hit something which made the small dent in the differential casing and this caused all the other damage described above. There is no way a small dent in the differential casing could cause all the damage that occurred. This dent could have occurred from a rock hitting it; it is a very small dent. If we would of hit something, there probably would have been damage to the front bumper and transmission as well which sits lower than the differential. Also, if we hit the differential, which is made from aluminum, there probably there would have been a substantial amount of damage to it. His theory does not make sense to us. We believe there could be a defect with the suspension bars on my vehicle. Also the drive shaft could have catapulted us causing a serious collision and injuries to us.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Billings, MT, USA