Steering Tie Rod Assembly problems of the 2008 Dodge Caliber

This car has had nothing but problems had to replace all 4 control arms, ball joints bushings springs tie rods have spent more then $2000 between parts and labor and wore out tires do to control arms and other parts never a Dodge again got fixed back had be refixed 2 weeks later after control arm rebroke.

I bought my 2008 Dodge Caliber in July 2010. It had 27,000 miles on it. It was a campaign car. It has always had a problem with pickup. Acceleration is not great, but we noticed on a July 4 trip, that the car was not only making the "normal" steering/suspension noise, but it was also making a whirring noise that my husband feared was the transmission slipping. I made an appointment at the dealership where I bought the vehicle and found out that the whirring noise was not the transmission, but the alternator is bad. $550. 00. The ball joints and the tie rod ends are bad and need to be replaced, $1040. The struts also need to be replaced as well as the front brakes. $800. Yes, my car has 110,000 miles on it, but the trade in value is only about $3500 anyway. Its luckily been paid off for many years. The ball joint/tie rod issue is very worrysome, though. It is dangerous.

When I got an oil change, the mechanic did an inspection and said the ball joints and tie rods should be replaced as they were showing wear and play. When he let the car down and saw the mileage was 26,700 he said that the parts should not have gone bad unless I was off roading the car. The car is driven 4 miles round trip on paved maintained roads daily at 30 mph. And on occasionally at expressway speeds of 55mph. I took it to the Dodge dealer who said there is no recall or known complaints on this vehicle. I bought the car new in 2007 when they came out.

The ball joints have prematurely worn out on our 2008 Dodge Caliber. At 40,000 miles I also had to replace the tie rod ends and the brake pads.

Both of the tie rods on my car are completely worn at 36,000 miles. The dealer told me this is a common problem with Dodge Calibers - premature failure of tie rods.