Viper Defect Not What Was Originally Thought, According To NHTSA

NEWSFLASH: Dodge Viper Recall averted. It seems something strange was going on with the 2003 – 2008 Dodge Vipers. It was suspected a rear steering knuckle in the suspension was responsible for crashes.

An investigation was mounted by the NHTSA. What is going on here? They have close to ten thousand Vipers that need to be investigated. Specifically the SRT-10, Competition Coupe and the racecar ACRX. In other words, the fastest cars of the bunch would be receiving special scrutiny.

Something had to be done to determine how the defective part in the rears of these cars could be causing the destruction of the fastest Vipers. If a reasonable solution could not be found, Dodge would probably have to recall the whole lot. Not looking too good for the Dodge boys.

Enter the NHTSA as well as the Chrysler guys. They went to work on this dilemma and after eight months of painstaking investigation, they finally discovered the culprit. Indeed it was not the knuckles in the rear but the knuckleheads in the front.

The rear steering knuckle was getting damaged as a result of the driver up front crashing the car. While it was assumed the crash occurred because of the knuckle, that was not the case. We’ve all heard that Vipers are hard to handle in the first place, and that very well could have been the reason the cars were being damaged. Chrysler also recommends that a new bearing and hub is installed whenever the knuckle or control arms are damaged.

Another good piece of advice from the investigators: if you are scoring on a wrecked Viper and looking to rebuild it into a car killing monster, consider that  if there has been damage back there, you might want to think about ordering up a new bearing and hub along with the rest of your parts for that bad boy.

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