Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | |||
| 01/14/2010 | 160582 | 1 | |
| Have a 2002 dodge dakota with a 4.7 litre engine ,engine has severe oil sludge which cause my vehicle to break down. this has happened twice ,the first time i notice engine running hot,took it to my mechanic and he removed the valve covers and noticed severe oil sludge ,proceeded to take the engine apart and cleaned it and put it back together,this was less than 20,000 miles ago.we wenton a trip that was a bout 260 miles away ,it was a cold morning ,engine got hot and started running rough then we heard a loud noise then the truck start clanking under the hood. i took the valve covers off and it was clogged again. now i have found out that this engine is famous for this problem and chrysler knows it can you help. *tr | |||
| 03/15/2002 | 22200 | 3 | 01/09/2002 |
| At just 22,200 miles truck in for third time for engine light being on. this time the thermostat was broken. less than 1000 miles since the last time it was on, last time the canister hose was cracked. *jb | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - COOLING SYSTEM | |||
| 10/01/2006 | 50000 | 5 | 03/13/2003 |
| I have had several alarming failures with my dodge dakota quad cab. it is a 2002 v6 auto transmission pw pl. i have had the ball joints replaced because of the recall, my transmission has failed (twice), my front hubs & spindles completely disintegrated and could have killed my family, my water pump has failed and had to be replaced, the driver side taillight seems to fail often, the vacuum hoses have all had to be replaced because of the cheap rubber used by the manufacturer fail by cracking and causing all sorts of leaks causing engine lights, loud noises under the hood, and horrible gas mileage. i have done everything possible to be proactive in my maintenance of the vehicle. i have had the major repairs done professionally. i do not understand how a 2002 vehicle can have so many potentially fatal problems and be ignored. i have searched high and low for quality bulletins but cannot find anything. my gas mileage is now down to 14 mpg and the truck is falling apart. *jb | |||
| 06/27/2004 | 9000 | 5 | |
| Vehicle stalled. the manufacturer stated that they could not get the vehicle to repeat the problem. manufacturer replaced the vehicle chip on four occasions, but it continued to stall. *ak | |||
| 08/09/2002 | 1 | 08/01/2002 | |
| I drove this pickup three times before running into a bad overheat problem. i was driving at a very slow speed because of traffic that day. my girlfriend and i were heading out for the weekend for some camping and fun when my brand new truck overheated on the freeway and spilled coolant all over the freeway. this problem ruined our whole weekend and my hopes of having a good reliable truck. now i am having extreme difficulties in getting anyone in the customer service department to help with my problem about reporting to the manufacturer.*ak | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE | |||
| 08/12/2002 | 447 | 2 | 08/12/2002 |
| Dt: the contact had a problem with the oil pressure staying on high most of the time since august 12, 2002. in september 2002 the obd light came on. she kept taking vehicle to the dealer to be repaired. every time she took it in to a dealership they would say that there was no problem. while driving in august 2005 the oil pressure dropped, causing the vehicle to die. the contact heard a sound, the check engine light came on ,and then three seconds later it died. afterwards, she took it to a dealership, and they said that it was due to lack of maintenance. the contact has copies of most of the oil changes. the contact has the oil changed every 3,000 miles. she found that there are many other people having the same problem online. the dealership told the contact that there was sludge in the engine. and that the whole engine needed replacement. . the contact called the customer service of dodge ,and they said that it was covered under warranty. the area representative told dodge that there was sludge in the engine and that there was lack of maintenance, and that the warranty expired. *ak | |||
| 05/21/2004 | 54000 | 1 | 07/15/2002 |
| On our way to the hospital (after dark) when the oil pressure went to '0' and check engine light came on. truck started slowing down (as if downshifted) and smoking. about the time we got to the shoulder of the road it backfired and a flash came from the back of the truck and it died. i have a 2002 dodge dakota. we had to call 911 and get a deputy to pick us up and take us to the hospital. *la | |||
| 04/01/2003 | 1 | 04/19/2003 | |
| 2002 dodge dakota quad cab w/ 5.9 liter engine. my truck suffers from a shaky idle, very prevalent when releasing the brake and rolling. is worse at cold start up. i suspect ignition system= location of coil may be the cause due to being so close to the tensioner pulley or a out-of balance harmonic balancer. *jb | |||
| 01/17/2003 | 35 | 2 | 06/13/2002 |
| Warm engine idle on 4.7l engine in 2002 dakota quad cab stumbles when idling at traffic lights. rpm at normal idle only 500 to 550. when fluctuation occurs idle speed ranges between 450 rpms to 650 rpms. engine vibrates due to low idle rpm and has stalled on one occasion. to prevent stall out i need to shift automatic transmission into neutral. have been to dealer twice and was told they can't fix as no tsb has been received allowing for change to computer. this has been an ongoing problem since i bought the truck new last june. not just date specific as requested by an incident date. *jb | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE - GASOLINE | |||
| 10/09/2005 | 41369 | 1 | 10/15/2002 |
| I was driving to pa from fl in my 2002 dodge dakota quad cab with a v-8 4.7l engine (msrp $27,000)when i heard a ticking noise while in sc. all fluid levels were fine, so i continued on my journey on tues. oct. 11, 2005 i found out the diagnosis which was that 3 rods inside the engine had seized and a new engine was required to fix it. i was shocked and assumed that chrysler would take responsibility since i had an extended warranty through chrysler. the chrysler adjustor finally arrived to check out my truck on fri. oct. 14 and that is when i heard the horrendous news that chrysler was not taking responsibility for their end of the contract and stated that there was a lack of maintenance on my truck. after i found that out i immediately had all of my maintenance records faxed to me from fl which proved that i faithfully changed my oil every 3,000 miles or less. i assumed that this would be sufficient for them to fix my engine. i decided to leave sc due to costly hotel expenses and had my sister come from va to pick my daughter and i up where we at least had a free place to stay temporarily till my truck was fixed. i found out the terrible news on mon. oct. 24th that my maintenance records meant nothing to the chrysler corporation. i received the response lack of maintenance as being the reason why they would not take responsibility. i was shocked that my extended warranty that i paid almost 1800.00 for to cover this type of situation would not cover this repair. my truck had 41,369 miles on it when the engine seized. the estimate i received for repairing the engine was $7,301.00. i called chrysler customer service and asked why my maintenance records were not honored and was told this is the final decision mam. i asked for faxes to be sent to me regarding the adjustors report & a letter from chrysler saying that responsibility was not being taken by them for the repair and was told that they could not send that to me. *jb | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - EXHAUST SYSTEM - EMISSION CONTROL - CRANKCASE (PCV) | |||
| 05/07/2002 | 5000 | 4 | 12/15/2002 |
| My truck has loud knocking noise in engine and does not shift properely, have taken truck in and they say the engine racing is normal. the knocking noise is a purge solinoid which dodge addmits theres a problem but refuses to fix. they have made adjustments which now has affected performance to engine. i have had it in shop 4 times so far with no results. they try to tell you theres nothing wrong like its your own imagination. | |||