Truck repaired by dodge, now more issues, help!!!
 

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 ass. 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.:c:

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.

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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.:c:[/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.

With a scan tool no it will not detect a bad fuse, it will detect a bad or a short in a circuit. Most likely when they were trying to diagnoise your electrical problem they were looking at the fuses and relay under the hood because the fuses in the cab have little to do with the ECM, PCM, ABS ect, ect. Fileing a claim wont get you no where you just loose some more of your hard earned money. You have made a good choice by joining us here a Diesel Bombers there are a few of us that actually work on these truck and alot of us who have fiqured out how to fix the stupid thing. Just take your truck and dont go back to them, if you cannot work on your own vehicle go and start looking for a good repair shop, as hard as it is to believe their are good honest shops in this world. I hate to say this I may have to side with the shop, because things are not always go as easy. My question to them would be is do they have a mechanic that understands the Cummins Systems and knows how to diagnose issues. When it comes to diagnoising electrical issues first we have to know the issue and in your case thinking it was a bad computer, they most likely checked fuses first, and connections then moved onto the scanner and use it to try to find the bad comp, then go and find why the computer is not relaying infromation and at least they did not replace it and charge you 1500 bucks just for the comp and flash and still not have corrected the issue, but if they do not have a OBDII that can read the Cummins Comps they would not get as far as fast. Some like the Snap On Varus can pretty much do anything and everything. Sorry for the lengthy post but maybe I can give you a Mechanics View point.

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[QUOTE=RanchhandTCR;978432]920 bucks to splice a wire?? they gave it to ya without lube!!!!

I kinda wish i did not say this because I should know better, it was not the cost to just splice a wire it was the cost of finding the cause of the problem.

First of all I realize I didn't spend $930.00 for them to just splice and run a new wire. As I mentioned above, I spent $930.00 for them to diagnose and fix the wire. I know 95% of the cost was the time spend trying to find the problem.
The other thing to address here is if your a mechanic and you spend 7 hours total diagnosing and fixing a simple wire problem that's really only going to cost you, the mechanic, some time and a few bucks to fix and you charge a customer $930.00, you better include a happy ending because that its rip off either way you look at it. It's dishonest and wrong, especially when I have to come back twice with new problems likely cause by them. Anyone agree or I am just mad and rambling?
One more thing...I have done everything from ball joints to replacing the vp44 on my own with these forums. I only took it to dodge because I thought it was a bad computer which is something only they could fix.

I just divided 930 by 7 and it 132 bucks and hour! I take it back they did give it to you. I never seen shop rates at 132 bucks and hour? I agree you may need to speak to the owners and politely explain them of your issue. Going to small claims wont get you anywhere in my oppinion.

Well, any shop in the country can replace a computer with a pre-flashed unit. Whats the shops labor rate? How did they describe it word for word? Better yet scan the R/O and black out any personal information and post it up. Heck if he had to determine which wire shorted that could have been quite the process. There's nothing short of 70 or more wires in those bundles in some cases many more. Which wire did they fix?

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I have the repair order here. They actually charged me $889.00 for labor, and $40 for parts. Comes to $127/hr on the labor if they did actually spend 7 hours on it. The repair order doesn't specify how many hours of labor, they just have $889.00 for labor. I'll see if my scanner works and I'll try to get it posted. I'll type what they have in the description here...
This is word for word, not the best punctuation. Also found a couple things in this that make me question even more.

Lost ignition feed to ECM.
Customer towed vehicle to shop on a trailer, he said that it died and would not restart and not take off trailer if it was going to cost more then $1000.00. We had to hook the trailer up to a shop truck and tow the trailer and truck over by the back bay door and try to work on the vehicle. I found battery's bad and both the cable ends on the passenger battery needed repaired or replaced. I removed both battery's and the customer took them and got new battery's for it and I replaced the negative cable and replaced the positive end. I retested the system and had no buss communication with the ECM or the PCM and the instrument cluster and the wait to start light were INOP. I had to get the truck off the trailer and inside because it was too cold to work on outside. I hooked up my truck and repositioned the trailer so we could push the vehicle off the trailer onto one of our four post hoist inside. I tested all of the fuses and found one of the inside fuses blown. Once I replaced it I could communicate with the PCM but the ECM was still no one the buss. I tested all the power and grounds to the ECM and they were ok. I tested the ignition feed to the ECM and found that I had no power at the ECM. I removed the steering column shroud and tested the feed wire back the the PDC there I had power to the ASD relay and at the c130 connector but still nothing at the ECM. Rather then cut the entire harness apart between the PDC and the ECM I ran a new ignition feed wire from c130 the ECM and soldered the new wire in and heat shrank the the solder joints to seal them. I tested the system again and now the cluster works and I can communicate with the ECM and PCM. I cleared all codes and tried to start the vehicle. Vehicle starts and runs fine. No codes came back and all the warning lights work as they should including the wait to starts light.


So like I said, not the best punctuation. Its kinda hard to understand what hes saying in some spots. But I think the two things that stand out to me the most is him saying in the end the instrument cluster works. When I took it back to them because the instrument cluster had gone out, they told me I was missing a fuse. Now I know they lied. I made sure and got a R/O for the last two visits too, when 4x4 wasn't working and the instrument panel stopped working. Also thought it was fishy they charged me $930.00 for all of this knowing I didn't want to spend over $1000.00. What do you guys think about all of this?

That would the worst written r/o ever in my book, ive NEVER see one written in that manner. If thats his entire process you should have been charged no more than 500.00 with a minimum of say 300.00. Are you sure thats a dealership? I would really like to see a copy off that. :confused:

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My scanner won't work. I'll see if I can get a good pic with my phone or something. But that is word for word what they have written down. There's also another 2 other pages stapled to it. One is an inspection sheet and the other is the invoice with pricing that shows labor $884.00, parts $5, misc charges $40, total charges $929.00, and a please pay amount of $929.30.

By god a 8 year old writes better than that!!!

What i dont get is the way its written. Typical operations at any dodge dealership, require the tech to take notes but the service writer actually prepares the r/o. The writer is trained mainly on preparing this document for the customer in a way they can understand. Maybe the writer would use one line repair descriptions but never anything like this. There's something a little fishy here. Jmo

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I's fishy to say the least. How could my instrument panel have worked like the mechanic mentioned in his report, and then when it goes out and I bring it back in they say it was completely missing the fuse.

I finally found a good electric guy in Carmel NY. He can find problems and makes wiring harnesses all in a timely fashion so you are not paying a mechanic to guess which circuit has a problem. I have been dealing with an intermittent problem with my 2500 and will probably end up having it towed to him.I also had mine to a dealership and they could find nothing wrong ?