Steering Tie Rod Assembly problems of the 2002 Dodge Ram 1500

My son was on the I-5 coming home from school when the seals blew on the rack and pinion. Upon taking it to a repair shop we were informed that this is a known defect of the Dodge ram trucks and they are known to blow any where from 50,000-100,000 miles. If we had known about this defect we would not have purchased the truck. When the seals blew the truck steering components began to grind and it was difficult to get it off the road. There was no warning and luckily my son had the opportunity to pull off the freeway with out injuring anyone. My father who has contracted with a local reservation contacted their service department only to find out that the Dodge ram trucks were known to have serious power steering and front end issues. The only reason they purchased the trucks were that Dodge provided the low bid and there has not been a government recall on the steering and their practice is to accept the low bid. The power steering. Tie rods and suspension are major components to going down the road safely. It shouldn't take someone dying to solve the issue. While we all are concerned about the impacts caused by larger vehicles against the new smaller lighter weight cars it is extremely important that we know the larger trucks are safe to drive on our roads. The Dodge ram has numerous complaints on the internet, as well as dealers and repair shops noting that this is an issue. Chevy trucks, Ford trucks and Toyota trucks do not have the reputation for have issues with the front end and steering components. Thus this would appear to be a defect isolated to the Dodge ram trucks. Since you cannot require and individual to replace the rack and pinion themselves every 50,000 miles the only option would be to require Dodge to solve the issue. Thank you for your time and attentions.

Replaced rack and pinion four times along with the upper control arm, upper/lower ball joints, and tie rod ends. This last time the boots on the rack and pinion busted power steering fluid was lost causing steering to lock up. The severe underlying issue to the failure of the rack and pinion is the left and right steering knuckles are faulty causing the tires to turn to far which is causing the damage to the rack and pinion busting which is causing the drainage of power steering fluid and locking up the steering.

While driving to work early in the morning, roads were wet, temperature was 23 degrees. Was driving on a two lane roadway about 40 mph. Was on a straight stretch when truck started to fish tail slightly. Rear of the truck slid slightly toward drivers side. I turned the wheels slightly in the direction of the slide and then started to turn the wheels back the other direction as truck started to straighten out. At that point I felt something give in the front end on the drivers side. The truck started pulling across the center line and off the other side of the road. I was heading straight for a telephone pole. I tried pushing the brakes fully, but the pedal went to the floor. I cut the wheels all the way to the right , just missing the telephone pole. My front fender struck a steel pole filled with cement next to a split rail fence. When I got out of the truck, the front drivers side tire was laying under the truck, only held on by the tie rod end. This was by no means a very bad case of sliding and over steering. The upper ball joint had just separated causing the tire to buckle under. I was lucky to have escaped this accident without injury or having my truck roll over. I have seen alot of problems with the Dodge durangos with the ball joint separation and I can only imagine it is the same suspension parts used in the Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 trucks. This needs to be checked into before someone gets killed.

The tires showed signs of excessive wear, the vehicle was taken to the shop for a front alignment and the technician indicated the passenger and driver side tie rods needed to be replaced. This was after the 2nd set of tires were installed. Soon after a service maintenance flier was received in the mail to inspect tie rod ends at 30,000 miles. The dealership was the only place to purchase the tie rod ends at $134. 00 a piece.