2016 RAM 2500 — Complaint #1774193
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:COOLING SYSTEM:FAN filed October 19, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1774193 (ODI reference 11437306) concerns a 2016 RAM 2500 and was filed on October 19, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 3, 2020. The report was geocoded to Oregon based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:cooling system:fan, 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 RAM 2500 cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling:cooling system:fan 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 2016 RAM 2500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
Engine Fan / Radiator Shroud. During hot weather and engine temperature, the engine fan engaged. Due to the high ambient, I believe the radiator shroud was hot and the material was soft, it became deformed under the vacuum created by the fan cause it to interfere with the engine fans path of rotation. The interference caused the fan and shroud to shred each other sending shrapnel in all directions, including into the back side of the radiator, engine compartment. Plastic debris was found on top of the valve cover, battery, radiator, exhaust manifold. This problem has been reported by numerus online forms. This failure was inspected by the dealer and I was informed it was not under warranty, but drivable and safe. Their recommendation however was to replace the fan, shroud and radiator. However, they have seen cases with far worse damage causing catastrophic failure of the radiator leaving the vehicle stranded
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1774193 |
| ODI Number | 11437306 |
| Date Filed | October 19, 2021 |
| Failure Date | July 3, 2020 |
| VIN | 3C6UR5FL7GG |
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.