I was talking to a local police officer and he said they station has 6 Durango's all with hemis. 5 out of 6 has needed a water pump, starter and fuel pump before 30k. I understand police cars get used harder than a civilian vehicle but why would this stuff fail so early on? It's a small town 5k people so it's not like they're constantly being used in pursuits. Seems crazy to me theyve had better luck with the explorer interceptor they said with the V6. I found that surprising. Can anyone make sense of this or share insight?
Police dodge Durango's
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Dodge used poor water pumps and fuel pumps if 5 of 6 actually needed all that in 30k…..
When 5 out of 6 have failed all under 30k miles in the same unit I have to assume it's a quality issue. They're patrol vehicles.
They get used as cop cars and those parts have all failed early. 
They do a ton of idling. Why that is hard on those components I don't know. I know a ton of our Chargers ticked and we wiped out quite a few camshafts. I do remember quite a few showing up to drop people off that smelled heavily of coolant.
The Ford PI's aren't much better. Those are having driveline problems for us. Ours are all the Ecoboost AWD models and we've had a few now that just refuse to move.
Far from the days of the Panther platform, no one makes a decent car anymore suited to patrol duty.
The Ford PI's aren't much better. Those are having driveline problems for us. Ours are all the Ecoboost AWD models and we've had a few now that just refuse to move.
Far from the days of the Panther platform, no one makes a decent car anymore suited to patrol duty.
There was a multi year long rash of water pump problems (2011-2017’ish) and they went as far to extend the water pump warranty to 7 years/unlimited mileage, but only for 2013-2017 models. My buddy was on water pump 6 if I remember correctly (also put 220k+ miles on his 2012), water pump in my 2011 Durango failed at ~57k miles, but the replacement was still looking and sounding good at 105k when I traded it in. Haven’t seen nearly as many water pump failure posts on the various Mopar pages for Grand cherokees and Durango’s I’m a part of on Facebook since ~2018.
There was also a problem with the fuel pump relay in the TIPM. The fix was an external bypass relay, actual pump failure seemed fairly rare, though it did happen to me.
There was also a problem with the fuel pump relay in the TIPM. The fix was an external bypass relay, actual pump failure seemed fairly rare, though it did happen to me.
Regardless of how tough, idling is 0 miles on the odometer, who knows how many miles the idling equates to. Police often do off duty stuff like traffic control for construction work where they run their vehicle with lights 8 hours while directing traffic. Three week project = 120 hours, 0 miles.
Well aware. Our cars run for about 14 hours a day. We have 12 hour shifts and you figure an hour before and after. They mostly never get shut off during a shift. I know why it would be hard on the cams, why it would be hard on waterpumps is harder to say. If you figure for a 30 mph avg speed that is less than 400 miles a day.
I had a dodge company mini van that did okay back in the 90's, But dodge has always been ranked lower than average or suspect on reliability , for the last 50 years.
Durango? sounds like the cops put out a good stress test
Durango? sounds like the cops put out a good stress test
My co-worker's new Charger (iirc 2015 era) had a real bad brake squeak sound. He said they wore out quickly also and even after a new brake jobs, dealer said it's normal. But that's only one man and one dealer experience.
Do they have the notorious "hemi tick" and have the same engine as the trucks?
That surprises me because I thought the Hellcat Durango was a cool package. What’s even more surprising is that they had better luck with the anemic Ford Explorer (when police outfitted). My frequent trips to California reveals the CHP appear to be moving away from the Explorer and opting for more Chargers’ and adding Chevy SUVs. Maybe they want more power and storage. 
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The local law enforcement in which we do some work for told us this.....good Lord man it's not complicated. Sounds like you have a tough time admitting that these vehicles have some weak spots.....brand loyalty Maybe blinding you?
The local law enforcement in which we do some work for told us this.....good Lord man it's not complicated. Sounds like you have a tough time admitting that these vehicles have some weak spots.....brand loyalty Maybe blinding you?
Hearsay third hand knowledge...your post doesn't even make clear if all 5 vehicles all had water pump, starter and fuel pump failure. Seems a little strange that 5 vehicles would all have the same 3 components fail.
The Police Force bought all 6 at the same time. 5 of them have had a starter, alternator and fuel pump all in under 30k miles. We service their Ford police interceptors because the FCA products are still under warranty......this isn't third hand knowledge it's straight from the chief and the local police as well. I had an in depth conversation today with an officer as he was picking up the interceptor after getting the a/c repaired and he brought it up and discussed it more in depth. I'm amazed that such a simple topic seems to cause such strife for you. I'm also surprised by what they're saying because we don't see these issues on civilian vehicles anymore common than anything else. That being said this wasn't posted to be a pissing match it was posted to ask why this could be. What are they possibly doing different in the police world that is lending to these failures. That's it nothing more nothing less.
Right. We don't know why the water pumps were replaced. Small radiator, big engine, big alternator (for accessories), A/C running, heat locked under the hood and the symptom might be "overheating" at times.
So, the dealer, not knowing what is going on for sure, replaces water pumps. Maybe Dodge has "high volume" water pumps they decided to use on these high horsepower, small radiator engines.
Who knows - no reason to assume. If it's a small town, go to the dealer and ask the service writer or talk with the actual tech. Heck, it's probably even on a Forum somewhere.
Regardless, not enough info to have any inkling of what is going on with those vehicles. But I do agree, it's odd that 5 of 6 are having issues of some sort. I wonder if FCA is sending a field engineer down to investigate? Did the police department request that?
Yeah, for sure! Same with the "ticking" Hemi engines, and on the Pentastar V-6 too. It all comes down to the lowest price supplier and whatever poor quality materials that supplier used. SADI cams, bad needle bearings, all kinds of plastics used in engines, and the list goes on and on. Don't forget about the infamous oil cooler mounted in the valley on the Pentastar, along with the TIPM problems off and on over the years, and the "Y-tube" fittings that break due to heat on the heater hoses, etc.
I believe engineering is better than it used to be, but constrained in a different way than years ago. Specifications are probably as good, if not better. It comes down to the materials specified, how long they are designed to last, and who is doing the quality control on these "hard" parts.
It's a wonder any engines last as long as they do now.
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They have fairly large radiators (~20” tall x ~25” wide), and I believe all pursuit Durango’s get the “heavy duty” 1” thick radiators vs the standard 5/8” thick ones.
I’m almost wondering if they’re not suffering from some sort of issue caused by an upfitter error… 1 is a fluke, 2 is weird… but 5 all suffering the same problems at the same mileage? Better go buy lottery tickets.
Upfitter error is a great point. I've seen it before on my own vehicles.
Interested to see If the OP knows if they called FCA and asked for a field tech. FCA would have a vested interest in finding out what is going on here for sure.
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