2004 Dodge Dakota: jerking or lurching

5 of the 206 complaints about the 2004 Dodge Dakota describe jerking or lurching.

owner complaints: 5
of this car's complaints: 2%
typical mileage: 55,000
recalls: 0

Is there a fix? 16 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below

Jerking or lurching by model year

2008
3
2007
5
2006
4
2005
4
2004
5
2003
2
2002
5
2001
7
2000
13
1999
1
1998
4
1997
5
1995
2
1992
4

What owners say

Filed Mar 13, 2011 · Steering · 56,955 miles · NE

My 2004 dodge dakota began having steering issues last fall which became increasingly worse over the following weeks. The power steering seemed to have stopped working. When I made a turn it was stiff, then loose, then stiff again as you cranked the steering wheel. This would cause me to apply more pressure to turn the truck, then the steering wheel would suddenly loosen up, causing you to swerve. This caused me enough concern about my safety that I had a mechanic take a look. He first thought the problem was with the power steering fluid so he flushed out the system. Problem persisted. He then replaced the steering rack. Jerky/stiff steering continued to occur. After reading on a dodge forum about this issue he tried the "temporary fix" of lubricating the lower u-joint on the intermediate rod and this seems to have returned the steering to a normal state. However, my mechanic feels this is a temporary fix and feels the rod should be replaced. Preferably with a rod that has grease fittings. Apparently there is a design flaw with this make and model which dodge is aware of, but has failed to issue a recall for. Please look into this matter.

Filed Feb 23, 2011 · Steering · 36,638 miles · DC

My dakotas steering has recently become very jerky. While turning the wheel, it gets stiff, loose, stiff, loose, stiff, loose in one full turn of the wheel. Through searching forums on the internet, I decided to test a theory that it was the intermediate shaft/rod and the u joint attached to it was not lubricated enough. After greasing up the joint, the problem momentarily stopped, but then returned. This joint does not have any grease fittings and should be replaced with ones with fittings. The problem occurred after winter coming into the warmer weather where there were a lot of puddles which most likely got on the intermediate shaft and joints causing it to dry out and create this problem.

Filed May 1, 2009 · Steering · 56,000 miles · PA

While driving normally I noticed a knock in the front end while I just went down the street, thought it might be a ball joint or tie rod. Then one day while driving down the highway the steering became close to impossible. Very jerky and it felt gummy. I had the rack replaced as suggested by the "5-star dealer" and that only fixed the noise, not the steering issue. Read online about it being the intermediate steering shaft and u-joints, so I sprayed them with lubricant and am going to see how the truck runs later. Some of those engineers really need to design greased fittings into the vehicle.

Filed Feb 24, 2007 · Transmission · 55,000 miles · GA

Transmission defect, will not go into fourth and third gear after initial cold start, truck jerks and makes noise.

Filed Jan 22, 2004 · Transmission · 1,200 miles · NV

Stopped at traffic light, had vehicle out of gear *manual transmission*, after light changed, put into gear, truck lurched then was thrown out of gear, making a loud grinding sound. It has happend 3 times since then. Dealer says transmission is just new but it has 1000 miles on it.