Front Suspension Lower Ball Joint problems of the 1998 Dodge Dakota - part 1

My tires have been wearing on the outside for over a year now, I had the truck looked at and all ball joint uppers and lowers are bad. This truck only has 90,000 miles and has been driven to and from work for the last 5 1/2 years that I have owned it. The front passenger side is ready to give way.

Upper and lower ball joint failures @ 58,500 miles.

We own a 1998 Dodge Dakota sport 4x4. It currently has 144k kilometers. We just installed our 3rd set of upper ball joints, and have replaced the lower ball joints twice. We expect to replace the lowers again before next year. We know when the joints need replacing, when the vehicle becomes difficult to keep within a lane at highway speeds, due to excessive play in the steering. I see from the internet that Chrysler has issued a recall for 2000 and later models. This is insufficient, as many people on the internet are experiencing the same issue in models as late as 1996. I believe this issue is well known in the industry, one person or family getting killed by this defect for there to be an official recall is not good enough. Our vehicle maintenance is paid by our company, however a family that may not be able to afford such expensive replacement on a regular basis, may be putting themselves in jeopardy.

Walking back to my parked "98 Dodge Dakota, after dining out with family, I noticed that my front passenger side wheel was cock-eyed while the driver's side wheel was pointing straight. I had the local Dodge dealer/service department check it out and they discovered that 3 out of 4 ball joints were bad. The service manager said that it was a very dangerous situation and I shouldn't have been driving the vehicle. I was appalled to hear that since I had no indication that I or my passengers were in any danger: the truck never pulled to one side, and it didn't steer funny, or give me any reason to believe that something was so terribly wrong. The service manager urged me to replace all four ball joints, which I did at a cost of over $773. 81. I think Dodge needs to recall the '98 Dakotas' ball joints. There's no reason a vehicle with only 73,000 miles on it should have 3 out of four ball joints go bad to the point that the wheels are coming off.

The contact states every year when he takes vehicle to be inspected they inform him the upper and lower ball joints need to be replaced. The ball joints have been replaced three times. The replacement takes place approximately every 20, 000-25,000 miles. A local mechanic said it was the design of the ball joints that caused the problem.

All 4 front ball joints failed at 86,000 miles.

1998 Dodge Dakota has upper and lower ball joints failing. The vehicle was taken to service center to have front wheel alignment done. The technician noticed sever front tire wear and concluded that the front upper and lower ball joints needed to be replaced.

While driving 45 mph front passenger wheel felk off. Driver pulled over, and the vehicle was towed to a garage for inspection. Mechanic determined that the upper and lower ball joints broke, and needed to be replaced.

On my 1998 Dodge Dakota I experienced a "klunking" sound in the front end. Found out at 84,000 miles that the ball joints were bad and contributed to wheel bearing and hub assembly problems. Repair bill was $738. 95. I had the repair performed at my local Dodge dealer "morgan Dodge" in durham, nc. The dealership told me the repair was necessary and the vehicle was unsafe to drive without the repairs. The oem replacement parts are on national backorder and the dealership had to use aftermarket parts for the ball joints. I have contacted Dodge and they said the vehicle is out of warranty and "is not subject to any recall" so they can not assist me.

While pulling away from the gas pump consumer heard a loud noise and then the front right side of vehicle fell/dropped. Consumer was able to observe that the front right lower ball joint broke. Vehicle was towed to a repair shop, and mechanic confirmed that it was the lower ball joint. Also, the left lower ball joint needed to be replaced. Dealer was not notified.

Left and right side upper and lower ball joints severely worn . Dust boots torn and no grease fittings (suppose to be lifetime lubricated). Replaced with after market ones with grease fittings. Vehicle only has 64,700 miles .

1998 Dodge Dakota, current mileage:426,000. Have had to replace all control arms twice. Ball joints unavailable, requiring entire a-arm replacement. Bummer.

I started to notice a loud popping noise coming from the drivers side front wheel well on my 1998 Dodge Dakota slt club cab. I took my truck to an independant garage and was told that my ball joints were in desparate need of replacement. I was told by the ase certified mechanic that the ball joints are sealed and could not get the proper lubrication causing premature failure. The mechanic also stated that the ball joints could have failed at any time causing the wheel to fail which would result in loss of control of the vehicle. I asked the mechanic if the replacement ball joints were greasable. He told me yes. I feel that the original ball joints were not designed properly by daimler Chrysler, and this is a safety issue that warrants a recall.

I have replaced the ball joints twice now on my 1998 Dodge Dakota in the past four years. On a recent visit to my mechanic for an oil change, I was advised that I will again need to replace my ball joints and that one in particular was close to failure and was unsafe. In his words: "you got lucky. This could have failed at any time. " I have scheduled another appointment to once again replace my ball joints.

Dodge Dakota <a href=". . Read more...

While driving 35 mph vehicle swerved to the right and suddenly consumer heard a loud noise coming from the front, and the vehicle vibrated uncontrollably. Vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection, and mechanic determined that both frontal lower ball joints needed to be replaced.

Left and right ball joints on my 1998 Dodge Dakota pickup truck failed with only 46,000 miles on the truck. I had to replace them in order for the truck to pass its state safety inspection.

The upper and <a href=". . Read more...

When turning or driving at low speeds there was a dry shuttering noise in the front end. Took vehicle to dealership for inspection, and dealership indicated that the upper/lower ball joints were defective and needed to be replaced. Parts were replaced. Failure recurred 3 years later on upper ball joints only. Control arm, ball joint, and tie rods were replaced again at 136,807.

While driving, a loud popping noise was heard coming from the front of the vehicle. The consumer was able to drive it to the dealer for inspection. The mechanic informed the consumer that the front lower ball joints needed to be replaced. Please fill in additional information.

I went in to get my truck aligned because the outer end of my tires are woren. However, I was informed that all four of my ball jionts were worn out and that this is a very common problem with Dakotas. I am looking into fixing them but if they are defective and will be recalled I would like the manufacture to pay to have them fixed.

The vehicle had to have both lower ball joints replaced. The vehicle has only 29,045mi on it. (right and left lower ball joints) there was excessive tire wear. The mechanic determined that the lower ball joints to be worn within excess of the specifications and could not be aligned.

1998 Dodge Dakota upper and lower ball joint failure. Reported by repair shop when asked to perform a front allignment. I was told that tey have never seen a worse case of worn out ball joints. They told me that an allignment cannot be performed without the ball joint repalcement. Fron end is loose and makes a popping sound when turning. Truck has approximately 85,000 miles. No repair completed as yet. I was informed by the repair shop that a recall to correct this defect is likely to be initiated soon and that I should wait for the recall and avoid driving the truck until fixed.

Front end noise. Excessive tire wear and frequent front end allignments. 2 lower ball joints failure requires replacement replacement of faulty lower ball joints.

While driving at any speed, a squeaking/popping noise was coming from the front of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. Who informed the consumer that both front lower ball joints needed to be replaced.

There is a squeaking noise in the front end while driving. Dealership indicated that all 4 ball joints needs to replaced due to premature wear.

Purchase of used 98 Dakota on 8/14-04, noise in front end, returned to used car dealer, bad ball joints, replaced bad parts.

The rubber boot on all 4 ball joints shredded and all of the grease was lost and washed out.

The vehicle was having a problem with the ball joints. The ball joints caused excessive tire wear from the inner sidewalls.

At 50k miles the front end was extremely loose and steering control was becoming quite dangerous. No off road activities. Both upper and lower ball joints were pretty much destroyed. After 1300$ to fix the front end found that the steering worm gear is also worn out. Steering is still dangerous. The steering should pretty much never fail and under normal conditions the ball joints should last at least 100k miles.

The lower ball joints were worn and needed to be replaced. In a discussion with the dealer representative, I was told to retain my bill since although there had not yet been a recall, there may be one in the future. From this conversation, it was obvious that this is a problem as has been indicated on several news reports and newspaper articles.

Consumer heard a clicking noise in the front of the vehicle. Once the vehicle was turned off consumer still could hear the clanking noise. The ball joints have been rerpaired twice.

I've submitted a complaint about my plight previously but I have another episode to report. My first complaint (last year) detailed problems with my 98' Dodge Dakota truck. The ball joints on this vehicle are substandard to say the least and are actually downright dangerous. My truck has less than 70000 highway miles on it and I have replaced two ball joints already (as noted in my previous complaint) and now a third is failing and in need of repair. You may ask how I know it failing when I haven't had it repaired yet?. . . Because it's happened so many times before and I know the symptoms. That makes 3/4 of the ball joints on the front of this truck that will have been replaced in the last two years. I was elated to see where the NHTSA has requested Chrysler to recall the Dakota and durango as a result of these ball joint failures. I was equally dismayed to see that it only covered 2000-2003!!!! why?!!! as you read above, my truck has failed equally if not worse than the models the NHTSA recommended be recalled. Numnerous web sites are filled with complaints about these same issues on vehicles that are older than 2000. I suspect it has to do with money = anything more than 4 model years and Chrysler will start screaming. If the failing ball joints are dangerous on the 2000-2003 models, then the same failing ball joints are dangerous on the older models too. Please explain to me why my safety is less important than those with trucks two years newer than mine. Thank you.

Ball joints, front upper, and lower wore out, and were very loose. Took vehicle to the dealer. However, the problem still existed.

I have a Dodge Dakota 98. I went in for an alignment today. My 69 dollar alignment was bumped up to 830 dollars. They said that all of the ball joints need to be replaced and that this happens all the time with the Dodge truck of this year thru 2003. They told me that my wheels might just fall off. I told them not to perform this since I did not have the money and they told me to watch out for bumps and sharp turns. My truck is not making any wired noises and I cant believe that this issue was legitiment since you would think a recall would have been issues for such a dangerous thing. I went online of course to look into this and found that this is currently being looked into by the feds. If I had not gone in for the allignment, and my wheel fell off with my 6 year old child in the car I or her / both might not be here. I will be driving my other vehicle for the time being and would like to know when this will be recalled / addressed. Firestone put at the bottom of the recommended services: system failure - required upper-both ball joints/ lower both ball joints the money is one thing. Me and my kid is another. And with no indication of this problem, that really concerns me!!!.