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.
On December 14 2005 my son was driving my Dodge Ram 1500, he tried to stop and the ABS system locked and he rear ended the car in front of him. The engine stalled and he had no control over the vehicle. The truck slid approximately 20 feet. There was a child injured in the car that he hit.
Estremely poor brake response. During moderate braking or with a light trailer/load it takes extremely long to stop the vehicle. Only has rear ABS, it has never gone off. You cannot lock the tires except on ice/snow or loose gravel/sand. Been in one accident, numerous other close calls. The brake pedal can be pressed to the floor. Dealer says nothing is wrong, several brake jobs done, now running with ss rotors and ceramic pads with no improvement. I have a friend with the same make/model/year that has 44" mudders and can stop on a dime.
Had to make a accident avoidence manuever. The brakes would not stop the truck, had to run off the road to avoid impact. Resulting in damaging a front lawn in a residential neighborhood. The next episode was pulling a small 8' trailer with a Honda 4-wheeler. Light turned red and when I went to stop, I ended in the middle of the intersection. After the second incident I contacted the dealership and took it in for inspection. No problems were found. The service manager Mr. Web ( I believe that's his name) drove my truck and agreed it seemed to take longer to stop, but upon inspection no problems were found. After 3 more incidents of the same nature, the dealership did replace all the brakes, telling me there was an update to a different pad for the rear brakes. The truck at the time had approximately19000 miles. I then was tols it was normal for the brakes to wear out at 19000 miles. I do not believe that. I still have the stopping problem, and I am extremely careful when I tow my 17' boat and trailer. The weight is less than 3000 lbs. The truck now has barely over 40000 miles. I had the brakes check by a qualified mechanic, and was told that the brakes have about 75% of pad left. Are ther any other complaints about the braking system on the 1997 Dodge 4X4 Ram 1500 trucks?
Consumer took vehicle to dealer to have brakes done and a gear box put on, and consumer found out that fornt coil springs were busted due to defective steel.
- Edmond, OK, USA
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The thottle stuck in the wide open position and would not return to idle. The brakes were just able to stop the vehicle. Shifting to neutral caused the engine to go well into the redline on the RPM indicator. Pulling up on the accelerator pedal did nothing. The dealer said the linkage was rusted tight. They don't have new parts so they scrapped the rust off, oiled it and put it back together. They said the throttle cable was not the problem as in the recall of "95-96 vehicles. This is a hard truck to get stopped when the throttle is stuck wide open. Good thing my wife wasn't driving it.
All three have been in to the dealer regarding the same exact concern. Different drivers operate each of these vehicles. This will bee the second time this vehicle will be going back to the dealer for the same repair. We are concerned about all like vehicles having the same concern. With the rear brakes getting severely out of adjustment like they do with these vehicles it is very possible that a crash occurs during a panic stop due to the vehicle swerving.
Ongoing and intermittent failure of braking system;. vehicle been in / out of dealer shop on twelve occasions. Various parts and repairs have been made, but the problem still reoccurring. Please provide us with any further details on this matter.
While driving at approximately 45 mph consumer applied brake and skidded about 10 feet, hit another vehicle head-on. Upon impact, driver airbags did not deploy which have caused injuries. The inspectors from the manufacturer indicated that the air bags did not deploy because the impact dissipated.
Power steering and brakes went out at the same time while driving, no accident. Tried to use emergency brake, did not work either. Consumer used gears to stop vehicle. Repaired, Dodge will not reimburse because repair not done at Dodge dealer. Dealer replaced steering pump and het assembly for emergency brake.
Truck acceelrated upon putting into drive.....the pedal went to the floor....could not stop it. The ABS activated and vehicle crashed into a building....it squeeled the tires as soon as I stepped on pedal and it went to the floor......crashed into a building and it was still revving at full throttle.........can you help us......we dont want to drive it again unless we know what caused it to do this.........the exterior damage is being repaired but we still dont know why it did that........thankyou...
While driving about 65 mph and barely touching the brakes to slow down, all four wheels locked up. Truck was towed to the dealership. Brake failure had occurred once before, and resulted in an accident. Dealer could not duplicate the problem, but they replaced the power brake booster. Brake failure has not occurred since.
The braking system does not stop the truck as it should. When you make an emergency stop the pedal feels as if the master cylinder piston bottoms out, metal against metal. I checked to see if there was a brake pedal stop and there were none. When I had to make my first emergency stop I had plenty of distance to stop. My speed was 35mph with about 50feet of clearance. I had to swerve and run thru a yard causing $200 damage. I took the truck over to the dealer and was told nothing was wrong. I went home and did a planned emergency stop in front of my house. At 30mph, it took 30 -35 feet to stop. My brother has a 1992 Dodge truck of the same weight and he can stop in 12- 15 feet at the same speed. Before the warranty ran out I took the truck back to the dealer and had the service mgr to test drive the truck and he felt ther was a definite problem. He ordered a more aggressive set of pads and Chrysler cancelled the order and sent a kit with instructions to install the kit instead of the pads. To me. That tells me they know of a problem, but do not want it to get out causinf a recall on all 1997 trucks. The dealer stated there were no recalls or bullentins on brake problems. I asked them is it going to take a fatality due to faulty brakes before they fix the problem. After the installation of the kit the brakes work a little better but far from being safe as to pulling a 4 wheeler and trailer or a boat and trailer. Last week I had to execute another emergency stop. 50 mph with approximately 150 feet of distance. I ended up in the middle of the intersection.my police cruiser at 30 mph can stop in 10 -14 feet. Even my brother's truck with a 1000 lbs of weight in the bed stops in a shorter distance than my truck. Are there any other victims of brake problems besides myself?
While driving and applying brakes without touching the pedal, brakes lock up. Dealer contacted, and stated problem with ABS system. Problems still exists. Provide further information.
While driving vehicle about 60 mph stepped on the brake pedal trying to stop the vehicle, but the pedal went to the floor and the brakes did not perform.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Apache Junction, AZ, USA