Six problems related to ball joint have been reported for the 2004 Dodge Ram 2500. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Dodge 2500 4x4, the truck is experiencing the "death wobble" I have read about it and my mechanic cant find anything wrong. It occurs at speeds above 60 mph and can only be stopped by slowing the vehicle to almost stop. The shocks and ball joints are good and the balance on the tires is good too.
Front-end noise gradually getting worse until front-end play in steering and wheels around 55,000 miles. Ball joints and u-joint parts were replaced (my expense) and now again at 95,500 miles the same problem is occurring again.
Truck vibrates or shakes when going over 60 mph. When it hits a bump it does the same thing. I was told it was ball joint defect which is on recall.
On 3-24-08, my vehicle failed state inspection at shaffer's auto service center; 422 taylor st. ; new castle, PA 16101 (724-654-1088). Since it was under an extended warranty plan, I took it to king's Chrysler; 3239 wilmington rd. ; new castle, PA 16105 (724-654-7761) to be fixed. They replaced both front universal joints. But they said that all four ball joints were within specifications for allowed movement. My 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 had 32083 miles on it then. A remark was made that the balljoints should last another 5 thousand miles or so. Today I wanted to have them checked, since I have 37,000 miles on the vehicle. I have been continually worried that a wheel might break off since this vehicle failed inspection at shaffer's. And this is the second time that I took it back to king's to see if the balljoints were bad enough to change. Today, they told me I voided the warranty because I had locking hubs installed on the vehicle to improve fuel mileage. I had the hubs installed after it failed inspection and they said it would last a while longer. I plan on changing the balljoints at my own expense now. But am troubled that they didn't change them at the time because if one breaks, then a wheel could fall off my vehicle and I could be injured as well as anyone else who was near me on the highway. I have recently been doing a lot of traveling on interstate rt. 80, across PA and am afraid one will break at 65 mph as I travel rt. 80. Should vehicle dealers be permitted to defy the authority of another state vehicle inspection station to keep from doing warranty work? I believe that their negligence has put me and others at risk on the road ways I travel.
Have had premature failure of front end parts: ball joints, tie rods, ujoints. I have replaced 3 times in last 5 years and again now having to replace.
My Ram 2500 4x4 diesel truck started shaking uncontrollably at 60-65mph around 30k miles on vehicle, had to completely stop the vehicle to make the shaking stop. I thought I had problems with tires and balancing, so went to tire shop and bought new tires and had front end aligned. But about a week after new tires were installed it happened again, so I had dealership examine vehicle, they changed steering damper, and ball joints after 3 weeks in shop. Again, the vehicle started shaking, so brought it again to dealership, where they stated I needed to have the truck aligned, so I told them to have it aligned. The problem continued until I noticed the front tires were loosing its shape going bald on the outside, obviously alignment wrongly performed. I called the dealership and they said there was nothing they could do as alignment was not performed at their site. That's when I decided to bring the vehicle to my technician and pay for a real technician to do the job correctly. Here's what he found out: all tie rod ends and bars were damaged, steering damper was bad, and the front end was displaced wrongly via the eccentric adjustments. To our surprise, all new repalcement parts (tie rods, and bars) had problems, went back to mopar parts store three times to exchange parts. This is when we decided to go all the way and exchanged all tie rods and bars with aftermarket ones with grease cups and added a second steering damper to the principal bar coming from the pitman arm. Problem has been solved with $$$ and time to think about the problem. I can forwrd pictures of how the front end suspension looks now, not different from original but with grease cups and additional steering damper (mopar clamp on type). Please forward this to Chrysler and Dodge engineers.