Interesting conversation with a Ram technician at dealer service dept.

[RobertEH]

He indicated to me that all Ram vehicles would be considered for parts failures beyond warranty IF the vehicle was brought to them for scheduled maintenance and repairs.

He also told me don’t add anything to the fuel, except what they recommend, never run red dyed fuel, and other obvious things like that.

Other than the legal requirements, why no red dyed diesel?

 

[LD1]

Can't speak for others....but around here several dealers do have the lifetime powertrain warranties on used stiff.

But its not a dealer or OEM backed thing. ITs like the third party car warranty stuff....that they pay for on your behalf. But never got to use it because there was always something in the fine print denying coverage.

It was a buick encore we had for a year and a half and turned out to be a POS. Bought it at 37k miles and traded it in at 70k. And in that time....

Wheel bearing failure. Not covered under MFG 7/70 or the 3rd party lifetime power train
2 coil pack failures not covered under either warranty
trans output seal leak. Not covered under 3rd party as its a "wear item" but the MFG did cover it
coolant leak at hard pipe behind turbo. Almost impossible to get. Not covered under either warranty but GM dealer did cover labor if I bought parts (~$80)
Then it started having drivability issues. Intermitten gutless (no boost). Had it at dealer half a dozen times before they could get it to replicate. Wanted to change the turbo (it wasnt a turbo it was an electrical/PCM issue). Neither warranty covered. And GM wanted ~$2500 for something I was convinced wasnt the issue. And the reason was on the scanner.....(I saved the data logs).....when it would act up and be gutless I would mash the accelerator to the floor. And it would register as "throttle pedal position 100%....but throttle body command 2% and Turbo wastegate command 90% (wastegate open = no boost).

So it was like the computer recognized I had the accel pedal pressed....but wouldnt open the throttle body or close the wastegate to make boost.

Anyway....GM had some "program" for non-warranty repairs and they were gonna do it for ~50% original estimate. So $1250. And after confirming that IF the turbo did NOT fix the issue I would NOT be liable for that bill (Im not gonna pay them to change good parts they mis-diagnose).....I agreed. They ordered parts and it was gonna take a week. Before that week was up.....we traded it in to that dealer for a Jeep....so I honestly dont know the outcome.

But in all that time dealing with the turbo issue the back windows all of the sudden quit rolling down and popping BCM codes for lost communication. That was really the straw that made us trade it in.

But all that ranting aside......"most" of those lifetime powertrain things are third party only. And they dont even cover things like a turbo on an engine equipped with one. I think they pretty much only cover catastrophic stuff that would reqire a whole new engine or trans. But not much else.

 

[Hay Dude]

I was told my dealer would provide factory warranty on most failures of parts even past the warranty. So Ram would provide the parts & service in most cases, if the customer had all service done at the dealer on schedule.

 

[Southernspeed]

Sadly, every time I have had work done at the dealership, even just recall work, I'm always left feeling like I wish I hadn't bothered. I've dealt with two Ram dealerships and both have proved incompetent and liars (or maybe their techs are very stupid but I'll give them the benefit of doubt and go for liars)
On a different note, an old friend put DEF in his diesel tank (2500 Ram) after a very long tiring day. They wanted $14k for injectors and head strip and clean out the tank. No idea why the head would need stripping, not really sure why the injectors needed replacing. he argued it, reminded them that he'd bought a fleet of trucks from them and they dropped it to $11k . This was 6 years ago.

 

[topgun05]

DEF in fuel and ran, needs everything, meaning EVERYTHING that touches fuel replaced from cap all the way forward and back again. period. Hoses, lines, pumps, injectors, filters, fill tube, etc. or no warranty on partial repairs.
And some vehicle insurance companies are denying claims from this.
11K was a bargain...

 

[stumblinhorse]

Man I wish the dealers around here gave 1/4 of the care it sounds like @Hay Dude ’s. My 1500 5.2 gasser engine self destructed at 1000 miles out of warranty. New long block was $4k for me in 2000. My first oil change was free on my 01 Cummins and the dealer impact wrenched the plug thru the pan. They said they didn’t do anything wrong and I was the one that damaged the pan. They fought over the cost to pull the engine to replace the pan on a new truck with 3000 miles on it. My most recent purchase, the dealer lied about the history of the vehicle that they had done major service to sell it. Manipulated the carfax to indicate “misc repair”. When they had to pull the motor.

Don’t ever buy anything from any dealer of anything in the state of Colorado. There is not one of them that I would piss on if they were on fire. I don’t even allow them to do recalls. My last 4 vehicles never saw a dealer. Never not once. My tractor won’t either.

 

[LHF2019]

We had a new engine installed in our Kia with 90,000 miles after it locked up and we do our own maintenance and have never dealt with the dealer except when wife purchased the car and couple past recalls/repairs. Couple times when we had an issue and when called dealer would say they have a recall or something else that would cover it. Tried that when found engine locked up and Kia had a recall on certain engines. Not really something the average person would know.

 

[groundcover]

Had a '99 Cummins that had an issue with Transmission. It started downshifting out of overdrive for no apparent reason. Took it to the dealer and they promptly said it needed a transmission, $4K.
Just didn't seem right to me, plus I said if this one failed I wouldn't replace it in kind , I would bulletproof one. Did some research and found a TSB from Dodge that applied. Called for a computer reflash to deal with electrical interference from the alternator. Printed it out and marched back to dealer !
Service writer called manager " look at this, he's got the TSB!" (Technical Service bulletin). They got on the computer and poked around for a bit, nope that's not your problem your VIN doesn't come up. Told them that is exactly what my truck is doing. Nope wouldn't budge.
Then they tell me it's my two way radio and emergency lights causing the interference and they wouldn't even look at it until I removed all of it !
Got talking to a friend of mine that is pretty smart in such matters and he asked if my stuff was connected at the battery ? I said it was. He said disconnect it there and go back. "You are now carrying Lights and a radio which is an acceptable use for a pickup" !
When I got back to the dealer they said " We found your truck , we didn't scroll down far enough " !
They flashed it, problem solved for quite a while. By the time it did it again I had found a diesel specialist that said , oh yeah I just put a noise filter on it you'll be all set, and I was !
The dealer would have replaced the transmission and stuck me with the bill due to their incompetence, sure made me apprehensive about going back to them.
I did go back and look at nice looking new Dodge / Cummins a while later, couldn't come to a deal but it sold to a guy in town. Few years later the rust on that truck was just discouraging.

 

[MossRoad]

Had a '99 Cummins that had an issue with Transmission. It started downshifting out of overdrive for no apparent reason. Took it to the dealer and they promptly said it needed a transmission, $4K.
Just didn't seem right to me, plus I said if this one failed I wouldn't replace it in kind , I would bulletproof one. Did some research and found a TSB from Dodge that applied. Called for a computer reflash to deal with electrical interference from the alternator. Printed it out and marched back to dealer !
Service writer called manager " look at this, he's got the TSB!" (Technical Service bulletin). They got on the computer and poked around for a bit, nope that's not your problem your VIN doesn't come up. Told them that is exactly what my truck is doing. Nope wouldn't budge.
Then they tell me it's my two way radio and emergency lights causing the interference and they wouldn't even look at it until I removed all of it !
Got talking to a friend of mine that is pretty smart in such matters and he asked if my stuff was connected at the battery ? I said it was. He said disconnect it there and go back. "You are now carrying Lights and a radio which is an acceptable use for a pickup" !
When I got back to the dealer they said " We found your truck , we didn't scroll down far enough " !
They flashed it, problem solved for quite a while. By the time it did it again I had found a diesel specialist that said , oh yeah I just put a noise filter on it you'll be all set, and I was !
The dealer would have replaced the transmission and stuck me with the bill due to their incompetence, sure made me apprehensive about going back to them.
I did go back and look at nice looking new Dodge / Cummins a while later, couldn't come to a deal but it sold to a guy in town. Few years later the rust on that truck was just discouraging.

A friend of mine told me just yesterday he was having problems with his truck having an error code that wouldn't clear. Another friend of ours has a son that's a mechanic. The son told him to remove his cell phone charger from the 12v outlet. HUH? Yep. Removed it and the code cleared.

Noisy device.

 

[ultrarunner]

Air Bags... several recalls advising not to operate at times when replacement under recall more than a year out.

Just had a recall done and on the way to the service department the airbag light came on.

Great timing but Dealer didn't see it that way.

Said the light was not fixed by the replacement and unable to quote or provide airbag light estimate other than time and materials and Service Writer said it could be $4 to 5,000 but would know better if I agree to 4 hour diagnostic time of nearly $1000...

Maybe there will be a airbag light recall? One can only hope.