Investigation and potential lawsuit against Chrysler for the recall of up to 600,000 vehicles from two of the most popular lines on the road, the 4x4 Dodge Durango and the four-wheel drive Dodge Dakota pickup, due to alleged problems with front-end ball joints.
Ball joints are part of an automobile's front-end suspension system, attaching the trucks' wheel assemblies to the vehicle. It was reported that NHTSA found defective ball joints in nearly a third of the vehicles it investigated, and that these defective ball joints may cause the automobiles wheels to fall off.