Driveshaft problems of the 2010 Dodge Ram 1500 - part 1

Rear drive shaft came out causing rear axles to lock putting the vehicle into a slide crossing on coming traffic.

While traveling 40 mph or so, the rear axle pinion nut separated from the rear differential causing the drive shaft to drop and the rear wheels to seize. I lost control of the vehicle skidding to a stop in the side of the road. The vehicle had been at billy bender Dodge in January to perform a known safety recall for this issue, they had the truck for a week, and forgot to make the fix even though the parts were ordered. I have video of the vehicle being dragged by the tow truck onto the flat bed as the rear wheels would not spin. This was a frightening incident and the blatant neglect by the dealer has me outraged. I fear the rear diff and the drive shaft are destroyed. This is a major safety issue that needs to be addressed promptly and serious by the dealerships, and forgetting to perform the recall after ordering parts and scheduling the vehicle to be in the garage is an outrage.

Tl-the contact owns a 2010 Dodge Ram 1500. The contact stated that while driving at 10 mph and coming to a stop the driveshaft failed. The contact repaired the vehicle and replaced the driveshaft. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 13v038000 (power train). The vehicle was serviced under the recall but the recall remedy failed to repair the vehicle. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 55,000. Ah.

We were driving our 2010 Dodge Ram 1500 on a county highway when we heard a loud whirring noise. As we approached a downhill section and my husband took his foot off the gas the noise went away, but came back louder as soon as he put his foot on the accelerator. Instantly there was a big boom and the rear end of the vehicle locked up, the front end of the vehicle swerving with the back end jack knifing on the road while bouncing/bucking like motion given the tires felt as though they were also locked up. We could feel and hear something under the car bashing the undercarriage. There were no oncomers fortunately and my husband did manage to stop the vehicle just short of the guardrail and going over the ravine. The car was still half in the lane . . Horizontal to oncoming traffic. He turned on the hazards and I jumped out, it was dark with no lighting on the road and hard to see until the car behind us stopped to see if we were ok and said our drive shaft had disconnected. We removed our 2 young children from their carseats, waited on the side of the road and the men tried to move the truck out of oncoming traffic but the tires were locked. We called 911 for the police to give our children a safer place to stay out of oncoming traffic and to provide direction to oncoming traffic as we had a tow truck come out to bring the car to the nearby Dodge dealership. The dealership looked at the car, informed us it was part of a recall but they didn't have the parts to fix it in stock. They did not offer an alternate vehicle to us and we are still awaiting word on what is happening at almost a week after this incident took place. For me the integrity of the entire drive shaft, undercarriage and all equipment/components of the vehile, tires which were showing signs of extreme wear and low on air are all now compromised.

The contact owns a 2010 Dodge Ram 1500. The contact stated that while driving 55 mph, a banging noise was heard from the rear of the vehicle. The contact later discovered that the drive shaft became detached and the transmission was torn apart. The contact also mentioned that he had previously received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 13v038000 (power train) and stated that the parts were not available for the vehicle to be repaired. The vehicle was towed to the dealer and was sitting on the lot. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified. The failure mileage was 42,000.

The contact owns a 2010 Dodge Ram 1500. The contact stated while driving 45 mph, the drive shaft completely separated from the rear axle with no warning. The contact also mentioned that because of the failure, more damage occurred to the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing. The mechanic stated that the drive shaft had to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 58,000.

M34 recall - we brought the car to dealer April 2013 and they could not fix the recall yet (we have this documented - "as per tech not in effect yet"). On 8/31 we were on northern state parkway (eastbound) around 8pm when the car failed - very loud noise, loss of vehicle control, hit a curb and barely exited the parkway at route 110 exit. Vehicle could not move and realized the drive shaft came off and a passing car hit the drive shaft, several cars had to swerve around it, the car fluid leaking, etc. We had to call aaa and arrange a tow truck ($181. 95 paid up front), arrange transportation for our 12 year old daughter who was in the car at the time of the incident and my wife and I were transported by the tow truck. This ordeal took 2 hours. We arranged for dealer to tow the car on 9/4 - smith haven Chrysler Jeep Dodge, saint james, NY. The dealer has informed us that can repair the damage caused by the rear locking up and the drive shaft coming lose, but they do not have the part to fix the m34 recall. I opened case #23907979 with Chrysler 9/5. I am getting conflicting information since Chrysler representative informs me that the parts are available cbakm343aa, cbakm344aa, cbakm345aa, cbakm346aa but will "take a while" to get and that the dealer can only order/recieve one of the four parts at a time. This does not make sense to me. However, the smith haven dealer and NHTSA records (reference # 565888) indicate the parts to fix m34 are not available. Therefore, I am getting conflicting information regarding the ability to address the recall while the dealer is in the process of repairing the damages and returning the vehicle with the recall issue unaddressed and my family and I are facing a repeat of a potentially dangerous failure at any time in the future.

While traveling down a 2 lane paved road at approx. 55 mph, a humming sound could be heard from under the vehicle upon releasing the accelerator. The hum increased in intensity very quickly, resulting in a large bang and near loss of control less than 1 minute after first hearing the sound. I would later learn that the rear-axle pinion nut had detached, resulting in the rear wheels locking and having the side-effect of dropping the driveshaft onto the ground. I had just gotten off of the highway a few minutes before, and if this had happened 1 minute sooner or 1 minute later, I would have most certainly lost control at higher speeds and other vehicles would have been involved, or in the case of happening 1 minute later I would have re-entered a dense high-speed traffic area and the chances of involving other vehicles would have risen significantly. Fourtunately, for that brief stretch of road, I was the only vehicle within a few hundred yards, granting me the ability to regain control and get off the road at a safe turn-off, that happened to be the only turn-off in the area. To sum up my experiences, if this event had occured at any other location during my commute, it would have turned out much worse, and it just so happened that this was the perfect spot as I did not hit any other vehicles and was able to pull off the road safely. It turns out that there is a recall for this exact component, but I had not been informed by mail or by my local dealer when I asked them about any open recalls barely a month before when periodic maintenence was performed. They did not show anything in their system and my vehicle remained 'officially roadworthy' until this incident. This is distressing, as my wife could have been driving or I could have had passengers.

The vehicle started making a grinding sound, then started jerking right before it abruptly came to a complete stop. Upon getting out of the vehicle to see what had happened, the rear drive shaft was disconnected from the truck and hanging down on the road. We then tried to put the vehicle in neutral and push it off of the main road we were on to a safer side road. The truck was completely locked up and would not move forward or backwards. Upon researching the problem, it has came to my attention that this is part of the safety recall that has been issued by Dodge.

While driving on highway (65mph), began hearing light whining sound coming from rear of vehicle, when coasting. Sound would go away on acceleration. Approximately 20 minutes later sound became louder, smelled something burning, and rear driveshaft fell out and was drugged about 20 feet, and rear end completely seized up.

I was driving when the pinion nut on the rear differential came loose allowing the pinion gear to seize the differential and shear the drive shaft from the differential.

While I was driving on a highway, I heard a terrible sound out of the rear of my ram truck. I tried to stop my vehicle as soon as I could while the sound kept on getting even more terrible. When I stopped and looked at the bottom of the vehicle, the driveshaft fell off from the rear of the vehicle and oil spilled on road. There was no warning or no engine light signal in the vehicle electronics before or after this happened. Has the vehicle been on a freeway with a speedlimit of 100 km/hr or so, I think it would have been really tough to control the vehicle in this break-down and it could have resulted in a fatal accident. The vehicle was not in a position to be driven further and I had to get it towed to a nearest Chrysler dealership in coquitlam, british columbia, canada. It has been days now and I have not yet heard back from Chrysler dealership that what is the cause of this problem and what will be done to fix this issue. On checking with dealership, they say that they have no solution to this problem till now. Luckily, my vehicle is still inside the warranty period and so the dealership says that the cost to repair will be covered, but thay have no fixed timeline on how soon they can fix it. I tried reaching out to Chrysler and filed a complaint about this, but the response from Chrysler is not very helpful and they are not at all worried about my sufferings and loss that I am currently facing due to this vehicle not being available/ready for my use yet.

Saturday, June 1, 2013 I noticed a humming noise coming from the undercarriage upon braking and/or letting off the accelerator. The noise continued to get louder throughout my drive until I decided to pull over and inspect for a problem. I looked underneath the truck and at all 4 wheels and couldn't find the problem area. Upon leaving the parking lot I pulled back onto the freeway access road and reached 40 mph. I began to yield to exiting traffic and started slowing down. From the minute I started braking I heard the humming noise and felt a strong resistance. The slower my truck got the louder the noise was. Whenever I reached 20 mph my truck wheels seized up and I lost all control of my vehicle. My vehicle came to stop in the right hand lane of the access road. Upon exiting my vehicle I noticed the drive shaft laying on the ground. I tried to push the vehicle out of traffic but was not able to move it.

Tl-the contact owns a 2010 Dodge Ram 1500. The contact stated that while driving at 45 mph, there was a loud noise that came from the rear. The brakes seized and the vehicle hesitated to stop. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who stated the rear driveshaft and differential separated. The vehicle was repaired. The failure was reported to the manufacturer. The contact referenced NHTSA campaign id 13v038000 (power train: rear axle pinion may loosen at differential), in which the VIN was included. The failure and current mileage was 51,000. Yn.

Rcvd. Safety recall n08/NHTSA 13v-038 from Chrysler corp. Approx. 30 days ago about the rear axle pinion nut on my 2010 Ram 1500 stating that the truck was unsafe and that they were concerned about my safety. Called local dealer to schedule appt. To have fixed and dealer stated that the part was unavailable, waited another week and called the Chrysler group recall assistance center and got the same excuse from them that the parts were on back order. Something needs to be done to motivate this company to take care of their responsibilities in a timely manner, not everyone can park their vehicle and wait for this to be resolved whenever Chrysler gets around to it. Have read other complaints on this website about rear axle lock-up and other accidents with the drive shafts. Hopefully this will be fixed before another accident occurs or someone is seriously injured or killed.

While driving 70mph down hwy heard a loud thump under car, then a lot of banging under truck, rear of truck jumped and bounced a little. Then while trying to accelerate and get off freeway from the fast lane had no throttle response so cost across four lanes to the shoulder once got to shoulder I went to hit breaks but rear end locked up before I could and truck came to a screeching halt. Got out of truck and drive shaft was on the ground hanging from transmission, the rear end spline shaft was sticking out of rear end but bent really bad. The rear end flange and u bolt was completely gone along with about a foot of the drive shaft. The transmission now grinds when shiftin in to gear and park . My exhaust is all smashed up from drive shaft whipping around the chrome tips out of the back bumper are dropped about 1 inch and pushed out from bumper 2 inches. To me looks like rear end locked up and ripped the drive shaft in two.

Chrysler sent me a safety recall notice n08/nstsa 13v-038 in April of 2013. This is for trucks with a 9. 28" rear axle it states that the pinion nut may be built without an adhesive patch on the pinion threads. The lack of this adhesive patch could allow the rear axle pinion nut to loosen and/or the rear driveshaft to seperate from the rear axle. A loose pinion nut could cause the rear axle to seize and a separated driveshaft could cause a loss of motive power. Either situation could cause a crash without warning. The dealer states that Chrysler has not informed them of the fix not supplied the parts. They also stated that Chrysler would contact me when the figured out what to do. I waited a while and called Chrysler in may and they had me bring the vechile in for an inspection at the dealer. The dealer told me that everything looked tight at this point to wait for Chrysler to come up with the fix and contact me. To date they have not contacted me.

Drive shaft and rear differential failed. Vehicle stopped in left turn lane of intersection. With green light, pressed accelerator and loud bang was heard. Vehicle would not move and upon inspection found broken drive shaft and broken differential.

Vehicle was traveling at 70 mph. Vibration and howling/whining noise started coming from the rearend,owner slowed down to exit the highway,as the vehicle was braking to a stop loud clunking and grinding noise coming from the rear end. The drive shaft separated from the rear end of the vehicle,right rear wheel locked and slid about 8 feet. . Driver exited the vehicle,took picture of drive shaft on the ground underneath the truck. No previous indications of any problems. Chrysler hot line was called. VIN was identified as be involved in a recall m-34. Recall notice had not been received by owner,Dodge rep said recall notices were being sent out starting 5 Dec 2012. Vehicle was towed to nearest Dodge dealer.

The driveshaft completely fell off my truck locking up the rear end. The truck bounced violently down the road leaving skid marks and holes in the pavement where the driveshaft hit it until the whole thing finally came off. Smoke rolled from under the vehicle when it finally stopped. Luckily I was on a side road and not in traffic when the failure occurred. Under different road conditions & speed this failure could definitely have led to a roll-over and potentially fatal accident. I was not notified by Chrysler of any potential failure.

Drive shaft dropped out from the rear axle on the main road, rear axle locked up. Both rear tires would not spin freely. All differential fluid leaked out from where the drive shaft once entered. Truck is now in a Dodge certified dealership.

Driving on highway in traffic, heard a loud clunking, scraping noise. Pulled over and assessed that the drive shaft was hanging and had broken away from the rear differential. Rear wheels were locked.

The rear differential in my ram locked up at 35 mph causing the driveshaft to break, the rear of the truck to jump in the air approximately 2ft, and making it skid for 40ft to a hard stop in the middle of the road near a busy intersection. Dodge has yet to recognize this issue and to do something about it despite it happening to multiple rams. This is extremely dangerous!!! even the dealerships fail to show any concern over this issue. It was taken to miller Dodge in martinsburg and will be looked at Monday.

I have contacted Dodge 5 times to have them replace my transmission and differential as they are not working properly. They dont shift when necessary, they dont engage when needed and as a result I have almost been in 2 accidents. The first happened a few weeks ago when after they had failed to detect any problems while my truck was in for service and my complaint that thetransmission and differential were not working properly, the drive shaft actually fell off the truck while it was in motion and the bolt holding the u-joint for the drive shaft shot into the differential resulting in the rear wheels locking up. I was in the midst of traffic when this happened and 2 cars swerved to miss me. I had it towed to the dealer, and the relpaced the drive shaft and a couple pieces in the differential, but didn't address the transmission issue and now the differential wasn't working properly and making noise. After contact Dodge about it again, they are telling me that the dealer says there's nothing wrong so they wont replace the transmission or the differential even thoug they are covered under warranty. The dealer specifically told me that they know something is wrong, but thaey arent sure exactly what and the only way to really fix the issues would be to replace the entire transmission and the entire differential because they each have som many parts to them. At this point, I would like to file an official complaint as it seems the only way Dodge will honor their warranty is if someone dies. Yesterdasy I was making a left turn and oncoming traffic almost hit me because the transmission wouldn't engage in gear for the truck to move forward.

The contact owns a 2010 Dodge Ram 1500. The contact stated that while driving 35 mph, he heard an abnormally loud noise coming from the rear of the vehicle. The contact mentioned that the wheels seized and the drive shaft fractured. As a result, he lost control of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 49,000.

Was driving my 2010 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup at 40 mph when I felt/heard something snap from underneath the truck, pulled off and saw the drive shaft had broke off the rear-end, damaged the transfercase, shredded out all the gears, and locked up the rear-end. Vehicle is under warranty and the dealership honored all repairs under warranty.

I went to huntsville, alabama and got my two grandchildren on July 23, 2012 and they spent three weeks with me in michigan. On Friday August 10, 2012, I took them home. On Saturday, August 11, 2012 as I was driving down pulaski pike getting ready to make a left turn my truck would not turn. The man at the service station was waving for me to let my window down and I did and he said MA your drive shaft is on the ground. I got out of my truck and was astonished that this big long pipe was on the ground. My father came and said your pinion nut backed itself off the pinion and that there was no loctite on the pinion nut and that could have been very danger had it happen when I was carrying my grandchildren home. My father is a mechanic and he put my drive shaft back on and I drove my truck back to michigan and took my truck to moran Chrysler Jeep dealership in st. Clair. And they said it was put back together ok but need a seal on the differential case but the people I work with knew they were using defected pinion nuts. I work at the marysville axle plant which it use to be detroit axle plant.

The contact owns a 2010 Dodge Ram 1500. The contact stated that while driving 60 mph, both of the rear wheels locked. As a result, the drive shaft broke off the rear differential. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who was unable to determine what caused the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the problem who did not offer any assistance. The VIN was not available. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 85,200.

I noticed the vehicle making a humming/rubbing sound coming from the rear end when moving 20-35mph and coming to a stop. I parked the vehicle until I was able to get it to the dealership, so the technician could test drive and locate the problem. Upon his initial leaving he heard nothing so he proceeded to pick up the speed to 55mph to check for vibration in a neutral coast down. Upon reaching 45mph the drive-shaft completely snapped and separated from the rear end assembly, resulting in the rear end completely locking up and sending the truck spinning out of control and the drive shaft swinging violently underneath the truck until the truck came to rest in the middle of the road. Upon further inspection when the truck was towed back to the dealership the technician noticed the rack and pinion assembly completely unthreaded itself from the driveshaft resulting in a catastrophic failure of the rear end. As a result it completely destroyed the gears and components within the rear end housing including deep gashes into the housing itself rendering it unsafe to re-build on. The dealership has since ordered a whole new rear end assembly to be purchased and placed on the truck and currently waiting on parts as I write this letter.

I was driving vehicle at 55 mph along undivided 2 lane highway. Differential began to make whining noise and then within 1-2 minutes the rear differential locked up and the drive shaft yoke broke causing the drive shaft to drop to the ground. Due to the speed, vehicle control was difficult while attempting to stop. Once stopped, drive shaft yoke was obviously snapped off and passenger side rear tire had melted rubber from being dragged for a few hundred feet when differential locked up. Vehicle was taken to deal and after 2 weeks determination was made that something seized in the differential and caused internals to be destroyed. Dealer has not mentioned current recalls or investigations. As of now, I have been told that Dodge is not making the parts needed and that a minimum of 1 month lead time is expected before parts become available. I am told no loaner vehicle or rental car will be provided.

While coming down highway 36 into susanville, calif. Our truck started make a odd noise, we could not stop to check it out because of the road, as we came up on an area where wee could look at it got really loud and we heard a thump and the rear axle locked up. We then skid across the road to a pull off area what we found was our drive shaft had come out of the rear axle. The truck had to be towed into town where it still is. When we called on July 30th I was told there was 45 other trucks waiting for the same part, I called again on August 10th and they are now telling us maybe sometime in October. The problem has been identified by the national highway traffic safety administration. But I believe the scope of the problem is greater then what is being reported to federal agencies.

Started to hear a strange noise when I would let off the accelerator (empty truck, no trailer or cargo). I said to myself 'I need to get this to the shop tomorrow to see what is wrong with it. ' the noise got louder, and before I got home, the nut holding on the drive shaft had fallen off and caused the drive shaft to drop to the ground and my rear end to lock up. I was disabled in the middle of an intersection and had to call a tow truck. After google searching the issue, I noticed there are many cases with 2009 and 2010 Dodge Ram 1500 trucks with this exact issue. This isn't a driveshaft issue, but rather a pinion\rear end issue. Seeing the numerous reports of this issue, I think a recall is the least that Dodge should do in response to this issue.

The vehicle began making a whining noise in the rear during deceleration, both from simply letting off the accelerator and braking. Noise began 50 miles from residence, and progressively became louder on the drive home. At roughly 17 miles from my current residence, a loud noise was heard followed by more loud rumbling and smoke from differential fluid slinging onto the exhaust. I turned on to a side road and began coasting until reaching a safe location to pull over; however, before stopping the rear differential locked up causing the truck to skid to a stop. Upon exiting the vehicle, I could see the drive shaft hanging on the ground, it's rear connecting bolts sheared, and the differential yoke was missing. I could see the pinion shaft sloppily resting in the the differential where the yoke should have been. I paid to have it hauled to the local Dodge dealership, who indicated they "did not have a qualified rear end technician", and said I'd "have to have it towed to another one at my personal expense" 50 miles away. After contacting Chrysler, they reimbursed my towing expense, and towed it to the other dealership. The second dealership said the ring and pinion were broken, and would have to be replaced along with the carrier. After waiting one month without my truck, I contacted them and was told the parts necessary to fix the vehicle were on backorder, and would not be available for 3 months. I called Chrysler to expedite the parts, and that afternoon was told the parts had arrived, and would be fixed in 2-3 days. After one day, I was told Chrysler okayed aftermarket parts to expedite the repair, but were flawed preventing correct repair. They offered to let me have it back, but warned me it would make more noise than before. I requested that they fix it right or not at all. Chrysler then indicated parts would not be available for 5 months.

I have a 1500 Dodge 4x4. While driving home (with my three kids) I pulled up to a stop sign and noticed what felt like my brakes grinding. I rolled down my window and it was very load. I drove another 2 miles maybe, pulled up to another stop sign only to have my drive shaft hit the pavement. A few men selling vegetables on the corner helped push it backwards off the road. My husband later went to pick it up with one of his trailers and noticed that in 4x4 with the drive shaft removed it was still locked. The dealership has had it for three weeks and first had problems with the parts, then said that the parts were on back order, then said that the housing was delivered but the gears had to be investigated and released by a regional manager in order to be ordered. What would have happened if that had happened doing 75mph down the interstate that I was heading towards??? I have looked through forums and online and noticed that this is not too frequent but still common. What to do? three weeks without my vehicle, no end in site ordering the pieces of the rear end and still no answer on if the front end or transmission have issues.

While on vacation I was driving 45 mph and heard a whinning noise coming from the rear of truck. It got louder and louder very quickly and then I heard a large banging noise and the rear wheels froze up causing the truck to skid to a stop in the middle of the road. Got out of said truck and noticed the rear of the driveshaft laying on the ground. Put it in 4 wheel drive to get of the road and noticed the rear wheels were locked solid and was barely able to get the truck to move to get of the road. The pinion nut came loose causing the driveshaft to fall off in turn the pinion moved in the rear axel causing catastrophic failure inside the rear differential.