Fiat Chrysler (FCA US) is recalling about 75,000 model year 2014-2017 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger all-wheel-drive cars that can suffer from disconnected front driveshafts.
A disconnected front driveshaft can do many things, such as grind on the road, detach from the car while driving or damage the transmission and underbody components. It will also cause a car to stop forward movement, even in the middle of a busy highway.
Chrysler received a report in January 2016 about a 2014 Dodge Charger police car with a damaged transmission caused by a front driveshaft that was loose. FCA opened an investigation and found more reports of police cars that suffered from the same problems.
Investigators watched the driveshaft assembly process during production and engineers tested the bolt torque for the front driveshafts on the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 cars.
In June, Chrysler changed how the bolts were torqued by centering the torque distribution and increasing the clamp load, changes that seemed to have fixed the driveshafts. No additional reports of loose bolts have been received since the torque procedure was improved.
About 69,300 of the cars are in the U.S., about 5,300 are in Canada and more than 300 are outside North America.
As of February 3, 2017, FCA received 66 warranty claims but no reports of accidents or injuries.
The recall should begin March 31, 2017. FCA dealers will replace all eight front driveshaft bolts.
Owners of the recalled 2014-2017 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger all-wheel-drive cars may call the automaker at 800-853-1403. Chrysler's number for this recall is T03.
Read what owners have told CarComplaints.com about their Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 cars:
- Chrysler 300 - 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / All model years
- Dodge Charger - 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / All model years