The owners manual for my two wheel drive 04 Dodge Dakata says to change the rear end grease every 12.000miles.Is this needed?
If the manual says it, yes.
If it is in the owner’s manual, then do it.
You will then have the only Dakota that has EVER had it’s rear-end oil changed…Sounds like a misprint to me. Once every 100K miles is enough in “normal” conditions…
Since the OP uses the word “grease”, I wonder if the manual is referring to chassis lubrication instead of differential oil? Every 12K is a ridiculous interval for differential gear oil to be changed.