1998 DODGE DAKOTA — Complaint #256181
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:BACK UP LIGHTS:SWITCH filed November 14, 2000
NHTSA complaint #256181 (ODI reference 874936) concerns a 1998 DODGE DAKOTA and was filed on November 14, 2000. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 1, 1998. The report was geocoded to Ohio based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:back up lights:switch, 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: yes, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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 DAKOTA cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting:back up lights:switch 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 1998 DODGE DAKOTA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
ENGINE EXPERIENCES ROUGH AND LOW IDLE, AND STALLING, DEALER HAS REPLACED THROTTLE BODY, MANIFOLD GASKETS, AND VALVE BODY, HOWEVER STALLING STILL EXISTS, DEALER STATED THE COMBINATION OF STOPPING, SHIFTING, AND THE TURNING OF THE STEERING WHEEL CAUSES THE ENGINE TO STALL, THERE WAS ALSO AN OIL PAN LEAK AND COOLANT LEAK, PURGE SOLENOID WAS ALSO NOISY. REVERSE LIGHTS HAD A DEFECTIVE SWITCH AND THE HEADLIGHTS HAD A DEFECTIVE SWITCH. EXHAUST WAS NOISY AND THE EXHAUST BOLTS WERE BROKEN. MOLDINGS WERE LEAKING, DEALER HAD TO ALSO REPLACE CARPET. BRAKES LOCKED UP, DEALER FOUND THEY WERE FULL OF BRAKE DUST, FRONT ROTORS GOUGED, DEALER REPLACED BRAKES AND ROTORS. STEERING GEAR BOX AND POWER STEERING GEAR ASSEMBLY BOTH LEAKED. TRANSMISSION EXPERIENCED MANY PROBLEMS, A DEFECTIVE LEAKING PRESSURE LINE, VIBRATION IN DRIVELINE, VEHICLE WOULD SLAM IN REVERSE WHEN GOING FROM DRIVE, DIFFERENTIAL WAS REPLACED DUE TO A HUMMING NOISE, AND THE GEAR SHIFT BROKE. NEW TIRES (NO SIZE OR BRAND) DUE TO VIBR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 256181 |
| ODI Number | 874936 |
| Date Filed | November 14, 2000 |
| Failure Date | January 1, 1998 |
| VIN | 1B7GG22X0WS |
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.