So I just got my truck running after having it broke down for about 4 months due to what I thought was a bad computer. Finally had it towed in to dodge thinking if it was the computer they would be the only ones to fix it. Well they ended up finding one bad wire on the ecm harness and rewires it, charged me $5.00 in parts and $920 for labor! Sucks! But my truck runs i thought. Well soon after picking it up I noticed the air is only blowing out of the windshield and floor vents. Didnt think it was a big deal until I went to shift into 4x4 the other day and nothing, doesn't engage the front and don't come on. I know its a vacuum issue, but can't find any disconnected or bad hoses. I called the dealership and they said there is no way they could have anything to do with it and they would look at it for $85. Then last night I'm driving with my lights on, it was dark, and out of nowhere my dash lights all turned completely off. This truck has not rolled 100ft since taking into dodge and it never has had any of these issues before. What do you guys think?

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Took the truck in to dodge this morning so they could look at it. I stood and argued with the service guy that the 4x4 not working was not preexisting and could have been cause by the mechanic possibly unplugging a vacuum line or something. Well the service guy tells me 'no, you dont have vacuum lines, its mechanical, it sounds a transfer case issue which we were no wear near.' Like I;m a dumb ***. So argue a little more and they agree to give me 15 minutes to look at it free to see if they can find something. I demanded to go back with them, which I did, and in about 2 minutes the mechanic finds a vacuum line unplugged. He plugs it in and it works fine. The line happened to be right where he was working. Very likely they unplugged it on accident, somewhat likely it could have happened on the tow over, probably not though, either way they really didn't want to deal with me. They were going to charge me to look at it before I raised a fuss.
Now my instrument panel/all my dash lights are out. They said to come leave it with them, they will look at it , if it is something they caused they will fix it, if its not something they caused I have to pay. It seems it would be hard to determine who caused an instrument panel of lights to short out, but I'll take it in tomorrow and see what happens.

 

I've had a bad run in with a local dealership as well. I'll never go back for anything, not even a free coffee. I never suggest them to anyone either.

Hopefully they find a screw up they did, and its a free repair. Odd things do happen, but likely it was them.

 

and thats why i call it the stealership instead of the dealership. i havent taken any of my vehicles to a stealership ever. use forums like this to help you do everything you possibly can to stay away from any repair garage or stealership!

 

Yeah they completely have ripped me off at this point. I don't ever like taking my truck to any mechanic, the only reason I did was because I could not find the problem and I thought it was a bad computer for sure which is something only the dealership can fix. I've replaced the vp44 by myself using forums, believe me if I could have avoided going to the dealership I would have.

 

920 bucks to splice a wire?? they gave it to ya without lube!!!! honestly if I where you Id take the bezel off and take the screws off the cluster and check the connection and check your head light switch if you can spare an hour of your time and keep some hard earned cash in your pocket. Apparently the guy at the counter is stuck in the good ole days when truck did have mechanical linkages.

Acctually check your fuses first in the dash... If its that, Ill only charge ya a Penny.

 

Lets take into account diagnosis has no book hour. You might spend days with a $3,000 scope looking for the issue. Chances are they didnt do it the easy way and went around their elbow to get to their butt, however they spent their time fixing something you asked them to fix. Did they communicate cost increases of the original estimate? Agreed if they caused issues they should fix it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

Ya your right, I should know that too i ve spent a good day on some stuff to just find a simple issue.

 

They originally told me it would be $95 to run preliminary diagnostics, I think that means OBDII. They called me after racking up $250, told me they hadn't found anything and would probably need more time. At this point I am desperate to have my truck so I agreed, after several hours they found the problem and fixed it. I spent $930.00 for them to spend 7 hours diagnosing and fixing a one battery cable and one 3ft piece of wire, but I was happy to have my truck. Then immediatly after driving it off the lot I've got a whole new set of problems. I don't care how anyone tries to justify it, it is wrong for a company to first of all be able to make that much money off of someone in 7 hours, 2 of which I was told the mechanic wasn't even paid, and then for the customer to leave with more problems and be given the benefit of the doubt. They tried to say the prob;ems were preexisting and wanted to charge me again to diagnose. No lube to say the least!
Thinking about it now I wonder, if the problems were preexisting, which I know they weren't, but if they were how did they not find at least the unplugged vacuum line during the diagnosis that I paid, it was in pretty plain site right by where the mechanic was working and he should have been looking for things anything unplugged. I feel I was robbed.

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I just got call back from the dealership, the truck has been there since noon today to figure out the instrument panel not working. They said I was missing a fuse. I smell BS. Again, during several hour diagnosis of an electrical problem you don't find a missing fuse?

 

Acctually check your fuses first in the dash... If its that, Ill only charge ya a Penny.[/QUOTE]


Didnt I say something about a fuse....

 

Picked up my truck. They told me I was missing the #5 fuse in the dashboard fuse block. I feel like they're lying. Don't you think when diagnosing an electrical problem, which is what I originally took it in for, the first thing to be checked would be fuses? Also would a missing fuse show up with the scan tool? One last thing is I picked my truck up in the evening after they were done with it the first time, It was dark and I used my lights the day I picked it up and I am positive my dash light were working fine. They went out while I was driving the truck. Not possible without a fuse. Part of me wants to just be done and take my fixed truck and move on, but at the same time, I paid extremely good money for what was done and I think I was ripped off. I might just file a small claims suit against them and try to get some money back.