Battery problems of the 2004 Dodge Durango

My passenger and I were sitting at a red light. The check engine of my 2004 Dodge Durango limited (5. 7ltr) came on, then the battery light came on and both of those lights started to flicker. There was a loud squeal and a pop, then the engine stalled and I felt the brake pedal fall straight to the floor. White smoke started to emerge from the engine compartment, which quickly turned a thick black color. I couldn't even see through the smoke, as it was so dense. I grabbed my phone and proceeded to call roadside assistance to get the vehicle off of the road (the vehicle was blocking a lane of a major highway in my town). I started to smell burning plastic and thought, "am I on fire?". My passenger instructed me to lower my window because another driver was yelling something and making hand gestures. When I tried to use the windows, I noticed that I had lost all power. In a panic I opened the door and instructed my passenger to do the same. That was when we heard what the other drivers were screaming. "get out of the truck, it's on fire!". When I turned to get out of the vehicle, that was when I saw the flames flowing up the windshield about 4" long. We jumped out of the vehicle and ran across the road to the curb, turned to view the vehicle, seen that it was a large fire and decided to run about 200-300 feet away from it. Just in case it exploded. The firemen were there in under a minute, but the vehicle was engulfed in flames in about 30 to 45 seconds. I have a large family and it's a good thing they were not all with me, as is the case 90% of the time. I do not know if I would've had time to get three small children out of their carseats in time. This could've ended much worse than it did.

While driving my 2004 Dodge Durango the speedometer functioned erratically and the interior lights would not go out. I pulled off to the side of the road, turned vehicle off, restarted and no change. Continued driving home when smoke started coming out from under the dashboard on driver's side only, and the vents on driver's side. Immediately turned vehicle off in the middle of the road-ran to a home. He grabbed fire extinguisher-no flames under the hood - he disconnected battery. Towed to garage, informed Dodge had recall for dashboard fires, towed to dealer who told me defect was in the cluster, that was not part of the recall and no wires in the cluster were melted together, therefore it was not a fire. I called Dodge headquarters, received a call on this date from "stacey" stating they had investigated which was to call the dealership and have it reviewed by their legal team and this did not fall under the recall.

I purchased a 04 Dodge Durango 1-1/2 months ago. I was only given 1 key. They keyless entry and key are one. The keyless entry does not lock or unlock the vehicle. The prong that holds the battery down breaks off easily. If you try to manually unlock the vehicle it sets off the alarm. I am unable to lock my vehicle unless I set the alarm off. I have changed the battery, still doesn't help. I looked up on the internet and found this happens with this vehicle often because it is poorly made. I was told I had to pay $200 to replace the key and it will most likely happen again. There should be a recall on this item as it happens often and I am unable to lock my vehicle which makes it more likely for my vehicle to be broken into. The warranty does not cover this item, however I read on other cases that eventually this issue leads to the security system locking down and the vehicle not working. My issue has yet to get to that point but I don't want to wait for that to happen. Please look into this issue as Dodge refuses to be cooperative.

On March 1st, 2007 we noticed that all the interior lights in our 2004 Durango would not turn off. Contacted the dealership and they couldn't take the vehicle until the 2nd. Disconnected the battery, and re-connected it to take it to the dealership on the 2nd. The dealership had the vehicle until the 6th. My wife went to the dealership on March 6, 2007 to find out if they knew what was wrong, because they wouldn't answer their phones. When she got there she learned that there had been a fire in the service department over night. It was expected that our vehicle had caused the fire. I was completely surprised when I heard the news, but know that I have seen all the reports about similar incidents it doesn't surprise me at all. I am just glad this happened at the dealership, and not at my home. Or even worse with my wife and kids in the vehicle. Dodge needs to wake up and realize that there is a serious problem and notify people before someone gets seriously hurt or killed.

Interior lights will not go out. Heated seats will not work, air panel lights do not work. Once vehicle has been shut off, I am able to turn off map lights after about 5 minutes. The light in the tailgate cannot be shut off at all. I have an appointment with minot Chrysler on 19 Feb, and was told they had same issue about 2 weeks ago, with another Durango. I was told by them to disconnect the battery, and after reading about all of the vehicle fires, vehicle will not be driven again until resolved. They believe they know the cause, which will cost me about 600. 00. Unfortunate I have leased the vehicle, and am over the 3 year, 36000 mile warranty. Vehicle now has about 42000 miles. Also note, my lease is done on the 28th of March.

On several instances beginning approximately November of 2006 the interior lights would either stay on, or not come on at all. Sometimes, upon entering the car, we would have to wait twenty minutes or more to get the lights to go out. A few instances, the lights would never go out and ran the battery down. Eventually, no lights at all would come on and at one point you could smell something burning, but never see it. When approaching the jeff wyler Dodge, and having our car serviced today (on 3-14-07), they had us pay for a diagnostics and stated that the instrumental cluster (sp?) needed to be replaced and the cost was close to $500. 00. Due to the price of the part, we decided not to have them replace it right away. Tonight, while reading the news, I came upon an article on wlwt. Com and found that if you are having an interior light problem (lights not dimming the way they are supposed to), to take your car to the dealer. I am very upset that somehow the recall is in the news, however a Dodge dealership mentions nothing to us about it? I will be contacting the dealer again in the morning to discuss.

I purchased a 2004 Dodge Durango with the hemi engine in April of 2004. In July 2004 the check engine light came on and the engine failed immediately. I had it towed back to the dealer ship (towne & country Dodge conyers GA). They fixed it and did not tell me what it was. In March 2005, the same thing happened again. This time they replaced a valve spring in the 3trd cylinder. Two weeks ago, it happened again. This time they told me I needed a new battery. I complained and they recharged the old one. When I went to pick it up, there were warning lights on and the cd player did not work. They are charging me to do a diagnostic test. I have complained to Dodge with no satisfaction.

The contact owns a 2004 Dodge Durango. The contact stated that when he puts his seat belt on, a spark comes from the retractor area and the radio shuts off intermittently. The vehicle was taken to a dealer and they changed the battery twice, yet the failure still persists. The current mileage was 59,439 and failure mileage was 40,000. Updated 07/29/08. The consumer stated the radio burned out. Updated 07/29/08.

Complaint received via e-mail. Since the purchase of this SUV, I have had to bring the truck in for service for various things. Recommended service, a fuse out of place/battery recall, and today, January 8, 2005, for a detached throttle cable, which prevented acceleration. I discovered this problem as I was attempting to accelerate at a major intersection, and obviously, I was stuck in the middle of the road. We received assistance in pushing the truck off of the road, and I called gwinnett place Dodge. I explained the situation, and I was given the phone number to sw towing service. We also attempted to speak with a manager in regard to this matter.