2005 DODGE RAM 1500 — Complaint #546136
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:MANUAL TRANSMISSION:LUBRICANT filed July 27, 2005
NHTSA complaint #546136 (ODI reference 10130257) concerns a 2005 DODGE RAM 1500 and was filed on July 27, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 15, 2005. The vehicle had 42,000 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 power train:manual transmission:lubricant, 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:manual transmission:lubricant 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 2005 DODGE RAM 1500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
MY TRANSMISSION SUDDENLY FAILED (42K) WITHOUT ANY WARNING WHATSOEVER (PRESENT OR PAST) WHILE DRIVING ALONG A VERY BUSY HIGHWAY. THE VEHICLE STARTED TO SUDDENLY & RAPIDLY SLOW DOWN AND BEGAN TO SURGE (RAPIDLY SPEED UP AND SLOW DOWN). THE VEHICLES BEHIND ME WERE FORCED TO SUDDENLY BRAKE; MANY QUICKLY CHANGED LANES TO AVOID A COLLISION. I REQUESTED ASSISTANCE WITH THE COST OF THE REPAIR FROM DODGE VIA THE SERVICE MANAGER. THE SERVICE MANAGER CONTACTED THE DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE, DAN LEWENDOWSKI, WHO REFUSED TO ASSIST ME WITH THE EXPENSE. I HAD THE VEHICLE TOWED TO A NOTABLE TRANSMISSION SHOP FOR REPAIR. UPON INSPECTING THE TRANSMISSION, THE TRANSMISSION SHOP OWNER INSISTED THAT THE TRANSMISSION FAILED FOR SOME OTHER REASON THAN NON-MAINTENANCE. HE TOLD ME THAT THE FLUID DOES NOT LOSE IT'S LUBRICATION AT 42,000 MILES. THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST DODGE RAM HE HAS SERVICED WITH A TRANSMISSION PROBLEM. IN FACT, HE HAD ANOTHER DODGE RAM IN THE SHOP THE SAME DAY WITH THE SAME PROBLEM (THE "
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 546136 |
| ODI Number | 10130257 |
| Date Filed | July 27, 2005 |
| Failure Date | July 15, 2005 |
| VIN | 1B7HF13Z91J |
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.