My car is at 69739 miles and the control arms and the front and rear subframe is rotted out
Dodge Caliber ball joint problems
220 of the 1,848 owner complaints about the Dodge Caliber describe ball joint or control arm failure, most of them for the 2007 model year.
- owner complaints
- 220
- worst model year
- 2007
- typical repair cost reported
- $1,000
- typical mileage
- 58,500
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
By model year
Often reported together
Grinding brakes 13Harsh shifting 11Stalling 7Premature wear 7Power steering loss 6Knocking 6Wipers 4Jerking 4
What owners say
Due to the subframe rusting on the undercarriage of the car, the lower ball joint completely detached from the car, cause the driver side tire to fall off during operation.
Rear suspension rusted and broke during operation; control arm, tie rod and/or wheel bearings rusted and broke during operation causing vehicle to lose control
Rear subframe rusted right through control rods snapped rear end of car dropped down. Upon researching they know that this is bad and unsafe even gave a 10 year extended warranty for front and rear subframe so how long will and how many complaints before this is an actual recall. I see here in your complaints that there is a large number of complaints on this issue. How are they getting away with this and nothing being done. I will have photos also police had said if this happened while it was on interstate would have crashed and could have been fatal. The tire would have ripped right off. So not only was my safety but the safety of the others being jeopardized cause everyone just keeps looking away at this issue. I would love to know how many of these subframes have had to be replaced I bet if you do research there is not one of them out there that either should be replaced have been replaced or will need to be replaced. Stop allowing these car companies to use sub standard parts. I am sure this will fall to the wayside along with the other 100 complaints. I will try my hardest to make sure everyone knows this is a problem that the car company is fully aware of and nobody has done anything about and keep researching on how many more this has happened to and try to get everyone to file a complaint. There was NO WARNING SIGN just broke loose passenger side of car was practically on the ground the broken control arm is what held everything up. Please can we really check into this if there is a recall at least people will know the problem exist.
The contact owns a 2007 Dodge Caliber. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the front end of the vehicle emitted abnormal sounds and the vehicle was vibrating. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the front passenger's side and the front driver's side tires were wiggly and the front lower ball joints had failed. Additionally, the independent mechanic diagnosed that the front subframe was severely rusted and had a hole. The vehicle was then taken to another independent mechanic who diagnosed that the rear subframe was severely rusted as well. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer and the manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 133,000.
I forgot to tell you that the control arms on both sides and lower ball joints on both sides went bad because of the rotted frame on the car where the A frame sits is loose because of the rotted frame I grew up at the beach area and we never had rotted frames on any of the cars that we had dodge should have told people about the rotted frames and they are responsible that's how I feel about it what's it going to take for them to be held accountable people don't need to die or get serious injured because they did nothing about the rotted frames they should have been able to recall the cars they sold and said something about the frames getting rotted
The contact owns a 2009 Dodge Caliber. The contact stated while coming to a stop, there was a loud banging sound heard. Upon inspection, it was discovered that the front passenger’s side wheel had detached due to a fractured lower control arm. The contact indicated that the failure was caused by severe rusting and corrosion of the subframe. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer and local dealer were not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 109,000.
2008 dodge caliber sub frame/k-frame front end crossmember completely rusted thru causing the driver side lower control arm to rip free from frame (seperating part of frame, with lower control arm) from rest of frame. This left driver with no control of affected wheel which turning it 90 degrees out from normal operating position. Left operator with no ability to steer while driving on main primary (35 MPH speed limit) two lane road. Car slid to halt in middle of road. Car needed to be towed. Dodge/chrysler apparently knew of this problem and never notified owner. Please see attached notice. Front and rear crossmember corrosion (x69 warranty extension) - 2008-2012 dodge caliber & jeep compass/patriot oemdtc july 17, 2017 15 comments the federal safety agency id number: 10140027 manufacturer communication number: 23-007-17 rev. B summary front and rear crossmember corrosion (x69 warranty extension) the driver of this car could have been killed or seriously hurt. It is unfathomable that dodge chrysler was allowed to get away with not notifying potential crash victims
Speed sensors, inner/outer tie rods, hub assembly, radiator, intake valve, tires were different sizes, more problems arose.
Ok so let me start by saving lives there is a serious problem with all these caliber the subframes are rotting in half I know because I have 3 other people who have this stupid car and they rusted in half on them also things to add to this car is there is no upper ball joint which cause the lower control arms to go bad is the shocks are bad I had to replace pretty much everything and also had to replace CVT 20k miles into this hunk of crap CVT is bad and the bands they use are cheap but also seems to be a cooling problem with there set up for transmission with cause them to heat up and burn fluids chrysler shouldn't be allowed to get away with this crap and honestly you will see alot more of these cars causing people to die seriously take a look online and see for yourselves it's pretty sicking to me and I feel like y'all ain't doing your job my 30 year old camaro subframe never rotted like this and sat and driven in all weather
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Dodge Caliber ball joint
Which Dodge Caliber years have ball joint or control arm failure problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2007 (141 complaints), 2008 (46 complaints) and 2009 (19 complaints).
How much does it cost to fix ball joint or control arm failure on the Dodge Caliber?
Owners who mentioned a price put the repair at about $1,000 (median of 32 complaints that include a dollar amount). Costs vary with mileage, warranty and where the work is done.
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