2003 DODGE RAM 1500 — Complaint #1558148
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN filed April 15, 2019
NHTSA complaint #1558148 (ODI reference 11196532) concerns a 2003 DODGE RAM 1500 and was filed on April 15, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 5, 2019. The vehicle had 174,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New Jersey based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same DODGE RAM 1500 cohort independently describe similar power train failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2003 DODGE RAM 1500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TRAVELING AT ABOUT 40MPH, DRIVESHAFT FELL OFF. AFTER FURTHER INVESTIGATION, I SAW THE PINION LOOSE HANGING INSIDE THE DIFFERENTIAL. I TOOK COVER OFF DIFFERENTIAL AND THE PINION AND GEAR WERE DESTROYED. THE PINION NUT WAS OFF . THAT BEING SAID, NUT CAME LOOSE, CAUSING PINION TO DROP INTO GEAR BOX , DESTROYING IT. HOWEVER, MY VIN WAS NOT RECALLED. MULTIPLE ISSUES LIKE THIS ON THIS YEAR ALSO.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1558148 |
| ODI Number | 11196532 |
| Date Filed | April 15, 2019 |
| Failure Date | April 5, 2019 |
| VIN | 1D7HU18N53J |
Similar POWER TRAIN Complaints for 2003 DODGE RAM 1500
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Around midday of November 25, 2021, a clear day with no precipitation, while operating the 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 with about 155k miles on it at approximately 35 MPH, the drive train locked up causing th
DIFFERENTIAL GRINDING NOISE WHEN DRIVING DOWN THE STREET WHEN GRINDING NOISE STARTED
I WAS DOING 65 ON FREEWAY WHEN WHEN MY DRIVELINE AND PINION BOLT CAME OFF REAR END IN 1 PIECE AND THE REAR TIRES LOCKED UP AND I SLID TO A STOP
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.