2000 Dodge Dakota Sport from North America - Comments

My fan clutch replaced at 74,000 miles. Antifreeze leak coming from somewhere? Possible valve problem. Front end trouble with breaks and rotors. Bad gas mileage, about 15 all the time. The inside is cheap and falling apart. The paint is in bad shape after five years. Don't Buy a Dakota!

UPDATE: 78,000 mi and my PCM is bad! That will be $1000 more.

The trucks best feature is being able to tow a boat or trailer with no problem. However it only gets 15 miles per gallon and it's only a V6 two wheel drive. Looks great, drives like crap. Do not buy a dakota inless you like to throw your money away! I'm about to buy a 2006 civic, good bye Dodge!

I thought we were the only one's having problems with our Dodge. We've got a Ram 3500 Cummings Dually with 188K on it, and it's been through 2 transmissions, 3 engines, 2 sets of brakes, etc. etc. We paid $11K for it last year, and we have around $15K in repair receipts. Maintenance doesn't seem to do anything for this heap of trash. Maybe it's time for an F350.

2000 Dodge Dakota, Continual issues, new CPU at 40,000, antifreeze leak from somewhere, new radiator and parts at 60,000.Front end problems, rotors and brakes faulty, this truck never driven hard or mistreated, maintenance as scheduled, and now an unknown engine problem. I have never towed, most it's hauled is 8 bales of hay at once. As soon as I save and spend to fix one problem, another crops up, more time spent as an expensive lawn ornament than a functional vehicle for me. Would like to trade it in, upside down on loan and has kept me broke.

So you complain when a big v6 (3.9) gets bad gas mileage pulling a boat. Think about that for a second...

And as if that wasn't enough, I don't think you'll be pulling that boat of your too easily with a civic.

I also have a 2000 Dakota 3.9 with all kinds of sludge in motor. There's something wrong with this picture, and I'm not the only one, so for you guys who want to take up for Dodge, you need to read all the complaints and reconsider your comments, or buy our pieces of junk.

Learn simple maintenance for a vehicle and you won't have all kinds of sludge, etc.

I have a 2000 Dakota with 3.9L V6, I bought it used at 60k. I haven't had a single problem. I change the oil every 3,000 miles and just keep the whole truck nice and clean.

It now has 91,000 miles. I've only replaced the serpentine belt, spark plugs + wires + cap, air filter.

I had an antifreeze leak in my Dak; it's an '00 Club Cab Sport, and it was the heater core. Needed it replaced; it was about $500 bucks parts and labour in Canada. The dealer was $650 with the part at cost and 10% off the labour. The reason for it being so expensive was the whole dash has to be removed to get at the heater core, not like a fullsize where you can open the glove box and get at it.

My tranny just blew up today and I'm getting a rebuilt $1300 and change parts and labour with a 1 year warranty for a used one, $2800 for just the Chrysler trans brand new.

I beat the snot out of my truck, and I love it to death. Got a custom cat back exhaust and a K&N FIPK off the 5.2/5.9 trucks bolted right up, and I can get 20 mpg out of it now. Forgot to add my truck has 171,000 Km on it.

I'm going to rock Dodge trucks til the day I die.

Hmmmm, maybe if you would learn how to do simple maintenance on your vehicle there wouldn't be so much sludge! I've seen about 30 comments about sludge issues... considering dodge made nearly 150,000 of these trucks that year, I'd say they are holding up pretty good. Also, mine is holding up VERY well! 104,000 miles and still strong!

97000 miles and has never seen a shop, changed oil every 3k, no sludge!

Belt at 70k, front brakes ever 3 years.

Dodge did put ball joints in for free during recall.

3.9 V6 Club Cab Sport. Has been the most reliable vehicle I have owned in 35 years of driving.