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1997 DODGE DAKOTA — Complaint #453071

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NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:AIR SUSPENSION:SPRINGS/BAGS filed February 3, 2004

NHTSA complaint #453071 (ODI reference 10057442) concerns a 1997 DODGE DAKOTA and was filed on February 3, 2004. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 19, 2004. The vehicle had 34,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Ohio based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:springs:air suspension:springs/bags, 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 DAKOTA cohort independently describe similar suspension:front:springs:air suspension:springs/bags 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 1997 DODGE DAKOTA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
1997 DODGE DAKOTA
Component
SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:AIR SUSPENSION:SPRINGS/BAGS
State
Ohio
Mileage
34,000 mi

Complaint Description

WHILE DRIVING 45 MPH STEERING WHEEL VIBRATED. THE MECHANIC DETERMINED THAT THE PROBLEM WAS DUE TO THE FRONT BALL JOINTS BEING WORN OUT. *AK THE FAULTY BALL JOINTS RESULTED IN BAD ALIGNMENT AND CAUSED THE TIRES TO WEAR IMPROPERLY. *SC *JB

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 453071
ODI Number 10057442
Date Filed February 3, 2004
Failure Date January 19, 2004
VIN 1B7GG26X3VS

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.