Dodge News and Notes

Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) is recalling 1.1 million vehicles with electronic gear selectors.

While the system is working as it was designed, it's the design that's the problem.

"A driver should know the gear-selection based on multiple sets of indicator lights, unlike normal shifters that use a gear-selector position. However, hundreds of drivers have caused their vehicles to roll away because of not realizing the vehicles aren't in Park."

An investigation was opened earlier this year. One or two rollaways might be an accident, but hundreds? That screams of a "back to the drawing board" situation for the FCA team.…

Dodge Durango owners just can't seem to catch a break.

That is, unless, you're talking about the break in their braking system.

"Chrysler (FCA US) is recalling over 14,700 model year 2015-2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango SUVs because the front brake calipers can break. Chrysler blames the problem on a supplier that manufactured the caliper with the wrong materials."…

Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) says certain Dodge Darts are missing a software backup

in the powertrain control module (PCM).

"FCA is recalling 1,200 model year 2016 Dodge Dart cars equipped with 2-liter engines and manual transmissions. In addition, some 2015 Dodge Darts are included if they have the same engines and transmissions and were serviced between September 15, 2015, and January 12, 2016."

The PCM monitors the engine's torque output, and if it fails it won't be able to stop what FCA calls "an unauthorized torque event." That's twisted.

Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) used expired primer to install the windshields in the 2015-2016 Chrysler Town and Country and 2014-2015 Dodge Grand Caravan.

And guess what? It's doing a terrible job stopping the windshields from falling out.

The automaker says lab results showed using urethane with a primer that expired in July 2015 always passed the tests. However, using urethane with a primer that expired in January 2015 failed 100 percent of the time.

Shocking.

Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) is recalling 112,000 vehicles with defective Continental airbags.

They opened an internal investigation in July 2015 to find out why a 2009 Dodge Journey airbag deployed for no apparent reason. The automaker later found 13 potential inadvertent airbag deployments with airbags made by Continental Automotive Systems.

Recently, Continental announced they needed to recall 5 million airbags that were susceptible to corrosion. The airbags in question might not deploy in a crash, which really defeats the point.

FCA says they aren't sure when the recall will begin.

More than 500,000 Dodge Chargers are part of an interesting recall.

While the owner's manual clearly says 'wheel chocks' should be used when changing a tire using a tire jack, not everyone follows instructions. Now at least three of those people ended up getting injured when changing their Charger's tires.

Darwin has an award for this sort of thing.

Rather than place blame, however, Dodge has decided to provide owners with free chocks.

They should be ready in April, 2016. Owners can call Dodge at 800-853-1403.

Late last year, FCA US (Chrysler) announced a recall of 67,000 trucks because of a problem in the clutch ignition interlock system.

The recall was expected to begin in February 2015, so why bring it up now? It's important to make sure everyone who needs these repairs, gets them.

The defect allows the trucks to move just by turning the ignition, without ever having to engage the clutch. According to reports, this allowed something truly awful to happen to one family:

"A child got behind the wheel of a Ram 3500 and turned the key. Even though the clutch pedal was not pushed, the truck lunged forward and hit and killed another child."…

Fiat-Chrysler is recalling 275k SUVs because of a BS issue. Oh wait, an ABS issue. My mistake.

275,614 model year 2012-2015 Dodge Journey SUVs could lose control because of water entering the anti-lock brake system module wiring harnesses.

Water and electronics are not friends. Once the ABS module gets wet it fries up like an egg and disables the anti-lock brakes. It might even disable the electronic stability control system (ESC) for good measure.

FCA hasn't mentioned when the recall will begin. Full details, including build dates for the affected vehicles, are available on our site.