Your absolutely correct, the water pump was the last straw. . LOLOL For some reason the truck was building excess pressure throughout the cooling system and causing the Overflow reservoir to vent accessive ( Ran all the way to the ground) coolant. We went step by step... Radiator cap, Thermostat, Replaced the reservoir bottle and return line, etc. Water pump began to leak intermittantly and I took pictures. It was replaced under warranty. 3,000 miles later, turn the truck off agaiin and the water pump was leaking again. Took another picture. This time the refused, drove it 12 miles and could not duplicate so sent me on my happy way. Service writer was great, but Chrysler had their hands tied. I was told it was functioning like other 2006 models and that it was NORMAL to see coolant expelled from the water pump. I was told that ALL 2006 trucks expel coolant from the overflow bottle and thats what it was designed for... Not ONE other person on this board said their 06 puked coolant out the overflow!!
I contacted a lemon law attorney who AGREED that my truck had a serious problem but said the way the dealer wrote my paperwork that I did not have a strong case as they kept noting " Operating as designed" . You need 4 ( In Calif) repair attempts. This means legally that they had the VERIFY four times it was leaking and TRY to fix it with no resolve. I travel a LOT with my horses and family. I don't want " WHatever" the real issue was to suddenly rear it's ugly head out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere!!
Yes the truck would be towed, but I still have 100,000 worth of horses along the road with a trailer to try and get moved around. It was a time bomb waiting to happen... Dealer absolutely refused to look into the issue further until it plum broke down. Then after the motor is totallY TOAST along side the road then Chrysler would spend every last second trying to "Blame me for it" . MY SERVICE WRITER GAVE ME THE BLESSING TO SEEK LEMON LAW action. I was not as infomred as I am now of where to look for the manufacture date on a truck. . As it turns out, My truck was MADE on July 7th 2005!!!!!!!!!!! I PURCHASED it Dec 1, 2006. THat is a LONG time to be sitting on a lot and not driven. Who knows what coroded in all those months of heat and cold. Coolant probably ate a hole in something... THis was my FIRST time ever having a problem with a dodge cummins. It was my turn. My calls to Chrysler customer service and the District Manager who never showed up yesterday went unanswered. THey told me no go unless they could verify a problem. THe dealer I was using I later found out lost their good Diesel Mechanic. Who the heck knows who was looking at the truck all these times.
Yes, I could have gone to a private Diesel mechanic, even a cummins repair facility and paid them lots of $$$$$$ to hunt the problem down. I had about 9,000 in equity in my 06. . Found an 07 that was built in Dec of 06 and arrived at the dealer ( Different dealer by the way) in Late Feb. SO it's only been there 4 months. Peopl in these parts HATE manual trans so everyone wanted the Autos. . They were willing to deal and I was willing to sell. YEP, I lost some money on the deal I think... BUt not a heck of a lot. And if you count all the hours I spent dropping the truck off at the dealer and picking it up 2 days later with cannot diplicate... My time is valuable. . I did everything I could do set aside a long legal battle with Chrysler and the attorney was very informative that I did not have what he considered a strong enough case. He too told me to drive the heck out of it until it blows up. I am not willing to risk mysekf like that... I needed closure... .
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