Two problems related to front suspension wheel bearing have been reported for the 1998 Dodge Ram 2500. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
While turning left at any speed have a serious shudder. Truck has new wheel bearings tie rod ends rotors and calipers done at Dodge dealership. The shudder is heard and felt in floor board nothing in brake pedal or steering wheel. Shudder is less audible when put into neutral and coasting while turning left.
I had just stopped at a red light and my steering was acting funny - sort of jerking to the left slightly. As I left the intersection and got up to about 20-25 mph, the truck suddenly jerked hard to the left and I could not recover control. I crossed two lanes of oncoming traffic and fortunately did not hit anyone - I ended up in a snow berm across the street. I had thought it might be my brakes sticking because of the cold weather in alaska. It turns out it was a failure of the wheel bearings. According to the mechanic, this is a common problem with sealed wheel bearings - the seal goes bad, the bearings dry out, then they lock up. It typically results in a tire falling off and an ensuing accident - often fatal. My 5 year old son was with me and I was fortunate not to have taken the highway where I would have been traveling at 65 mph. I'm quite certain I would have killed someone if not my son and myself. I have a 1998 Dodge 2500 with the cummins diesel and it has 99985 miles on it - the diesel engine exacerbates this problem due to the noise level - I may have been able to hear these bearings going out sooner. I had to replace the wheel bearings and other misc parts that were torn apart - either when the bearings went out or I hit the snow berm.