Recall nightmare for 05 1500

[Lynx0849]

Hi. Apologies but I need to vent.

I brought my truck in on the morning of Tuesday Oct 10 2017 for 3 recalls. Two airbags and the pinion gear nut retainer.
When I checked in after lunch I was told that the pinion gear nut was loose and had caused abnormal wear so the diff needed rebuilding. They ordered the parts for Wednesday, Oct 11 delivery.

The parts came in the next morning but they had taken another vehicle apart in front of my truck and so had no way to get my truck on a lift until the other car was repaired. Of course, they had to order parts for it too so my truck sat all day.

The parts for the other car came in and by late morning Thursday my truck was being worked on again. I checked in after lunch and was told that they got the diff apart and were putting it back together and should be ready by 4:30. I called back in the late afternoon and found but they didn’t own the proper tool to reassemble it. They were looking for the tool but didn’t know when they would be able to reassemble my truck.

This is a big inconvenience. I have lost 3 productive days this week so far for what should have been a simple recall repair.

Yikes

Thanks for listening.

 

[Missouri Mule]

I would have a nice chat with the service manager. If that does"t work have a talk with owner. No reason not to have a tool at at dealer unless someone did s 5 finger discount.

 

[Lynx0849]

I would have a nice chat with the service manager. If that does"t work have a talk with owner. No reason not to have a tool at at dealer unless someone did s 5 finger discount.

Not an excuse but their stated reason...
They switched from a Lincoln/Mercury dealer to a Jeep/RAM dealer in 2012. They only purchased the specialty tools for ‘12 or newer.
Given that, I think they should have checked a bit before taking a ‘05 apart.
Maybe I can get it back early next week I hope.

 

[Tuesdak]

If it's costing you business you need to rent a truck - even if you break even on the rental cost for the day. Long term customers and customer retention is worth it. Sure the dealer should be loaning you a truck, but, that is a conversation you could have with them. Myself I have a "spare" old truck for when the 2003 goes down or in for repair.

 

[Lynx0849]

Update
I got a call Friday afternoon that the truck was ready. Well, I was up in NH working on something and didn’t get to go pick it up till today. Started it up and it has the CEL lit on the dash. Didn’t have it when I dropped it off. Sigh...

I go back inside and give em back the keys and ask why they expect me to drive it away with CEL?
Service guy fetches the mechanics copy of the work and, yep, he notes it as an O2 sensor. Hmmm, isn’t that on the rear of the CAT right near where they would have dropped the driveshaft to replace the pinion (and apparently the rest of the guts)?

Looking at the parts they replaced, I could not tell if they are the limited slip parts or not. My truck came from the factory with the maximum slip diff and I had the original dealer change it. I didn’t see any anti slip additive on the receipt which made me wonder. In a conversation with the manager on duty (parts manager) I asked if he would check.
So, we shall see what they say Monday. A whole week.

Oh, they first offered to rent to me a car. Ya, right. I asked what the tow capacity was and can I go out of state with it? I declined. Two days later they offered to pay for a rental pickup from Enterprise. Not sure my trailer would have worked (registered 8000lbs, weighs about 6800 often). Likely the rental would not have tow package and brake controller. Sigh... made it through the week but not looking forward to next week.

 

[Bob4x4]

The recall will cover r&p,bearings,fluid,sealer,new nut and retainer

 

[Bob4x4]

The o2 sensor is not close to where they would be working

 

[Lynx0849]

The recall will cover r&p,bearings,fluid,sealer,new nut and retainer

They replaced lots of parts as they said the loose nut allowed movement and wear. It included a bunch of differential parts including a pinion plus axel bearings & seals.

 

[Lynx0849]

Yesterday I was driving and there were some slippery bits like painted crosswalks and wet leaves on the road and a few times it felt like the limited slip wasn’t working.

I am concerned that when they repaired the rear end they just looked up the vin for the axel it shipped with (the max slip stock one). Within a month or so of taking delivery of the truck I had the dealer replace the guts with the limited slip parts.
I can’t make out from the repair order what they did. Can anyone here make sense of it before I go back to the dealer to ask?

#ad

 

[Bob4x4]

The 438422 maybe a standard case not limited slip.The parts for a recall are always ordered by vin and that is all the recall would pay for.They should have contacted you before proceeding.But since they could consider your truck had been modified they may have felt they were just returning it to stock

 

[Lynx0849]

And I told them it was Limited Slip before they worked on it and the service writer said it would be the same as I brought it in.

I guess I gotta go check. Sigh... I hate this dealer - some more.

 

[Killer223]

did you not ask for old parts back?
if the pinon nut was loose, i'm not sure how that would make the dif go bad, bearings and gears yes, but not the dif it's self.

 

[seafish]

IMHO, it would be impossible to "feel" whether or not the LS is engaging over crosswalk stripes or even on wet leaves.

If you want to know for sure, jack up the rear end of the truck (but ONLY if you have the proper tools and safety stands and know how to use them), then spin one of the rear wheels in the forward direction.

If you have LS, BOTH wheels will turn in the SAME direction. If not, the other will turn the opposite direction.

 

[Bob4x4]

Warranty and recall replaced parts belong to FCA and are not to be returned to customer

 

[Bob4x4]

did you not ask for old parts back?
if the pinon nut was loose, i'm not sure how that would make the dif go bad, bearings and gears yes, but not the dif it's self.

It happens.....

 

[Lynx0849]

After talking to them (again), I agree, they likely just replaced the pinion and ring gears etc at put all the rest back in. The truck is mostly ok now.

The not ok thing is this...
I get this awful whine from the rear end when the drive train is unloaded, that is, not accelerating or decelerating. At 40-50 mph it is loud. My wife says she won’t ride with me if I don’t get it fixed.

Any idea what might be causing it?
Also, now that some gears were replaced, should I change the oil soon?

Thanks

 

[EDankievitch]

whining noise? I'd say the backlash of the gear set is wrong. As for changing the gear lube I'd change it after the first 2500 miles get that break in lube and metal out of the unit. And there will be metal as the new gear sets are not machined to a finished polished like they use to. They rely on us driving to give the gear set it's final polishing up and work hardening.

 

[Lynx0849]

whining noise? I'd say the backlash of the gear set is wrong. As for changing the gear lube I'd change it after the first 2500 miles get that break in lube and metal out of the unit. And there will be metal as the new gear sets are not machined to a finished polished like they use to. They rely on us driving to give the gear set it's final polishing up and work hardening.

So, is that an easy adjustment? Any special tools needed?

My repair took days longer because the dealer only had some tools for gen 4 trucks.

 

[DonFitzwater]

So, is that an easy adjustment? Any special tools needed?

My repair took days longer because the dealer only had some tools for gen 4 trucks.

No, not easy. Take it back to the dealer. They set your lash improperly. They'll need to gut the differential and likely re-shim pinion depth. They shouldn't have any problem as this is a simple rear end. The Chrysler corporate 9.25 is really simple......most of the time.