2004 Dodge Ram 2500 problems
Owners have filed 760 complaints with NHTSA about the 2004 Dodge Ram 2500. Steering is the most reported problem area, at 19% of complaints. After that come suspension (15%) and air bags (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 760 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Steering 19% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 56 and 10
- Injuries and deaths
- 15 and 4
- Typical mileage
- 74,000 miles 555 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 86 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 66 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 66 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 85 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 68 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 48 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 57 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 24 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 20 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 13 |
| 200k+ miles | 22 |
What the data shows
Among the 555 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 74,000 miles. For steering specifically, the median reported mileage is about 93,000 miles (98 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 56 complaints mention a crash; 10 complaints mention a fire; 15 injuries reported; 4 deaths reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2004 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 21 model years of the Dodge Ram 2500 with enough data (319 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 6 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
2004 dodge ram 2500-vehicle is a single cab and is front heavy. Vehicle was going 40 MPH and flipped end over end and no air bags deployed.
2004 3/4 ton diesel truck involved in rollback accident which killed consumer's wife.** answer required***. The vehicle was placed in park with the engine running, the consumer exited the vehicle in which he thought his wife was going to join him, however a few minutes later, the consumer noticed his wife was not by his side and the vehicle was rolling in reverse and his wife was laying in front of the truck.
Consumer turned vehicle off and put it in park, got out, and walked to the back of vehicle, and it jumped out of park into reverse, knocking consumer down and rolled over him, killing the consumer. Reported by richard gatewood. Updated 04/17/06.
On august 29, 2016 I was driving my 2004 dodge truck on a highway when my front driver side tire suffered a complete tread separation. It seemed to just explode. There were no injuries, but a damage report was filled out by the highway patrol. This was a michelin ltx a/t2 tire with about 40,000 miles on it. The tires are 5 years old.these tires are warrantied for 60,000 miles or 6 years.
Air condition wire plugin at steering column gets to hot and melted part of plug connection I had to have new wire run just for AC fan