Engine Grinding Noise problems of the 2004 Dodge Durango

Car was parked on a Thursday, was running fine with no problems. Rained all weekend. Went to start it on Monday morning, produced a horrible grinding noise and would not start. Research shows that the cowl has allowed water to leak under the hood and puddle on the motor allowing it to seep into the intake and hydrolock the motor. Apparently this is a very common problem with this year make and model but nothing has been done to resolve it. Now I am without a running vehicle and can not afford to fix it or replace it.

The contact owns a 2004 Dodge Durango. While the vehicle was parked, the power outlet in the center console started smoking. The contact and the passenger found the source of the smoke, pulled the panel off the center console, and noticed the outlet was on fire. The contact extinguished the fire. There were no injuries and a police report was not filed. On another occasion, the contact heard loud grinding noises coming from the engine. While driving 50 mph and without warning, the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was able to be restarted and driven to the contact's residence. Once home, the vehicle stalled. Upon further investigation, the contact stated that the spring separated from the engine and that the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failures. The failure mileage was 135,000.

The vehicle was purchased new back in March of 2005 and has been maintained at regular intervals. Recently when it rained a sputter was noticed and thought to be spark plug wires, which had been changed approximately 1 year prior. Then approximately one month ago we went to start the Durango and it would not start. At first it sounded like the starter grinding so I removed the starter and had it tested and it fine. I attempted to turn the engine over by the crankshaft bolt and the engine would not move. I removed the spark plugs and found that the #7 spark plug had ice on it. The cylinder was found to be full of ice. The following day the ice melted and the engine moved and ran. The truck drove fine with no issues after that. I did some research and found many complaints of the engine hydrolocking due to a failure in the cowl which allowed water to pour onto the engine. The complaints indicated that it was a known problem and that Chrysler had been advised of the issue but nothing was done about it. I then found that water was leaking past the cowl and the wiper arms. On March 17, 2015 the Durango again made the grinding noise when attempting to start. The #7 cylinder and the #8 cylinder had water in them. The vehicle had been sitting for approximately 4 days prior and it had rained while the vehicle was parked. The vehicle would not start with the starter and would not turn by hand when tried at the flywheel. The vehicle had not exhibited any issues prior to being parked and had not run since it was parked and did not turn over at all when we attempted to start it. The engine is believed to be seized and no longer usable.

I was driving the vehicle on an interstate during a pretty heavy thunderstorm. I noticed that the vehicle was starting to hesitate and lose power. As I started to slow the vehicle down to pull over the engine quit at about 50 mph. Thankfully I was on a straight part of the road and without power I was able to guide the vehicle to the shoulder of the road with out an incident. After waiting out the storm to pass on the side of the interstate, with traffic flying by, I was able to get the vehicle restarted after some hesitation and drive it home. During the night the vehicle sat in the driveway while we had some pretty good rainfall in the area. The next morning I went and attempted to start the vehicle to go to work. The engine turned over, it started, followed by a grinding noise and then the motor quit and hasn’t started since. After having the vehicle looked over we have found that two of the cylinders had quite a bit of water in them which had appeared to hydro lock the engine. Dodge needs to be held responsible for this issue and stop pushing the blame and cost off on to the vehicle owners. This is a huge design flaw and safety issue.