Dealer woes

[Cartman]

I decided to take my 06 touring in for some warranty work today. Had three issues i wanted resolved. 1. Pronounced 'clunk' when turning either direction, 2. Headlights/dashlights flicker during nightime driving, 3. wanted my ECM flashed with new update to resolve 1-2 shift. I believe the clunk has to do witht he lower control arm rear isolator bushings being bad ( both sides looked terrible during brake job this weekend). anyways off to the dealer today. later today i recieve a call about the progress on my vehicle. 1. after checking all the bolts in the suspension and steering, all were tight. was told what i felt was the 'steering stops' and this was normal. NORMAL? a LOUD CLUNK that you feel in the floor boards is normal? how do you check all the bolts and not see the BAD CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS?!?!?! 2. (this is my personal favorite of ALL TIME) the headlight/dashlight flicker is caused by my (drumroll....) AIRAID INTAKE!!!!!!! Yes! apparently a free flow intake causes voltage drops and spikes! I was thinking alternator, man was I wrong... 3. the flash update. apparently the dodge/chrysler dealership has no record of any flash update available. Hmmm. so i guess TSB# 18-007-07 doesnt exist even though i handed a copy of it to the service writer. strange. ANYWAYS, tommorow i will be talking to the manager about his hiring practices, and will be politely requesting that my car be fixed the right way, by someone who has a little more technical expertise than a chimpanzee. airaid causing electrical problems..thats the greatest. SO what do you all think?

[ucantcme]

Sounds like a load of Bulls**t if you ask me. I hope you get your car fixed the correct way. Quite frankly, I think dealers should pay the consumers for OUR time!

Good luck getting things sorted out!

[CREWZIN]

Cartman, HOLY COW! (only expression I could use without banning myself). That's amazing. How the heck can a dealer stay in business if they give out explanations like that for customers problems? There are people that will take that kind of "advise", go away and be satisfied with what the dealer/mechanics said but anyone that can check their own oil or put air in the tires would know that their feeding you

[bobs turbo pt]

call chrysler direct and tell them what happened they will get it done for you

[prettybluewoody]

Good grief, what idiots. (Wonder if that service writer is related to a Xerox copier repairman I used to have to deal with: I swear to you, the guy told me that the problem with our copier was "stale paper"!)

You go, Cartman: straighten them out!

[frostygt]

with service like that no wonder so many on this forum have a problem aking there cars to the dealer. i know at my dealership something like that just won;t fly i would be out of a very good job.
guess this just reenforces why chrysler is pushing training on the dealerships as much as they have in the last year, and from my understanding there pushing it even more this year.
best i can recomend is when going back to request a more experianced tech look at it and if can do a little more for you try to get the same guy to always work on your vehical is your happy with the work done.
as for your car problems front bushing good place to start, the light flicker might be harder problem to fix, and for the flash would have to run the pcm number that comes up with the scan tool to see if its up to date or not, or if its already up to date they might have a fun time finding your shift issue.

[Cartman]

UPDATE:

what happened yesterday happened because the dealer thought i was just another joe shmo. that was made clear by how they treated me. I recieved another call today saying my vehicle was ready. I politely asked if the clunk had been fixed and if the headlamp/dashlight flicker had been dealt with. they responded with a 'we already told you that we cant find the noise you describe and that it is just steering stops, and as for your headlights, its the intake, remember? but we did flash your PCM and its all ready for you." I kindly let them know that i didnt believe the steering stops were the cause of that noise, and that there is no way in any hell that air intakes have bearing on electrical systems! their response: (with attitude) "then why dont YOU come down here and show US the problem...." YES ATTITUDE!!!! Now you have entered MY realm of expertise!!!!!! I took off work early (now theyre costing me money) and went down there. they took one look at the nice shiny ASE MASTER CERTIFIED patch on my arm.... and i swaer the service writer went pale! priceless. I havent said a word at this point. the manager kindly offers to let another tech ride with me so i can show him the problem. After 1 minute of driving, a clunkin all the way, the tech agreed that the gut wrenching clunks heard and felt could not be in any way steering stop related. I then asked how a air intake could affect electrical systems. he looked puzzled, then responded "theres no way in hell". thank you god! a tech that knows more than the last one!!!! after listening to the techs list of possible causes for the flickering, i relaized that this guy knew what he was doing. he then asked me to pull over, he got out of the car and looked behind the wheels. he returned and informed me that my bushings were split on my control arms and that shouldnt have been missed. to finish the story, they will keep my PT until it is perfect, the rental will be on them for as long as it takes, and i have been personally assured that the nice knowledgeable tech who i rode with will be working on my car. thats all i wanted in the first place. Hopefully ill have my PT back soon so i can install rear lowering springs and my new stereo.

[PurplePTGirl]

Wow, that sucks. But I feel ya! I had an issue with my purple PT that took 4 visits to solve (and put the car on the lemon list). The power steering kept losing its fluid, and the rack was replaced twice without helping the problem (Chrysler sure wasted a lot of money there) and another time, they just did nothing. I know next to nothing about cars, but a little investigating turned up some info that it could be the power steering pump. I mentioned this to them but it was pooh-poohed. So what was it, you ask? The power steering pump--it was pushing the fluid to a high pressure and blowing out the gaskets on the rack.

Sometimes the customer at least can give a pretty good idea--at least investigate it, ya know?

[CREWZIN]

Hey Cartman,

Lets do a trade! I'll trade you a nice (brand new) Citrus County, Florida Sheriff's arm patch for an ASC Master Certified patch.

[prettybluewoody]

Cartman, I think I luv ya......