- Indiana State Police are dealing with 39 Dodge Durango units all facing an oil cooler issue.
- In each case, the fix takes four to eight weeks and creates a burden for the department.
- Stellantis says the issue is complex and is working to expedite the service for ISP.
Police cars live a hard life but are figuratively bulletproof in many cases. For example, who doesn’t remember the reputation built by the Ford Crown Victoria? It appears the Dodge Durango has a lot of work to do to earn a similar countenance. According to the Indiana State Patrol, nearly one in five or about 18% of its fleet has gone down with a serious oil cooler fault.
That news is even harder to bear considering that Indiana recently decided to switch from the Dodge Charger to the Durango. Since then, it ordered 519 of the police-spec SUVs at an approximate cost of $25.8 million or around $50,000 a pop, and it’s taken delivery of 219.
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At least 39 of those it has received have already dropped back out of the fleet with this same oil cooler failure, with the department expecting another 40 to join the party, bringing the total to a whopping 79 lemons.
ISP Superintendent Doug Carter told Wane that “ISP has used Dodge as our primary police vehicle provider for the last decade-and-a-half, it is unfortunate that we have found ourselves in this precarious position… We’re having to sideline brand new vehicles, losing out on their value and functionality… the citizens and taxpayers of Indiana are being shortchanged and deserve better.”
Evidently, the fix takes, on average, four to eight weeks to resolve. It’s unclear at this point what is causing the problem but it sounds very similar to an issue with several versions of the Pentastar V6, though we’ve read about the Hemis experiencing issues as well.
The oil cooler in those Pentastar engines is deep in the valley of the V and when parts of it fail, they leak oil, fill the valley, and tend to first present with symptoms only when that oil leaks enough to run down off the back of the engine. Notably, the ISP nor Stellantis is clear about what engine these Durango units have.
Photos ISP
“The Dodge Durango Pursuit meets or exceeds all applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards and is subject to severe operating conditions to which the standard, retail version of the Durango is immune. Further, certain oil-cooler issues are difficult to detect, which may lead to collateral damage and a highly complex remedy,” says Stellantis in a statement to Fox News.
“We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused to the Indiana State Police and are working to expedite service for these vehicles. Since the model launched in 2018, it has been deployed with thousands of police agencies across North America, and overall feedback has been exemplary” added Stellantis in their statement.
That might be true but it’s clear that this issue is impacting more than just a single customer. It’s affecting taxpayers all across Indiana. There is no timeline for when the ISP expects all of its fleet to be free of this issue.