1998 DODGE RAM 3500 — Complaint #429058
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, AIR:ANTILOCK:INTERCONNECTING ASSEMBLY(WIRING) filed September 8, 2003
NHTSA complaint #429058 (ODI reference 10037427) concerns a 1998 DODGE RAM 3500 and was filed on September 8, 2003. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 28, 2003. The vehicle had 46,565 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, air:antilock:interconnecting assembly(wiring), 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: yes, 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 RAM 3500 cohort independently describe similar service brakes, air:antilock:interconnecting assembly(wiring) 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 RAM 3500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
1998-2001 B-VAN (DODGE FULL SIZE) BS CONTROL MODULE IS PROTECTED WITH A 40 AMP FUSE. A 10 GA. WIRE COMES OUT OF THE CONTROL MODULE THEN THE WIRE "Y"'S OUT TO TWO 14 GA. WIRES. IT APPEARS AS THOUGH THE ABS PUMP OR RELAY STICKS ON THESE VEHICLES. THEN ONE OF THE 14 GA. WIRES OVER HEATS AND STARTS THE WIRING HARNESS ON FIRE. THE 40 AMP FUSE DOES NOT BLOW. THE FIRE CONTINUES UNTIL THE ENTIRE VAN IS FULLY ENGULED IN FLAMES.*AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 429058 |
| ODI Number | 10037427 |
| Date Filed | September 8, 2003 |
| Failure Date | July 28, 2003 |
| VIN | 2B7KB31ZXWK |
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.