The contact owns a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500. When the contact shifted into gear he applied the brake pedal and it extended to the floor. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The rubber flexible hydraulic hose line fitting failed which caused the brakes to fail. The dealer will replace the brake flexible line. In June of 2010 when the vehicle was taken to the dealer for routine maintenance they stated that the parking brake cable corroded and caused the parking brake to fail. The dealer cleaned and released the parking brake. He also experienced failure with the power steering hydraulic hose leaking; however, the dealer placed the hose clamp in order to stop the leaking. The failure and current mileages were 70,000. Updated 1/19/2010 updated 03/28/11

- North Berwick, ME, USA

On 02/15/08 I discovered a puddle of fluid underneath my truck. Upon investigation I found that the leak was coming from the power steering rack, where the return line enters it. The rubber return hose is attached to the stud with a hose clamp allied at the factory. However the clamp is so loose that the hose can be turned by hand. This loose clamp allowed fluid to escape. I installed a new house clamp and then had to add almost 1/2 quart of fluid to the power steering reservoir. After searching the internet I found a Dodge Ram forum and found 3 pages of posts about this exact topic. Apparently this is a very frequent happening, which leads to the total draining of the power steering fluid. In turn the power steering pump often fails. In addition the lack of fluid and steering assistance cause the steering rack to completely fail!! any loss of power steering in a 5,800 pound truck is completely unsafe and must be dealt with by Dodge, who designed this system poorly.

- Manassas, VA, USA

I noticed a power steering fluid leak and brought my pickup in to dealer for evaluation. Notified me that my power steering hoses were shot. 29,780 miles on vehicle and not covered under warranty since the hoses had a repair clamp installed from prior failure. 2 months later was driving on interstate when my pickup suddenly lost power steering capabilities. I was able to pull vehicle over without incident and returned to dealership the same day and they informed me that rack/pinion was shot. Not under warranty due to 1 month past 3year warranty period. 30,200miles on vehicle. Shop foreman advised me behind closed doors that this is a continuous problem with "northern area" Ram 1500's and they alone had serviced over 200 similar type 1500 Ram vehicles with the same power steering problems I also had just in the past 2-3 months! the foreman also informed me there is a 5-7 day backorder on rack and pinions because they are in high demand due to this Dodge engineering problem. He gave me a number to Dodge to complain, I called with the reply from Dodge as "I'm sorry but due to your warranty being past by 1 mo. We will be unable to goodwill assist you with your problem". I'm not bitter but feel this needs to be looked into due to obvious safety issues. Thank you.

- Fargo, ND, USA