2001 DODGE RAM 1500 — Complaint #548360
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF filed August 8, 2005
NHTSA complaint #548360 (ODI reference 10131889) concerns a 2001 DODGE RAM 1500 and was filed on August 8, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 9, 2004. The vehicle had 35,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:springs:leaf spring assembly:leaf, 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 suspension:rear:springs:leaf spring assembly:leaf 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 2001 DODGE RAM 1500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE LEFT REAR MAIN LEAF SPRING FAILED WHILE DRIVING 55 MPH. AT THE TIME OF FAILURE THE TRUCK HAD APPROXIMATELY 35000 MILES ON IT AND THE REPAIR WAS COVERED UNDER WARRANTY. WITH APPROXIMATELY 70000 MILES ON THE TRUCK THE RIGHT REAR MAIN LEAF FAILED AS WELL. THIS REPAIR WAS NOT COVERED AND I WAS INFORMED BY THE "CERTIFIED CHRYSLER REPAIR FACILITY" THAT THEY HAD NEVER SEEN THIS PROBLEM BEFORE AND THERE WERE NO RECALLS OR BULLETINS CONCERNING THIS FAILURE. THIS TRUCK HAS NEVER CARRIED A LOAD AND HAS NEVER BEEN ABUSED. BOTH SPRINGS BROKE IN THE SAME PLACE (WHERE THE STEEL IS ROLLED TO ACCOMMODATE THE SHACKLE BOLT). THIS IS A CLEAN STRAIGHT BREAK AND APPEARS TO BE THE RESULT OF EXCESSIVE HEAT IN THE MANUFACTURE PROCESS. THIS IS MOST DEFINITELY A "MANUFACTURER DEFECT" AND AS SUCH SHOULD BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHRYSLER CORPORATION. *NM
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 548360 |
| ODI Number | 10131889 |
| Date Filed | August 8, 2005 |
| Failure Date | July 9, 2004 |
| VIN | 1B7HC16YX1S |
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.