Bought a 2001 Durango R/T for the wife two years ago. Within 6 months had one leaf spring break, 1 yr later, the other one went. Like several others, had the recall on the ball joints (several trips to the dealer to get it all) and sway bar bushings. Love the vehicle, hate the gas mileage (12-13 mpg no matter where driving.) No problems with transmission as of yet.
I own a 1999 Durango SLT with a 5.9 liter 4x4. I bought it used with 80,000 miles on it. I now have 120,000 on it. I have only had to do minor repairs on the vehicle. I have been a mechanic for 23 years and I do realize that everyone cannot work on their own vehicles. Here is a piece of advice, change all fluids, parts and do the scheduled maintenance when the manufacture recommends and always use quality parts. If this is done your vehicle will last a long time. I have friends that are very hard on their Durangos and they have over 250,000 miles on theirs. If you think that a vehicle should last forever, and have nothing ever break, you better wake up and smell the coffee. It is a piece of equipment that you must maintain or it will break.
I have a 2001 rt, It has 45,000 miles on it. I have regularly had oil changes, and had fluids checked. But I also have had to have work done on the Heads I had to replace the freeze plugs, and now I'm on my way to get the master cylinder replaced, at 48,000, come on. And still have problems with the transmisssion, Can you say Lemon!
This is what you should do: trans won't shift out of first gear.
Switch the relay with the wiper delay with the trans relay, both are under the hood in the fuse box. this fixed my problem. all the relays are the same under the hood, make sure you switch withe the same type as trans relay.
After doing this my 2000 durango shifted fine. I unhooked the battery for five minutes to reset the check engine light.
Seems OK now. I will buy a few new of these relays to have on hand. I'm sure they are 10 bucks.
Good luck.
This is what gave me the idea:
10th Aug 2006, 19:07
To all the people having shifting problems W/THE DURANGO, before you go and spend two or three grand on a transmission, try taking the transmission relay, located under the hood, and bypassing it with two fusible links, one into port, 3-5 and one from 1-2.
You will still have the check engine light on, but see if it shifts properly. If it does, you can do as I did, and take it back to the dealer and ask them why they wanted $800 to try and fix it, or $3000 for another transmission, when it is apparent. I found this out after spending 650 on a governor pressure sensor and a transducer. I drove for about 3 miles before it started to do the same thing I brought it to the dealer. They said I need a transmission. NONE OF THE DEALERSHIPS KNOW WHAT TO DO. TRY THIS, IF IT DOSEN'T FIX IT, THEN TAKE IT TO A TRANS SHOP.
And if it does fix it, then get the light checked on a scan tool.
CARDINAL, HOMOSASSA FL.
But I just swapped relays instead.
I have a 2001 Dodge Durango SLT with 160,000 miles on it. I must say that I love the truck and have not had the horrible things posted on this sight happen yet. I did have to do the recall and go thru brake rotors like mad.. But for the most part, I am extremely satisfied with what I got... I maintain the oil changes religiously every 3 thousand miles and have the trans flushed every year. The ball joints do seem to be a defect with these trucks however. Stay safe.
I took the wiper relay out and switched it with the transmission relay. There was no difference. I then tried it with no trans relay at all. Amazingly enough, the transmission shifted fine into the other gears, but was sluggish starting off. I am goin to try the fusable link suggestion from a couple posts above and see what happens. Any other suggestions are welcome.
I have the same problem with my 2000 slt Durango about transmission not shifting properly. I tried some suggestions about switching relays from trans relay to wiper relay. it didn't work until I followed other suggestion by removing the trans relay completely. it's working fine for now, but I don't know for long.
I've owned my 2000 Durango now for about 5 years. Two more payments left and now the vehicle is in the shop awaiting a $650 repair on the transmission. Time to trade.
I disagree that now is the time to trade, when it's almost paid off. Now is the time to drive it as long as it lasts and save up money, instead of jumping right into another car payment. Just think how much money you'll save up if you keep it for another year without a car payment. It's like this -- if you drive it another year, and it totally blew up after that, you'll have saved up over $6,000 in CASH by not having a car payment! They wouldn't even allow you that for it if you traded it in right now, anyway.
When a car is junk, baby it along and drive it until the wheels fall off (and on a '99 Durango, they just might do that!). As long as it moves under its own power, it's saving you money. $650 for transmission work --- to put that in perspective, that's only like 1 1/4 car payments.
My Wife wanted an SUV so we found some at a car lot and test drove a few. She fell in love with the 2001 Durango R/T, but when I test drove it, it seemed to run fine. But when I put the throttle to the floor it dropped into passing gear, got up to about 45 mph and would not shift into the next gear. Let up on the throttle and it drove and shifted fine. Anybody ever heard of this?
I just bought a 2001 durango R/T with 99,000 miles. on it. As soon as it hit the 100,000 mile mark, the engine malfunction indicator came on and is still on. Truck seems to run fine though. Does anyone have any ideas what this could be. And yes it is a gas guzzling pig.
I bought a 2002 R/T about 3 months ago after owning a 99 SLT. I'm happy with the performance difference, but nobody told me to run premium gas, so when I gets to about 1/8 of a tank it runs like crap and almost seems like the transmission is slipping. Anyone else have a simmilar problem? also looking for performance product advice.
I have a 2001 Durango where the trani went out after 100,000 miles and found out it had been rebuilt once before. The check engine light has been on for the last 2.5 years. When tested it said new gas tank cover and transmission problem. After fixing both it is still on and I can't pass emissions with the light on.
We are having several problems with our 2001 Durango R/T (more than likely due to maintenance neglect).
1. My AC fan only works on high and only blows cold when you are moving (no cold air while sitting at a red light and that really sucks when you live in Florida).
2. My gas cap broke and it takes some time to get it back together and screwed on (guess it's from constantly having to remove it to fill that hog of a tank!).
3. The chain to the driver side window broke and a new "window kit" is about 200 bucks (who knows how this happened... friggin kids).
4. My brakes are all munked up. We were told we could get the brakes and some kind of front end work done for a small fee of 1600 bucks! blah!
5. It has been overheating a little and when I checked the fluids today, I noted the engine coolant was totally empty... even though hubby said he just filled it 2 weeks ago???
6. My "master belt," or whatever it's called, squeaks when it rains and then intermittently when it feels like embarrassing me ;)
7. My punk teenage son broke my center console by climbing over it and now it stays open... guess I could try to remove the spring, but does anyone know where I can get a new console door?
8. I accidentally used cheap gas and for once I filled the friggin tank (go figure, right)...what can I "add" to the tank now to make it "expensive gas," except for expensive gas? ;)
9. One of the headrests in the 2nd row is all floppy... need a new one I suppose...
10. Burned a hole in my headliner, so need a new one...
That's about it... We are probably looking at about 2 grand to fix all of this, unless you guys can send me an email on where to find all this crap cheap.
However, I'd say all in all this truck has been better to us than we have to it, so we are either going to fix all this crap and keep it till it dies (hubby's desire), or buy a new Pacifica (My desire!). I want a new car with a navigation and DVD in it, but I guess we can just live with the DVD player that hangs on the headrest and use the "Tommy" thing that tells me where to go...literally...hehe.
If anyone has any input as far as where I can get the things I need for cheap and how to "apply them," such as how to change rotors, etc., please email me at spongebob07@cfl.rr.com I would really appreciate any help that will save us money...
I own a 2001 Durango R/T. Has 23,500 miles. I've babied the car since new, and let me tell you it runs great. But have had some problems...
1 A/C control blows high ONLY * 13,000 miles
2 Keyless entry stop (beeping) * 18,500 miles
3 Ball joints were recalled and are STILL making some clicking noise *10,000 miles - Now
4 Brakes/rotors changed twice, and STILL make a sha-sha-sha noise * 11,000 miles - Now
5 Hydraulic lift for tail gate is sticking
6 Lost a piece of weather striping on d/door and now freezes shut in winter * 2003-Now 2007
Oh! and have you tried to buy tires yet HA!!! $600-$800
OTHER THAN THAT, THE CAR HAS BEEN GREAT, SERIOUS...
AWD BEAST NEVER LET ME DOWN 'YET'. EVERYTHING I LISTED ABOVE IS MINOR SO I CAN'T COMPLAIN, BUT I WILL OVER 9 MILES TO THE GALLON. Pgh, Pa.