2012 dodge journey, bad ecu

[mfurrh55]

Hey folks , my son in law was driving today and Batt light came on, put new battery in and drove good for about 20 min. Light came back on, took it to dealership, they coded it out, said bad alternator, ok, he told them put it on, alt. and labor was 825.00, then they called him and said by the way ecu is bad , another 800.00, so now they have his SUV and to get it back , they want 1625.00, that seems awful steep to me, Anyone familiar with these products?

 

[Bob4x4]

If it was jump started a voltage spike may have damaged the ecm and explain why it needed both if the alt had failed first,otherwise just lack of diag/guess work.Makes one wonder if the batt was bad.........

 

[Wayne M.]

The dealer should eat the alternator job. I'll bet lunch that it wasn't bad.

 

[mfurrh55]

If it was jump started a voltage spike may have damaged the ecm and explain why it needed both if the alt had failed first,otherwise just lack of diag/guess work.Makes one wonder if the batt was bad.........

It was jump started by the dealership

 

[mfurrh55]

They told him yesterday to come get it around 4:00 pm, he got over there and they say something else is wrong, said it might have a pinched wire, when they check alternator voltage it shows 14.2 volts then goes up and down with voltage 14.2 then down to 12.? Then up and down, so now he's gonna trade it off upon it coming out of dealership shop

 

[Bob4x4]

Total lack of diag........

 

[Wayne M.]

I know this goes against the forum rules, but I think we should know what dealer this is.
Even trading it involves money on his end. Was he going to trade it before this happened?

 

[mfurrh55]

Dealer is in Sherman , Tx, no he was going to keep it for another year ,but this same dealer was one of only 3 dealers in the country that had the upgraded steering I needed for my 07, The dealer up in Chicago said if they had the upgrade it would be 390.00, I called Hoyt Dodge in Sherman and they wanted over 700.00 for the upgrade, dealer in Chicago said there was a thousand on backorder

 

[Missouri Mule]

With their miss and hit diagnosis I would talk to the owner. If that doesn't work fca and if that doesn't work the state should have consumer affairs department. Also you should have some department (most likely the consumers affairs) representing the Federal Trade Commision. They make sure businesses are charging fair prices. The FTC was created to make sure there was competion amoung businesses but also they make sure the consumer does't get shafted by businesses trying to empty their bank accounts.

 

[mfurrh55]

Thanks Bill. I'll tell the sil and see if he will follow up, they've still got his vehicle and ain't telling him why now

 

[mfurrh55]

Well update on son in laws dodge journey, still in the shop, Thursday they flew in a tech from Michigan to diagnose it and tell them what's wrong, He hasn't heard anything from them, so he still doesn't have his vehicle back or know when its gonna happen, he's getting pretty frustrated with this dealership