Driving on highway for 75 minutes. Pulled over to rest area- got out of vehicle and noticed the bumper on the back right side was melted and very hot to touch. Then noticed my tail pipe was gone. My guess is the exhaust from the muffler was hot and melted the bumper.
Engine & cooling
2009 Dodge Nitro Engine problems
Owners have filed 3 complaints about the 2009 Dodge Nitro's engine & cooling with NHTSA - 8% of all its complaints, most recently on October 26, 2018. Stalling, loss of power, oil consumption, overheating, head gaskets, timing chains and engine failure.
- Complaints
- 3
- Recalls
- 0
- Crashes
- 0
- Fires
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Deaths
- 0
Engine complaints
While using the remote key to lock/unlock the care, the horn starts blaring, the wipers (front and rear) start going, washer fluid shoots out, doors lock and unlock independently. Doors will not unlock/lock with remote. The lights start blinking. I have to physically unlock the car and quickly open before it locks again. The second time my son was driving on the highway and this all occurred while he was driving at night. He was able to pull over but was clearly shook up. When turning on the engine the horn...
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starts blaring again, with lights blinking. If he tuned on/off the windshield wipers the horn starts blaring and the lights start flashing. When pressing the actual door lock the horn starts blaring. It took 3 restarts to try to continue the drive. It is clearly unsafe to drive this vehicle and is negligent on our part to try to do so. This is are main source of transportation. I am really scared of what could happen should the entire system shut down on the highway. What if the steering goes out again and someone is killed? I looked up similar issues and found that there were numerous other complaints regarding 2008 and 2009 dodge nitros. The diagnosis is apparently a faulty tipm. There appears to be a national backorder on this part and despite this, still no recall for the 2008-2009 models only the 2010-2012 have been issued. I purchased a dodge because I truly felt that it was a great vehicle and I am worried and disappointed that they are not standing behind their products. What will it take? How many deaths or near freak accidents before they actually make this right?
1. While driving on interstate at about 65 to 70mph my truck made this thumping sound and a big jerk. I stopped at the traffic light, the truck acted as if it was going to shut off. I drove off and the truck began to jerk really bad. What could this be????? *Tr 2. The lock on the passenger door would not lock when you pressed the lock switch on the door and on the key, you had to push the knob down by hand. I had to spend money to get this fixed. 3. The plastic that's on the side of the seats have broken when getting out of the vehicle. Love the body of this vehicle but too many things went wrong too soon. *Tr
Dodge Nitro engine complaints by year
Nitro engine problems, every yearSource: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints and recalls, checked . Complaints are owners' own reports and are not verified. How we use the data