Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) mech. @ stealership refuses to check lift pump pressure!

[CFowler]

it took almost every thing i could do not to clean this morons clock. he flat out refused to ckeck L/P pressure because the truck was runnin fine. i explained to him that it runs for a min. & then when the guage shows 3-5 lbs it soon runs like crap apoun accel. & when i have no press. it soon dies. he didnt give a dam abouy what my gauge says. i went off the wall & the service mgr. kind of took his back. how can i get this jerk to do the right thing?i hope that he gets stuck like i did when he runs it tommorrow.

 

[rblomquist]

Have you double-checked that your gauge is not acting up?

After I had double checked my gauge with another one (preferably mechanical i. e. Briar Hopper's setup) it'd probably come down to 2 options if it were me:



1. Find another dealer



2. Be your own warranty station.



Note: Notice letting them work on my rig wouldn't be an option.





Let's face it, a LP is under 2 bills and supposedly itsn't that hard to replace (haven't done one myself). Yes, if you can't find another dealer close than it sucks to have to shell out your money but that's a heck of a lot better than hurting your injector pump; cause you just know it won't fail until the 5/100 is up.



Oh yeah 1 more thing. When I originally tested my LP pressure and determined it was low the guys here told me not to go in and say my LP was dead or weak but rather to tell them the truck was hard to start, had low power, wouldn't fill the canister etc etc. That way you basically tell them the LP is acting up but it lets them "troubleshoot" right to the LP themselves. I think I used all that verbage plus added that "they were the experts" and that I used a mechanical test gauge that might point in that direction as well. Bottom line was that I got a new LP w/out any grief.







Good luck.

 

[CFowler]

rblomquist, yeah at first i looked @ the poss. of the guage but when the truck dont run or runs like crap with 0-5 lbs pressure & stops verry soon after the press. goes to zero?this is under warranty (14k) ill let them pay for it. & besides i dont like workin in the cold anymore!

 

[rblomquist]

CFOWLER,



I hear what you're saying, but it sounds like you and them are totally at odds and I'd say it's going to be very difficult for you to get back to square 1, reset everyone's emotions, and look at it your problem objectively. Even if you can get them to step back and look at it again do you really want those kinds of folks working on your baby? You can always call DC to try to get some action mandated down on the dealer but I'd weigh all that effort against the butt-pain factor of driving to another dealer and starting the process again.



I wish you the best of luck, trust me I know how frustrating this stuff can be.



p. s. Their statement about the truck running fine=no problems is absolute hogwash. My neighbors LP in his 99 was flat dead for god only knows how long and he didn't know any difference until I twisted his arm one day to try my Briar Hopper gauge just to show him how easy it was to use. He was blown away when it showed a vacuum so much so that we had to go hook it up on my rig to prove to him the gauge worked.

 

[tgbol]

I know what you mean about letting them do it under warantee, but I did my own. It takes less time to change the pump than it does to drive to the dealer. And for the $160 I paid for the pump and washers--it would cost me more to wait while it was done at the dealers.

 

[CRSmith]

Call the 800 number for Chrysler and report the dealership. That usually changes the dealership's attitude. Well, maybe not the attitude, but it might get the job done.

 

[BarryG]

When I had my pressure tested the service advisor was pretty cool about it. I just asked him to check it he said ok. (they tested it found it to be bad and replaced). On the service ticket in the probelm description area he had written in "bucking upon acceleration and rough running". We never talked about that he put that in himself. Seems he knew just what to put in to satisfy the powers that be.

 

[LSMITH]

The guy that won't check the pressure is one of these "technicians", what you need to find is a mechanic. The technicians at dealers are USELESS. Life is too short to deal with arsepipes, go to another dealer.

 

[DSteinel]

Biggest thing is not to tell them what needs replaced, give them some symptoms but do not tell them the lp is dead. I did this after Enterprise Engine checked my fp they said it was bad, I called the stealer and ordered a lp for them to install. took the truck in and they said fp was fine and that the people who checked it didn't know what they are doing:--) After that EE became my warentee station,especially since my pump wire has been tapped. They might not know how to check fp but they sure know how to make trucks run

 

[Pit Bull]

Originally posted by CFowler



clean this morons clock.



he didn't give a dam about what my gauge says.



I went off the wall & the service mgr.



i hope that he gets stuck like i did when he runs it tommorrow.

CFowler, I would not worry about them getting stuck out driving your truck. I am sure that tommorrow they will go out and start it and drive it around the dealer lot and park it and write on the ticket "Could not duplicate the problem" . What we have here is a failure to communicate. You need to move on to another dealership. This time I would suggest that you tell the service writer that under load it loses power and since you have a FP gauge that you also notice that the gauge goes to "0". Can you please help me

 

[fmangani]

I just went through the same crap with the dealers around here. My truck had same symtoms,and the idiot service tech said they would have to duplicate problem. This is an insult to anyones intelligence. A good mechanic should not have to duplicate a problem. He should be able to diagnose it if he knows what he is doing. Finally, after three days they decided to check my lift pump. They told me it was bad but of course, they did not have one in stock and Dodge WILL NOT overnight parts. It took a few days for them to get the part. Truck runs fine now.



I have since purchased a fuel pressure gauge from Black Mountain Diesel which is a class act to deal with.

 

[TowPro]

As others here have said, its not worth the hassle of me going to the stealer, have him check it, they call star, who OK's it, then they order it, then I go back again to get it fixed, while they have the truck they screw up something else. FORGET IT.



My local cummins shop is open until midnight, I can stop by after work, drop $160. 00, change it myself and know its done right.

 

[CFowler]

next day... . they put in the new lift pump.

 

[kaffine krazed]

Originally posted by fmangani

I just went through the same crap with the dealers around here. My truck had same symtoms,and the idiot service tech said they would have to duplicate problem. This is an insult to anyones intelligence. A good mechanic should not have to duplicate a problem. He should be able to diagnose it if he knows what he is doing. Finally, after three days they decided to check my lift pump. They told me it was bad but of course, they did not have one in stock and Dodge WILL NOT overnight parts. It took a few days for them to get the part. Truck runs fine now.



I have since purchased a fuel pressure gauge from Black Mountain Diesel which is a class act to deal with.

I wont fix a truck unless I can duplicate the problem. Alot of times the car is working as desighned the customer just doesn't know how it suppoused to work, if I attempt to fix it by thowing a part at it I've now admited that there is a problem why would I replace a part is it was working correctly. And when it doesn't fix the car since it is was working correctly from the start the customer is going to come back and complain and wont take it is working as desighed as an answer.





Tow Pro: The lift pump is no longer a STAR part.

 

[ehenry]

what dealer did you have problems with?

 

[Pit Bull]

Originally posted by kaffine krazed

I wont fix a truck unless I can duplicate the problem.





Tow Pro: The lift pump is no longer a STAR part.

What do you do if it was towed in :-laf



Can you explain the significance of the lift pump no longer being a Star part. Thanks

 

[rblomquist]

I was told the dealers cannot stock lift pumps anymore. Apparently, people were figureing out that they needed to check this item and low and behold... ..... a lot of them were dead or weak (imagine that) thus creating a run on warranty replacements of this part that used to be a much lower % replacement part.

 

[crobertson1]

I had an appt today for an alignment and told the service advisor I didn't think I was getting very good mpg (14. 5), so he put it on the RO and viola, I got a new lift pump. Easy as pie. I don't know if that would cause bad mileage or not but it did seem to lose power at higher rpms. The tech said it only had 2-3 pounds of pressure. I had no idea I might have had a problem accept for mpg. Time for a FP guage!

 

[kaffine krazed]

If it was towed in and it now starts and runs fine and I can't find a problem with it I'll call STAR see what they have to say. I'll do what STAR tells me to normally they say if I can't duplicate the problem to return it to the customer NPF. If it was towed in before and I still can't find anything wrong with it and STAR says to return it to the customer I'll get an ok from the service manager to have an hourly guy drive the car. I've put 60 miles on a car had it run outside my bay for hours and not been able to duplicate the problem I was thinking a fuel pump from the complaint but didn't want to throw parts at it. Gave it back to the customer he had it for a week before it acted up again and had it towed in. Test drove it again found it had a bad crank sensor.





It no longer being a STAR part means the tech doesn't have to call STAR to get an ok to replace it. My dealer is on restriction so I have to have a manager approve replacing the lift pump but that is because how many we replaced in the last few months.



I haven't heard that dealers aren't allowed to stock lift pumps anymore, we normally have sevral in stock.

 

[Pit Bull]

Originally posted by kaffine krazed

If it was towed in and it now starts and runs fine and I can't find a problem with it I'll call STAR see what they have to say. I'll do what STAR tells me to normally they say if I can't duplicate the problem to return it to the customer NPF. If it was towed in before and I still can't find anything wrong with it and STAR says to return it to the customer I'll get an ok from the service manager to have an hourly guy drive the car. I've put 60 miles on a car had it run outside my bay for hours and not been able to duplicate the problem I was thinking a fuel pump from the complaint but didn't want to throw parts at it. Gave it back to the customer he had it for a week before it acted up again and had it towed in. Test drove it again found it had a bad crank sensor.





It no longer being a STAR part means the tech doesn't have to call STAR to get an ok to replace it. My dealer is on restriction so I have to have a manager approve replacing the lift pump but that is because how many we replaced in the last few months.



I haven't heard that dealers aren't allowed to stock lift pumps anymore, we normally have sevral in stock.

Sounds reasonable to me. Guess I need to get out the old Briar Hooper FP gauge and see how the lift pump is doing in my new 2002. If it is getting bad I just report low power and let the dealer figure it out. Seems to make everyone happy that way. They check the lift pump pressure and I get a new lift pump.