There are 3 owner-reported brakes complaints for the 2018 Ram ProMasterin NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
The rear parking brake pivot point gets stuck in the on position. After some research, this is VERY common on these vans and is going to cause wrecks or deaths. The pivot point where the parking brake connects to the rear parking brake linkage rusts and gets stuck VERY easily. My van only has 60,000 miles on it. There is no sensor in this pivot point, so when you release the parking brake, it seems like it is off—but it is not. No indication no warning.. Tire spun and van drove fine until the breaks failed. 100 miles down the road, my rear calipers were glowing red, which caused my rear parking brake to catastrophically fail, causing the rear tire to seize and almost leading to a wreck. Luckily, I had plenty of water on board to put out the rotor fire.
During some cases of downhill driving, the Brake system warning light will come on. I believe this issue is tied to a combination of longer and steeper downhill drives when the angle indicated in road side sinage is no less than 6%. Minimal braking ton control the decent is used. Each time this occurs, I take the nearest off ramp to pull over to a stop and turn off the engine. My visual and hand-test of each wheel/tire temperature finds in my opinion, the temps to be quite nominal. On the last trip, a digital laser thermometer also indicated a good balance across the four wheels/tires, with no issues to be concerned with. Under the hood, the Master cylinder, ABS controller, Power Brake unit, brake fluid vessel and brake lines were all cool to the touch. Brake fluid in the vessel is clear and full. Each time the engine is restarted, the warning light is off and the drive can be continued with no further incident unless a similar long and relatively steep downhill is encountered. Time of day and outside temperature seem to not matter. Safety is compromised when I cannot trust that the warning light is, or is not indicating a real problem Reference RAM PROMASTER 3500, VIN [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Rear emergency brake locked up only on the passenger side, causing the brakes to be ripped off the shoes and destroying the springs and hardware. This also caused the wheel bearing to lock up and it was destroyed as well. I could no longer spin the wheel freely.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 26, 2026