After husband changed outer tire rod ends, took it to a reputable shop for an alignment. Shop called and said they couldn't do the alignment because the right and left lower control arm assembly and ball joints were shot. The car had been feeling like the front end was going to fall off for about a year, clucking and rattling over every bump. This was extremely dangerous to drive and I could have been killed had the tire rod ends given out on the freeway or otherwise. We have been buying Chrysler's for the last 20 years and it was good since my hubby worked for a spinoff company we get the discount, however no more for me. Could not believe all the blogs about the same problem with the 2007 Caliber on many sights, not just this one. All the vehicles had the same number of miles.

Chrysler should be ashamed of themselves. I'm sure they know about this problem and are still producing Calibers with the same parts. Fix it Chrysler, you owe it too AMERICA. I'm steering to a Honda!

The Control Arm on my 2007 Dodge Caliber SXT which has the rubber bushing and ball joint pressed in the unit went bad a long time ago.

I have been driving on two bad control arms for probably good 25,000 to 30,000 miles. The ball joints actually held in place. The real problem was that the bushing rubber in the other part of the control arm was giving out causing the vehicle to make a "Bang & creaking" noise when I drove the vehicle or sat in the car before driving.

I actually did the repair myself and it's a real pain in the ass. Bought the parts through a re-seller on ebay and saved a ton on the parts.

I probably saved myself $250 in parts & probably another $400 in labor. So in reality for most people this is probably a $800 repair and very expensive for front end work but that's my opinion.

This design in my opinion is retarded but I can say the engine & transmission has been solid. I read complaints on 2007 Camry models where the engine is burning a quart of oil every 600 miles with only 50,000 on the engine.. That's worse than bad suspension parts if you ask me. Even the so called "Better Brands" are far from it.

I purchased this car new and take good care of car. I noticed a popping noise when accelerating. I repaired the car myself. Both lower front ball joints nice'n sloppy. Changed ball joint and control arm as an assembly. Ball joint can be purchased separately but not recommend. Need proper tooling,also could crack control arm. The car was out of warranty. I've owned mostly mopars in the past,have had good service

out of them. Dodge better put out good quality vehicles or they will be out of business. Maybe I CAN SEND MY OLD PARTS TO DODGE AND THEY WILL REIMBURSE ME FOR MY TROUBLES. MECH. BILL

I IN MY LIFE WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER DODGE/CHRYSLER VEHICLE AGAIN. THIS IS MY SECOND DODGE, THE FIRST WAS A 2001 INTREPID HAD WATER PUMP REPLACED WHICH WAS PAIN IN ASS BECAUSE OF IT'S LOCATION AND VERY COSTLY THEN A WEEK LATER THE TIMING CHAIN BROKE BREAKING THE NEW WATER PUMP AND LOCKING UP MY ENGINE. NEXT, I PURCHASE A 2007 DODGE CALIBER 2.0L SXT IN MAY 2011, I LOVE THE STYLE AND LOOK OF CAR, IT ONLY AT PRESENT HAS 57,250 MILES ON IT, I HAD TO GET TWO NEW FRONT TIRES AND FIND OUT THE LOWER BALL JOINTS ARE BOTH BAD TO THE POINT IT'S A BIG 'SAFETY HAZARD' OF COURSE I FREAK AND HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO RUSH AND GET REPAIRED, OF COURSE NOT COVERED UNDER MY EXTENDED WARRANTY. EVERY MECHANIC I HAVE SPOKEN TO ABOUT THIS ISSUE IS COMPLETELY SHOCKED THAT AT SUCH LOW MILEAGE THIS COULD HAVE GONE BAD. I TURN AROUND AND LOOK ON HERE AND SURE ENOUGH EVERYONE WHO OWNS THIS P.O.S HAS THE SAME ISSUE AND IT EVEN REPEATS ITSELF. YOU MEAN TO TELL ME DODGE WON'T DO ANYTHING?! THAT'S RIDICULOUS AND DISGUSTING! WE ALL HAVE TO PUSH TOGETHER AND CONTINUE TO FIGHT THEM ON IT, I WILL CALL THEM EVERY DAY IF I HAVE TO, I HAVE CAR PAYMENTS SO AS MUCH AS I WANT TO JUST TURN THE CAR IN I CAN'T BECAUSE I HAVEN'T OWNED IT THAT LONG SO IT WOULDN'T BE FINANCIALLY FEASIBLE FOR ME TO DO SO. LET'S ALL FIGHT, THEY NEED TO HEAR OUR VOICES AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE. ANOTHER USER WAS RIGHT WE BAILED THEM OUT NOW WHY ARE THEY NOT OWNING UP TO THEIR MISTAKES AND ACCEPTING THIS IS A ISSUE THAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A RECALL? WHAT IS GOING ON IN THEIR HEADS?! LET'S FIGHT TOGETHER, WE DON'T DESERVE TO BE SCREWED AROUND, WE ARE THE CONSUMERS, WE NEED TO TAKE THIS TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL/BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU OR SOMETHING. ONE COMPLAINT ISN'T ENOUGH, EVEN IF THEY TURN YOU AWAY KEEP PUSHING THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO PUSH US AROUND LIKE THIS.

We had the ball joints and A arms replaced at 35740 miles right before the warranty ran out and now 15000 miles later they are bad again. I don't abuse this car and take very good care of it change the oil regularly and everything I think it sucks that the ball joints only lasted 15000 miles and now we are planning a trip to Fl. next month and will have to pay to have this piece of crap fixed. I will never purchase another Dodge as long as I live. This car is the last one we will ever buy. Chrysler should be doing a recall on these cars, there are so many complaints about this problem and it is wrong of them not to fix it!!!!!

Ok so for a month or so i hear this awful clunking that is heard when i hit bumps, when i stop, when i take off, and even when i sit and turn. Sounded like typical problems of a balljoint. I have quite the bit of mechanical experience myself and so i'm very familiar with diagnosing a car and fixing them. I heard it and i figured well i'll google it to see if other people have the problem and of course, obviously, they do. So i bring it to a family mechanic that owns a shop because i knew he would look at it for free especially since i'm only TWO THOUSAND miles PAST the warranty and the dealership wants 120 bucks JUST to DIAGNOSE it. big coincidence right? He calls me back and says both ball joints in the front are EXTREMELY dangerous and need to be replaced asap. so i said well how much? he says 400 bucks. much cheaper than the dealership but no one wants to spend 400 bucks on a vehicle repair. so i said well i can just replace it myself right? just drill out the 4 rivots and replace the new one that has nuts and bolts? wrong. these new ones are pressed in and so you need to have equipment that auto repair places only have.

Ball joints can last up to 100,000 miles if you want them to. you know why? because they have grease fittings that allow you to maintain the life on them. but not the ones on the dodge caliber. what a joke. i'm so glad that these didn't pop out on me and cause a serious accident with my 2 and a half old in the car.

After seeing all the complaints about this, I too had to add my two cents! I purchased my 2007 Caliber.. used... at a well known large volume used car business that. exactly one year after purchase, a started hearing a creaking. it seemed to be better in the cold weather, but once this Texas steam starts....it sounds like I was driving a rickety old covered wagon from the prairie days, needless to say we took it to the mechanic, who said it's highly unusual but my front ball joints needed replacing, done. noise continues, took it back, replaced rear struts and strut mounts...still this ungodly creaking noise....it's about to drive me insane!

With no warrantee, or extended warrantee, and on a limited budget, I am truly afraid this car is going break in half. Shame shame shame on you Chrysler.....I never will buy another one of your brands.

Where is the recall notice on this vehicle? Oh wait....how many decent human being must die before the recall is made on this problem?

2 mechanics said no way these ball joints/arm should have been bad with this many miles. Called Chrysler recall hotline, no recalls for this problem that obviously is happening to tons of people. She did say at Chrysler to save my receipts in case there is a recall, which makes me think Chrysler knows about the problem, knows it's a critical safety issue, but isn't doing anything about it. My tax dollar bailed out Chrysler, but they are doing nothing to gain confidence from the American public. this stinks... and I'm out $1500.00.

I bought my 2007 Dodge Caliber in 2008 with only 5,000 miles on it. It now has about 49,200 miles on it and the whole front end of the car is worn out. I called Chrysler and stayed on the phone for about an hour. I explained to them that the front end parts were shot and they responded by telling me to take it to a dealership and get them to further diagnose the problem. I told the person that I had worked on enough vehicle that I knew when the the ball joints and control arms are bad. The only thing that he kept saying was to take it to the dealership and let them further diagnose the problem. I can't stand to just let the car sit there in the yard so I am having to spend a $350 to fix it myself!!!

Got the car new in 2009 (2007 model, 6 kilometer on the odometer). I took it in for my 3rd oil change at around 34000 kilometers and the dealer did a inspection and told me the tie rods, and control arms needed to be replaced. This dealer wasn't my normal dealer so I took it to the dealer where I bought the car only to find out my warranty expired 3 months earlier. It sucks the warranty period is different depending on what country you buy the car because mine was only a 2 year warranty or 120000 kilometers while the states (at the time) had the unlimited or the 3 year (i forgot which exactly) factory warranty, so I had to come out of pocket the equivalent to around 1500 USD to fix eveything. My advice to anyone thinking about buying a Chrysler product at least in a foreign country, DONT it will cost you to much to fix if you have a problem! This problem should have been recalled or serviced as a defective parts!

As it has been with many other 2007 Dodge Caliber owners, today we had to get both control arms replaced... and the tires because they were worn due to the bad control arms. I checked the Dodge owners website and, like usual, "There are no recalls in effect for your vehicle."

Because Dodge refuses to recall obvious defects in the parts they chose to build our vehicles with, we are forced to pay substantial repair costs.

I thought the rapid tire wear was unusual, but blamed most of it on gravel roads and my apparent inability to keep the tires properly inflated. I thought the steering wheel shaking on the highway was unusual but thought it was just the tires needed to be replaced. So, we set out to buy tires today.

The tire center representative told us about the control arms and told us that it's common on these cars. It was through a little research of my own that I discovered hundreds of consumer complaints about the front end of the Dodge Caliber - specifically the 2007's. I couldn't believe it.

What struck me as being extremely odd however, was that most of the complaints are for Calibers with mileage of 40-50k. Yeah, that's odd. Sounds to me like these parts have a life expectancy of 40,000 miles. Those of us in the 50,000 mile range before replacement are the lucky ones.

So, the repairs today, because of the rapid tire wear caused by the bad control arms, come to more than $1400. That includes tires and the control arms. Had I known the control arms were only going to last 4 years and that their demise also meant the demise of the tires, I would have never bought a Caliber.

Same story here. 33,000 miles and just had the ball joints replaced by my local mechanic. He and two other mechanics said that there's NO WAY this should happen at 33,000. They politely said the suspension was a "piece of crap." Didn't mention anything about the control arms. hmmmm....

I probably should have waited and contacted Dodge first, but my warranty is up (It's been four years since purchase) and it was a safety issue...not to mention we need the car.

Can't believe my two teenagers were driving it, too. SCARY. Will contact Dodge now, and hopefully they will see this as a BIG DEAL and issue a recall. Is my transmission next? Glad I found this site.