Do not buy a Dodge Truck

I have been a loyal Dodge and Chrysler owner for many years and I have owned 5 new Dodge or Jeep vehicles over those years. I have always had little or no problems with these vehicles and I always tried to take care of them. I currently own a 2003 Dodge Dakota Quad-Cab 4x4 truck with about 45,000 miles which is now sitting at the dealer with the engine in pieces. The dealer tells me that the engine must be replaced and that my extended warranty, purchased from Chrysler when the vehicle was purchased new, will not pay for the engine replacement.

Dodge is telling me that I did not do my oil changed on or BEFORE the due mileage therefore they say that I did not do proper maintenance and therefore my extended warranty is not required to cover the repair. The problem is that my 4.7 liter V-8 engine is suffering from sludge buildup within the engine. I was able to provide all my oil receipts EXCEPT for one oil change, and one oil change was done with almost 4,000 between them, but that was not enough.

Fortunately my problem only surfaced because I noticed a new “ticking” sound within the engine. Many other Dodge truck owners experienced a catastrophic failure of the engine caused by sludge building leaving them dead on the side of the road. I guess “fortunate” is not the word to use. Either way the engine had to be replaced. I just found it before it had a total failure.

I am in the process of complaining to Chrysler directly through the 800 number. I have gone through the dealer who has gone to Chrysler and they even contacted their local warranty rep. They took pictures of parts of the engine and sent them off to be reviewed. Yet every review was returned with a no, they will not replace or fix the engine. They continue to tell me that I did not do the required maintenance in a timely fashion.

In the mean time, I have been spending a lot of time on the Internet researching this issue. I have discovered that Chrysler did have an oil sludge problem on their 2.7 liter V-6 engines and Chrysler is replacing those engines. What I have also discovered is hundreds of complaints about the Dodge 4.7 liter Magnum V-8 engine in many of the Dodge vehicles that has this engine. At some point Dodge and Chrysler will have to recognize that this is a problem with this engine and they will be required to do something about it.

Where does this leave me? Since I have found no reference of Dodge replacing the engine for their customers (in truth if they replaced my engine for free, I would have little reason to mention it on the Internet), I am stuck with a 3 year old truck with a few years of loan payments left and a potential multi-thousand dollar repair bill. My first option is to replace the engine at the tune of up to $6,000 ($5,924 they said with parts, labor and tax). This is the best course of action to take according to the Chrysler and others I have checked with. This will leave me with a new engine, with a warranty for that engine, and I will keep the remaining period of my extended warranty (another 25,000 miles) intact.

Option number 2 is to have the engine flushed with a cleaner a few times, each time with an oil change. This could, and that is a big could, flush away enough of the sludge buildup to resolve the problem. Or, this could temporarily loosen the sludge, move it to another possibly critical area and create a short term fix. This would mean that the engine COULD fail at any time and most likely WILL fail over time.

Another option is to have the engine rebuilt or install a rebuilt engine obtained not from the dealer. Either option would require pulling the engine. A rebuild would require a complete tear down of the engine and all engine parts will need to be cleaned and every oil channel cleaned out. This would require many parts to be replaced as part of the rebuild as some parts are not recommended to be reused once removed from the engine. I was told the cost of a rebuild would be close to the cost of the engine itself.

There is one point to consider with the last two options. My extended warranty is void unless the engine is replaced with a factory replacement engine. Regardless of the fact that I have 25,000+ miles left on my extended warranty, the remaining mileage would be voided without the engine replacement.

What shall I do? I do not know yet. I am not done with my complaints to Chrysler but I suspect I will not get far. I do not have the money to replace the engine at this point and that leaves me to the point of borrowing the money. Right now I am waiting for a price quote from the Dealer to replace the engine. From there I can decide farther.

But I do believe I will attempt to raise the money and replace the engine. I am sure with the help of my family I will be able to raise enough money to pay the bill. Once that is done it is time to repay the loans and then save more money for a down payment to get another truck, definitely not a Dodge.

Regardless if whether Chrysler replaces the engine or not, I do not believe I would ever purchase another Dodge vehicle. I believe I would spend my efforts insuring that everybody knows my situation and the situation of hundreds of others I found on the Internet.

There is something else to think about with this problem. Besides owning 5 different Chrysler vehicles, I have owned other brands and I have to admit, like many of you out there, when I was young I did not get my maintenance done in a timely fashion, especially on the various used vehicles I owned. Since I have spent more that $30,000 for a vehicle, I have tried to keep the maintenance up. I do not remember any of my vehicles, nor vehicles of my friends, that needed engine replacements due to sludge build up. Yes, I guess newer engines are more developed technically but it brings me back to the same point. Older engines didn’t seem to have this problem; at least I was not aware of it.

I did try to find other makes and models of vehicles that had this problem. I did discover Toyota and Mercedes Benz did have sludge problems with their engines and they replaced the engines for their customers. But, I did not find any other vehicles that had these problems.

So, I bought a Dodge Truck and I got screwed. I cannot believe that being late on one oil change and possibly missing another would cause enough damage to an engine to require an engine replacement.

I have never had a reason to hate one brand of vehicles over the other. I have had Dodge's, Ford's and Chevy's and all have worked well. And my Dodge Dakota Truck has run well up to now. But now, based on what has happened, I can officially say:

Dodge Sucks