Chrysler is recalling 74,578 Dodge Durango SUVs from the 2021 through 2023 model years because rear spoilers that were improperly aligned during installation can strike the vehicle’s roof every time the liftgate opens and closes, weakening the part until it tears loose while the vehicle is moving. The recall, submitted to regulators on August 13, is Chrysler’s third attempt to fix a defect the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the company already tried to address under two separate recall campaigns filed in 2021 and 2023.
A rear spoiler is not a purely cosmetic part in this failure mode. According to the recall notice, a spoiler that comes off a moving vehicle becomes road debris in traffic behind it, and Chrysler is telling owners who already had the earlier repairs that they need to return to a dealership again.
A Misaligned Spoiler Hits the Roof With Every Liftgate Cycle
The defect starts at installation, not with age or road wear. Spoilers that were mounted out of alignment strike the roof panel each time the liftgate is opened or closed, and that repeated impact gradually weakens the spoiler’s structural integrity over months or years of ordinary use. “Rear spoilers which detach from a vehicle may create road debris and increase the risk of a vehicle crash,” the recall notice states, describing exactly the failure NHTSA is now requiring Chrysler to fix a third time.
The affected vehicles were built between July 13, 2020, and March 28, 2023, a production window that spans nearly three full model years of Durangos. NHTSA estimates that only about 0.8% of the 74,578 recalled vehicles actually carry the defect, and Chrysler has not reported any crashes or injuries tied to it so far.
That 0.8% estimate works out to roughly 597 vehicles Chrysler expects to actually exhibit the defect, out of the full 74,578-vehicle population covered by the recall. The gap between those two numbers is typical of how NHTSA structures a recall: regulators generally require an automaker to recall every vehicle that could plausibly carry a flaw traced to a shared build process, not only the specific units confirmed to have failed.
Two Earlier Recalls, Filed in 2021 and 2023, Left the Problem Unresolved
Regulators have flagged this exact defect before on these vehicles. NHTSA says the safety issue was previously addressed under two recall campaigns filed in 2021 and 2023, yet owners are now being told they must return for additional repairs because the earlier fixes did not hold. Chrysler has not detailed publicly what specifically failed in those first two repair attempts, or whether the same repair procedure was simply reapplied and failed again.
A third recall for one recurring defect on the same generation of vehicle is unusual enough that it signals the underlying alignment problem was never fully corrected at the root, whatever the specific repair steps involved each time. Owners who had their Durango serviced under either the 2021 or 2023 campaign should not assume that work resolved the issue permanently.
Third-time recalls for an identical defect are uncommon in the auto industry, and when they happen they usually mean an earlier engineering fix addressed a symptom rather than its cause, treating spoiler misalignment on the assembly line, for instance, without fully correcting why that misalignment kept recurring across three separate build years. Chrysler’s own description of the defect points in that direction: the failure begins at installation, not with age, which means any repair that did not change the installation process itself was always likely to leave the underlying risk in place.
116 Warranty Claims Document the Fixes That Didn’t Hold
The scale of the repeat failures shows up in Chrysler’s own service data. As of July 29, 2026, the automaker had identified 116 warranty claims, eight customer assistance records and 37 other service reports tied specifically to post-remedy failures, meaning vehicles that had already gone through one of the earlier recall repairs and still developed the same spoiler problem afterward.
The figures represent confirmed cases flowing back through Chrysler’s dealer and warranty network, not an estimate of how many vehicles remain at risk; the company’s 0.8% defect-rate estimate covers a much larger population than the 161 documented post-repair incidents. The gap between those two numbers is part of why regulators pushed for a third campaign instead of accepting the earlier fixes as sufficient.
A Permanent Fix Is Still Being Developed as Letters Go Out
Chrysler notified dealers of the new recall on August 20, and vehicle identification numbers became searchable on NHTSA’s recall database the same day. Owner notification letters are scheduled to begin mailing September 10, 2026, but Chrysler says the final, permanent technical repair is still under development, meaning some owners could receive a recall letter before a definitive fix exists to schedule.
Owners can check whether a specific vehicle is covered by calling Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403, the NHTSA Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236, entering a VIN through NHTSA’s own recall lookup tool, or using Stellantis’s Mopar recall search. Until Chrysler finalizes that repair, the safest response for an affected owner is the same one regulators gave with the two recalls that preceded this one: get the spoiler inspected and follow whatever interim guidance the dealership provides.
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This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
