Dodge Durango Forum II

Trip to Southern California - My Durango Nightmare!

2000 SLT+, 6500 miles
Drove down to So. California with the wife and dog for a long weekend, Thursday throught Tuesday. The truck made three stops at dealers along the way (almost four).
First, when we arrived there, we noticed transmission fluid was leaking from the line at the transmission fluid cooler. We took it to a dealer in Irvine Thursday and left it over night to be worked on Friday. We picked it up on Friday, all "fixed". They re-attached the line at the cooler and road tested it, and found no more leaks. But the next day it was leaking again. We brought it to a second dealer (as we were traveling) in San Juan Capistrano Saturday morning. They replaced the O-rings at the leak, but after testing it for 30 minutes, it began leaking again. The next thing they wanted to replace was the line itself, but of course that would have to be ordered from the factory, and would take several days to arrive. We couldn't stick around for that, and they said it would be safe to drive, as the leak wasn't too bad.
Then on Monday (Memorial Day), we were driving in Huntington Beach when the truck died at a stop light. With a little trouble, I got it started again. The check engine light came on at this point. I continued to drive, but the engine was acting very strange, cutting out every few seconds. The OBD code was P1491.
After we stopped, the engine was having a hard time starting again, and when it did, it would die after 10 seconds or so. We called Roadside Assistance and waited an hour for the tow truck. We got towed to a dealer in Huntington Beach, where we left it over night again, to be worked on today. We're lucky we have friends in the area to drive us around!
This morning they got to it quickly, and told us it was some kind of fan that shorted out near the air conditioning condenser and burned out a wiring harness somewhere there. Once again, it would take several days to get the parts, and we needed to get home. "It's safe to drive, you just can't use the air conditioning," they said. So that's what we did. Drove back up to San Francisco today, sweating all the way. The dog wasn't happy with this either!
We briefly stopped in Morgan Hill for McDonalds, and upon returning to the truck, it wouldn't start. It turned over normally, but wouldn't actually start. We called roadside assistance again, expecting to be delayed another couple hours.
Luckily, after about 30 minutes, the truck decided to start (maybe it had to cool down a bit?), and we immediately got back on the road and drove home. When I pulled into the garage, I shut it off and tried to start it again. It wouldn't start.
I'll be taking it in (or maybe the tow truck will) tomorrow to Redwood City, where I bought it, for service.
My wife wants to trade it in for something more reliable. We'll see. This truck really ruined our trip!

Tue May 30