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When the wheels fall off: U.S. wants Dodge SUV, pickup recall

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Federal safety regulators have told DaimlerChrysler to recall 600,000 of the most popular vehicles on the road -- the Dodge Durango SUV and the Dodge Dakota pickup truck -- due to problems with front-end ball joints.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall covers Durangos and Dakotas built from 2000 to 2003, a spokesman for the safety agency told CNN Thursday.

CBS News had reported that some Durango drivers were put in dangerous driving situations when ball joints failed.

Text
 
The story behind it:
In 2000, Dodge changed manufacturers of thier ball joints from one company to another. In late 2003, they were redesigned. The ball joints do go bad at an unusuallly high failure rate, but they have to be EXTREMELY bad to cause a safety hazard. I've had my ball joints replaced in early 2004 under the extended warrentee (so far the only signifigant non-wear item work), symptoms are an alignment problem, and odd tire wear.

Part of the safety problem is that unless it is making a butt load of noise or the car's shaking uncontrollably, noone ever takes care of thier cars. How many times do you see people run thier pads down to metal? And those DO make noise.
 
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
The story behind it:
In 2000, Dodge changed manufacturers of thier ball joints from one company to another. In late 2003, they were redesigned. The ball joints do go bad at an unusuallly high failure rate, but they have to be EXTREMELY bad to cause a safety hazard. I've had my ball joints replaced in early 2004 under the extended warrentee (so far the only signifigant non-wear item work), symptoms are an alignment problem, and odd tire wear.

Part of the safety problem is that unless it is making a butt load of noise or the car's shaking uncontrollably, noone ever takes care of thier cars. How many times do you see people run thier pads down to metal? And those DO make noise.
Click to expand...


Apparently you missed the memo. Don't you realize that we live in a responsibilty-free society? Anything "BAD" that happens to you is somebody else's fault (you are a victim). Consequences are NEVER a result of poor choices/negligence on your part. 😉
 
Originally posted by: ScoobMaster
Apparently you missed the memo. Don't you realize that we live in a responsibilty-free society? Anything "BAD" that happens to you is somebody else's fault (you are a victim). Consequences are NEVER a result of poor choices/negligence on your part. 😉
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I get the memos all the time. I use them to wipe my ass with.
 
so when Ford has a recall it's all Ford's fault. when Dodge has a recall it's only that people don't want to be responsible for themselves.

 
I already did the ball joints on my '99 Dak. Guess I am screwed once again since this falls out of the years for the recall. 🙁
 
Now if only the NHTSA forces them to install brakes on their SUVs we'll all be happy! 😀

/obligatory Onion reference
 
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Part of the safety problem is that unless it is making a butt load of noise or the car's shaking uncontrollably, noone ever takes care of thier cars. How many times do you see people run thier pads down to metal? And those DO make noise.
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So they speak ill of your Dakota, so you decide to blame "part" of the safety issue on users to make Chrysler look better?
 
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
so when Ford has a recall it's all Ford's fault. when Dodge has a recall it's only that people don't want to be responsible for themselves.
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I was thinking the same thing. Whenever someone posts a Ford Recall thread just about everyone replies in a negative way. If it's any other car company the replies are yea for me I get new parts on my car or good for them to fix a safety issue.
 
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
so when Ford has a recall it's all Ford's fault. when Dodge has a recall it's only that people don't want to be responsible for themselves.
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Nope (I was just responding tounge-in-cheek to Demon-Xanth's post) 🙂

Although.......I do stand behind my statement in a global sense for today's society. Manufacturers have a responsibilty to offer a decent quality and safe product, while consumers are responsible to use and maintain said products correctly. Cleary this case appears to be a manufacturing problem (most likely on the manufacturer of the actual ball-joint and perhaps not DC directly). However, how many consumers today misuse/abuse/neglect a product and then expect the manufacturer to fix things for them (example - toasting a PC motherboard due to a slip of a screwdriver or other "self-inflicted: errant move and call the manufacturer/distributor for an RMA for a dead product)
 
so we're up to 4 american vehicles in one year where it's come to light that the wheels fall off. ALL of which were trucks or SUVs.

meanwhile, no Hyundais have this problem...

Hyundais > America

...and that's a sorry state of affairs.
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
so we're up to 4 american vehicles in one year where it's come to light that the wheels fall off. ALL of which were trucks or SUVs.

meanwhile, no Hyundais have this problem...

Hyundais > America

...and that's a sorry state of affairs.
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my initial thought on the whole American cars thing as well...
 
I hate it when the wheels fall off my car when I'm driving it...Good job Chrysler!!! Way to keep up the poor quality standards of American makes!!!
 
I'm not saying that the parts SHOULDN'T be replaced, I'm just saying that I doubt the wheels ever suddenly fall off. I've talked to alot of Dakota owners, many that have had to pay to have the joints replaced. I'm talking about on the scale of atleast triple digits. We've been hoping for a recall for a couple years now. Not one of the people that I've talked to have ever had thier wheel fall off. I've only heard of two stories of the wheel falling off, and guess what? They're both in the Soccer Mom demographic.

It's like people getting email worms. If they were paying attention and had a clue, they wouldn't get them, but if MS didn't make crap, they wouldn't have to look.
 
Originally posted by: rh71
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
so we're up to 4 american vehicles in one year where it's come to light that the wheels fall off. ALL of which were trucks or SUVs.

meanwhile, no Hyundais have this problem...

Hyundais > America

...and that's a sorry state of affairs.
Click to expand...
my initial thought on the whole American cars thing as well...
Click to expand...

My experience with cars (mustang, camry and subaru legacy) has completley failed to reinforce any of the stereotypes that american cars are somehow inferior to asian makes. I'd prefer the mustang to either of those three unless its snowing, and then the subaru is the obvious choice 🙂
 
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