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.
This is not a safety related failure, but a known problem that has gone unfixed by Chrysler corporation, according to repair shops in my area. I have a 1998 Dodge Dakota with 65,000 miles. I'm the 2nd owner. VIN# [xxx]. the problem is with the A/C evaporator. According to repair shops in louisville, ky. Chrysler has had a known problem with their evaporators for almost 10 years, since changing over to the 134 freon. The defective evaporators usually will last till the vehicle is out of warranty and then fail. All oem replacement parts have had the problem fixed and tend to not fail, according to the shops. This is a very costly repair, due to Dodge placing the evaporator under the dash, which has to be removed to repair. I feel, based on what the repair shops are telling me, that Dodge should stand behind at least a portion or the cost to replace these evaporators. The average cost for a Dodge truck is $800. Below are 2 shops which I've spoken: Roppel's radiator/ac 632 baxter ave. Louisville, ky. 502-587-8648. SE-cliffs truck ac 4436 popular level road louisville, ky. 502-458-5319 thanks, for any help you may be of updated 07/25/2012.
Air conditioning hose leading to aluminum assembly failed due to cut in hose. Middle portion of hose rests directly over one corner of plastic air filter cover assembly. At the corner of air filter cover there is a small vertical spline that is part of the molded pastic lid cover. The thickness of the spline is similar to a common plastic picnic knife but without serrations. Apparently over time due to vibration while driving, the hose rubbed against this plastic spline wearing a 1/4 inch slit/hole. When the hose finally rubbed through, the refrigerant decompressed rapidly. I consider this a safety hazard as all automoble air conditioning refrigerant contains a certain amount of oil. When the refrigerant decompreses explosively or extremely rapidly, it creates a mist that is highly flammable. Tires. The original manufacturer tires (Goodyear P235/70 R16) have premature wear and the vehicle pulls to the right when braking. Excessive tire wear has taken place to varying degress on all four tires. Tire wear was first noticed around 25,000 miles, but due to the amount of wear, I estimate it started at 20,000 miles. These tires are rated for 40-45,000 miles. I do not think the tires are at fault. Since the truck veers to the right when braking, I suspect that an out-of-alignment condition exists. Premature tire wear presents a safety hazard if the tire fails at highway speeds. Also, an out-of-alignment condition should not exist before 20-25,000 miles on a new vechicle.
This is the 13th seperate Dakota that I know of that had evaporator failure at 38-41000 miles from the local caar airconditioning repair shop he sees hundreds a year from Dodge vehicles at about this mileage this has to be a inherant problem that should be fixed and recalled for proper fixing. Ive owned more than two dozen cars in my family including 8 Chrysler cars and never had so much as one evaporator or air conditioner failure up to over 100000 miles just too much of a co-incidence that this could be happing to all of us please investigate thanks.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Georgetown, IN, USA