Two problems related to power steering pump have been reported for the 2004 Dodge Ram 2500. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
My truck is only used for towing a fifth wheel, thus the low mileage. On a trip, the truck stalled with no warning on the freeway, lost power, power brakes and power steering in the 2nd from right lane. I was barely able to pull it over and stop, in an unsafe area. 4 hrs later a tow for truck and 5th wheel was arranged. The tacoma Dodge dealer replaced the lift fuel pump with an in tank lift fuel pump. Apparently the block mounted pump "always fails around 70k miles", which is what my truck has logged. The heat kills the pump. I paid $2106. 47 for the repair. The new pump failed in less than 6 months or 2k miles. The everett dwayne lane dealer has the truck now for two weeks, and cannot get the warranted pump replaced for another 2 weeks due to back order from mopar. I believe the pump to be a defect causing extreme safety hazard, as no warning loss of power steering and brakes are affected. Seniors often drive RV's, many would not be able physically to handle the rig with this failure. Eventually a death will occur, and probably many already have that I am unware of. Recall should be immediate. Sincerely, don reynolds.
Traveling on hwy at 55 mph when truck lost all power including power steering. No warning. Steered to side of hwy and stopped. Hwy was under construction and 50 more yards I would have been in middle of road because no shoulder with construction. Truck restarted, and I continued on because in rural area. Truck stopped again in middle of intersection in town about 2hrs later. Dealer could not look at it until next day, so I had to drive home (40 mi) and hope I made it. Brought it back next morning and told needed new lift pump and would keep it overnight. My dealer's service dept is great, and they gave me a ride home (40 mi). No option to install original pump of several hundred dollars. Had to install one in the fuel tank with cost of $1000. Several concerns. One, this seems to be an engineering defect since they now install the lift pump in the gas tank where it should have been all along. Two, they are making a nice sum to replace it and put it in the tank. Three, this is an urgent safety factor because when vehicle shuts down, there is no power steering. There are drop-offs with narrow shoulders (or no shoulder as in my case because of construction) along hwys in my area. I could very easily have gone over or down the side of one of our hills. Four, vehicle can lose power in the middle of an intersection when making a turn in front of oncoming traffic (as it did in my case). Five, there is no prior warning or way to check the potential of this happening. When this happened yesterday and I started researching, it was the first I had heard of it. My truck is serviced regularly by my dealer, and there is no test for this. It was a very scary situation on the hwy and in the middle of the intersection. The fact that I have had the truck for several yrs shows that eventually they will probably all fail and should be replaced before they do.