By Steven Symes 
Federal regulators from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating a defect in Dodge Darts. This isn’t just some regular safety recall situation since NHTSA issued one of those for the cars back in 2019.
Ford Mach-E crashes in a bizarre way.
Instead, regulators are looking into whether the initial fix related to that recall was effective, or it just kicked the can down the road. This happens sometimes and it can result in another recall for the same issue.
The vehicles in question are 2013 to 2016 Dodge Darts with the six-speed automatic transmission. If you didn’t know, the original recall was related to the shifter cable bushings that have the nasty habit of deteriorating and/or detaching.
When that happens, a parked car might just roll away. That’s because the transmission might not be in the gear the selector inside the car indicates.
Obviously, that’s a big problem that had to be rectified.
Originally, the bushings wouldn’t endure being exposed to different chemicals that might splash on the undercarriage. Heat form the engine compartment was also causing them to wear out.
The most obviously solution was to swap out the defective bushings with ones made of a more durable material. But there are accusations those replacement bushings also just crap out, like the original ones.
We wouldn’t be surprised if Dodge thought none of the Darts would be on the road still. After all, we used to see them all the time and now they’re rarities.
NHTSA says it’s received at least 44 complaints from Dodge Dart owners who claim their bushings failed or detached after the recall work was done at a dealership. That doesn’t necessarily mean Fiat Chrysler, now Stellantis, didn’t provide the correct solution. But NHTSA investigators will be looking into that exact issue.
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