Comments: 1-15, 16-22
18,000 miles Brakes failed to stop wife quickly and she rear-ended another car. Dealer checked car when they repaired it and found nothing wrong. Come to find out the rear brakes were not coming on at all at times. She had complained about the brakes intermittently not stopping correctly a couple of times, but they finally failed on me at around 20000 miles and I started to raise heck with the dealer. They could find nothing wrong and said the computer showed no failures! They replaced anti-lock brake valve and said to try again. On the way home I coasted through a stop sign and turned around and took it back! The service manager tried and tried to get it to fail after I left and finally it failed. They replaced the equalizer valve and said they had it fixed. Within a week it failed again. The service Manager called a factory rep who had him reprogram the computer. To make this short, 3 Factory reps, one dealer reneging on his statement of not to worry about soon to run out warranty, and the brakes still failing I had a local mechanic look at it. He found no problem, but installed grooved super rotors and nascaar pads so car would stop. The only problem I have now is when I back boat down ramp I have to slightly put emergency brake on or back brakes don't come on and you slide on ramp. I have talked to several other 1999 dodge Dakota and Durango owners who experienced this same problem and even read an article in a popular camping magazine. I'll never buy another Diamler-Chrysler product again. I did file a formal govt report on this situation!
Never had problems with Chrysler warranty and have owned a few until now. The attitude was, whenever it fails enough we can find the problem we will repair it. Final factory rep canceled any furthur warranty and told me they would charge me for any further diagnostics.
Well first of all I am an auto mechanic who is certified by the state of Michigan in brakes and what you have just said makes no sense. If you have a problem with your ABS system it automatically shuts the ABS system down has no other effect on your brakes. Normal breaking is unaffected if there is a problem in your ABS.
I have had my 99 Durango for a year now. I have had it in the shop 3 times for the brakes. It is doing the same thing yours is. They can never find a problem with them. My dad is a mechanic and says there is something wrong with the brakes, but he cannot find the problem. This is the same thing 2 different Dodge dealers have told me. If you find anything out, please let us know. I have called Dodge many times regarding this problem.
1999, 37,000 miles on mine. From the day I bought it my brakes fail in normal circumstances and in emergency. I've taken it in once, they say there is nothing wrong. I hear having ABS, this is standard. I've almost rear ended people 3 times, and once when I was braking to turn a corner the ABS kicked in and I almost hit the person in that lane becuase I could not slow down to make the turn properly! What's with this? Other than that I've experienced pinging, battery change in 2004.
A few weeks ago I was in an auto accident in my 1999 dodge dakota. two hours after picking the truck up from getting ball joints replaced and brake work done. (rear end bounced as brakes were applied).I was approaching an intersection and gently applied brakes, but to no avail. An oncoming vehicle was rounding the intersection and I immediately floored the brakes, still to no avail. The peddle was on the floor. Fluid level was also good. I then proceeded straight ahead, through the instersection an into a ditch. Major front end damage resulted from this impact as well as no air bag deployment (seat belt was worn).Can air bags be turned off and the driver not know it? This mainly is concerning the lack of brakes. What happened? Anyone with similar occurances feel free to comment, as I have plenty of time now to read feedbacks now that I'm recovering from spinal surgery. C-man
I first read came cross this web site a month after I bought a 1999 Dodge Durango. It was a lease turn in with 60,000 miles. I prayed that I would not join the ranks of people who have experienced troubles with the Dodge Durango. But sadly I have now joined them with a blow engine at 72,000 miles. Here is all that I have gone through in the 4 months that I have owned it. 11/2004 purchased 1999 Dodge Durango. 12/2004 serpentine belt goes. 02/2005 oil pressure guage starts fluctuating from 0 to over 40. we do complete oil change seems to help for a week or so. Then in the beginning of March oil pressure guage starts again. We replaced the oil sending unit and did another oil change this time use oil for high mile vehicles. The Dodge ran great for almost 3 weeks, until 03/28/2005 on my way home from work the guage dropped to 0 and within seconds the engine was gone. It is now sitting in the shop getting a new jasper engine at the cost of $3700.00. I am completely heart broken, but have no choice, but to keep the car. It would have cost me too much to try and get rid of it and purchase something else. Why can't we get something done about this? If I had known these problems I would have never bought the car.
Amy Nalley
Turners Station, Kentucky.
Has anyone tried to have the brake cylinders on each wheel replaced. I just thought this might help with all the durango brake problems.
I have a 1999 Dodge Durango and have experienced the exact same problems, both on the road and with Dodge maintenance departments. I have come close to rear ending another car maybe 10 times and have just learned to really anticipate and drive carefully. It's those unexpected emergency situations that get scary. Mechanics can't find anything wrong. It amazes me that this is not a recall situation. I've had recalls for windshield wipers, but this brake thing is either no big deal or just in our heads???
We bought our 99 Dodge Durango with only 600 miles on it. Six months after we had it, we began having problems with it. As others have stated, we had problems with the oil gauge going from 40-0. We would take it to the dealership and they would change the oil sensor or make other changes to "temporarily" fix it. Finally after 2 years of this we were told that our engine was fixing to blow and it was due to us not changing the oil every 3,000 miles, even though we had receipts to prove the oil changes. They voided our warranty and yes we put a new engine in our NEW Dodge Durango. We also continue to experience the brake problems and reported it time and time again with a response of "could not duplicate problem". Has anyone else experienced battery change after battery change year after year! I bought a 1995 reconditioned vehicle that has ran better than this poor vehicle. And yes! We have filed complaints with Daimler Chrysler, BBB and the Dealership to no avail. BUYERS BEWARE!!!
I am the owner of a 2001 Dodge Durango which I purchased new in February of 2001. I have had many problems with this truck including all new front brakes and rotors at 30k, new power steering rack at 33k, constant problems with cracking vacuum hoses, an annoying hard shift at low speeds, seat heater went bad, heat and AC controls went bad. And just last week I had a problem that could potentially be life threatening. As I approached an intersection that is at the bottom of a downhill grade I went to hit my brakes and the pedal went to the floor. Immediately I knew I had a problem, but I remembered what everybody says about not pumping anti-lock brakes. So I continued with firm pressure on the pedal assuming that the brakes would come back as they always did before in similar situations. This time the brakes did not come back and the Durango just kept on going until I rear-ended another SUV stopped at the stoplight in front of me. I had plenty of time to stop and the pavement was dry. I do not understand why the ant-lock brakes came on. The closer I got to the SUV stopped in front of me the harder I pushed on the brakes and every time I increased pressure on the pedal the ant-lock mechanism would take it away. The other thing I don't understand is why I lost braking to my front brakes. It is supposed to be rear anti-lock??? As hard as I was pushing on the brakes at the end the front brakes should have been locked up. I believe I rolled for more than 3 seconds at less than ten MPH before impact. I believe with-out a doubt in my mind that this accident was caused by a malfunction of the brake system. However I know from the previous stories I have read that Dodge will never admit to a problem unless It can be proven. Maybe I will go to a back road somewhere and do some testing to see if I can duplicate the malfunction. I am going to continue investigating this problem and I hope that other people with this same problem will come forward. If enough of us report this problem to NHTSA maybe they will open an investigation?? Here's hoping!!
Wow you're uninformed. Why don't you do some research first. Anti lock brakes work like this:
Your normal brakes are designed to lock up the wheels if at a high enough speed. Anyways, the brakes stop you and all that, but once the tires start skidding its hard to control the vehicle. So walla anti lock brakes that pump the brakes faster than you can with your foot so that the tires skid and gain traction constantly so you maintain control of the vehicle. Anti lock brakes wouldn't affect your accident. I believe you must have something wrong with the brake lines or the caliper is frozen. If you didn't look at this after the crash or take it to a mechanic then what in the world are you doing?! If you r car doesn't stop then you get it fixed, not continue driving!
But if the brakes failed that one time, then that's the weirdest instance of brake failure (one time) I've ever heard. Next time use your emergency brake or downshift if time warrants in another situation like that.
I have a 2005 Dakota SLT and had break problems. When slowing down from high speed vehicle starts to vibrate.
Took it in several times for repairs and rotor, drums replaced with no effect. Now the dealer is trying to state that towing has affected the vehicle. Any comments.
Calipers? Align the wheels? When slowing down, does the shudder happen with brakes on or when just coasting?
If coasting, it might be the tranny or something. Wheel bearings, check those too. But if its with brakes on, then its probably the brakes.
Okay now this is weird. All you other Durango owners are complaining of brake failure soon after purchased. I've had my Durango for almost a year now and it's a 99. I have had absolutely no braking problems whatsoever. All I've ever done with the brakes is put new brake pads on myself! Sounds like I must've gotten the 1 peach in the whole bag of lemons!
I've had my 1999 Dodge Durango for 4 years now and have 117,000 miles and never had any of these problems. Maybe you all should really get your vehicles worked on by someone other than the factory or mechanic friends.
I have a 99 Durango and consider myself to have an excellent grasp of how brakes and hydraulic systems should work. There is something VERY weird that happens when I try a fast stop. With hard steady pressure on the brake pedal the brakes will not immediately engage. This of course is not how anti-lock brakes, or any other brakes SHOULD work. They then will engage and the truck comes to a rapid stop. The pause is frightening and dangerous. The first time it happened, I stopped a few inches from the car in front of me. I am bringing it back to let the dealer check it out. Pads and rotors are not the issue and calipers are not hanging. Brakes work as they should for normal or moderate stops. Hard braking is the issue. Something in the booster/master/equalizer/anti-lock circuit is VERY wrong. Stan.