The 2019 Ram 1500 Has 1,464 Complaints. Check the Steering

The 2019 Ram 1500 has 1,464 federal complaints. The 2018 has 650. The top component is not the engine: it is steering, with 253, and that model year carries three separate steering recalls.

The 2019 Ram 1500 has 1,464 complaints on file with federal safety regulators. The 2018 has 650. The 2020 has 621. The 2021 has 667. One model year carries more than double what sits on either side of it, and if you are shopping used work trucks, that is the number nobody puts in the listing.

We pulled the counts from the NHTSA complaint database this week. Here is what they say, and what to do about it.

The years, side by side

2018 — 650 complaints
2019 — 1,464 complaints
2020 — 621 complaints
2021 — 667 complaints

Complaint volume is not a verdict. More trucks on the road means more filings, and a well-publicized problem pulls in reports that a quiet one never gets. But a jump of that size in a single year, with the neighbors sitting flat, is not noise.

It is not the engine

Break the 2019 down by component and the top of the list is not what most buyers brace for. Steering leads with 253 complaints — ahead of the electrical system and ahead of the engine.

Read the filings and they repeat the same shape. Owners describe electric power steering that stops assisting without warning, a wheel that will not return to center after a turn and has to be muscled back, and a dash message reading power steering failure. Several say it happened at highway speed with no warning light beforehand.

That is a very specific failure pattern, and it is the reason this model year deserves its own checklist instead of a general used-truck once-over.

Three steering recalls in one model year

The recall record backs the complaints up. The 2019 Ram 1500 carries 30 separate recall campaigns. The 2018 has 15, the 2020 has 14, the 2021 has 15 — and none of those three years has a single steering recall. The 2019 has three:

19V020000 — the battery ground fastener on the driver-side front fender may have been improperly secured, which can cause a loss of power steering assist. Dealers secure the fastener. Began February 11, 2019.
19V812000 — a contaminated electric power steering gear that can short circuit, causing intermittent loss of assist, most noticeable in low-speed maneuvers. Dealers replace the EPS gear assembly. Began December 12, 2019.
19V201000 — improperly machined steering column stub shafts that may break, which can separate the steering wheel from the column. Dealers inspect and replace the column. Began April 5, 2019, and it also covers the 2019 Jeep Wrangler.

All three are free. Recall work has no expiration date on a vehicle this age, and a previous owner having ignored the letter does not cost you the repair.

If you own one, or you are about to buy one

Run the VIN through the federal recall lookup before anything else. It tells you in seconds which of the thirty are still open on that exact truck. Do it on the seller's lot, from your phone.
Ask specifically about the three steering campaigns by number. A seller who says "all the recalls are done" and cannot produce the repair orders is telling you nothing.
Drive it slow before you drive it fast. 19V812000 shows up in low-speed maneuvering. Turn lock to lock in a parking lot and feel for effort that changes on its own.
Notice what the wheel does after a turn. If it needs help coming back to center, that is the complaint pattern, not a personality.
Do not confuse this with alignment. An alignment does not fix an assist problem, and paying for one to chase a steering complaint is money spent on the wrong end.
Get the front end measured. Whatever the electronics are doing, worn tie rod ends, ball joints and bushings on a seven-year-old truck produce their own wander, and the two get blamed on each other constantly.

One honest limit on this data

These counts cover 2018 through 2021 only. From the 2022 model year the federal database stops filing this truck under Ram 1500 and starts splitting it into Ram 1500 Crew Cab and Ram 1500 Quad Cab. Query the old name for a newer year and you get zero — which is a naming artifact, not a clean record. A zero from a database is not a zero in the world, and we are not going to report it as one.

Nothing here says the 2019 is a bad truck. It says one model year has a documented steering story, the remedies exist, they are free, and the only way to know where a specific truck stands is the VIN. Check it before the money moves. If you want the front end measured before you buy, The Truck Savers can put it on the rack.

Original source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.