O. T. : Nothing Has Changed at the Dealership

[wxman1]

Son's Jeep lost oil pressure on the interstate. He pulled over immediately and called me.
Got a tow truck and had it towed home. I did not have any time to work on it so I went by and talked to the service dept at the dealership the next morning. Explained the problem and the symptoms
and he said that they would have to pull the pan and possibly replace the oil pump. He assured me that if I brought it in "they could get on it right away" . (The first lie). Called the tow truck and he had the vehicle at the dealership by 1 PM. I called at 5 PM, they had not even put it on the rack. Fine. Callled about noon the next day and they had removed the pan. (Now comes the pitch). "The engine probably has been suffering from oil depravation for some time now and probably has major damage. There's probably metal particles in the oil." I ask him...Did the mechanic find metal in the oil? Silence on the other end. Now he wants to sell me a long block since the car has 120,000 miles on it. A long block installed by them is $4100. I said I'd like to stick to the original plan and flush out the old oil and replace the oil pump. Then he sees the long block is a dead issue and tries to sell me a short block. Short block installed by them is about half the price of the long block. Nope...I said...lets stick to the original plan. He then says that the engine may blow up and have catastrophic failure. He also says it has a cracked piston. I ask him if he took the heads off and examined top of the pistons...silence on the other end.

So he gives up and then warns me that even if they do the repair the engine could fail shortly
and it would not be their fault. I then ask him what's the chance that they can get an oil pump for it
and have it back together by the end of the day. He says he'll call me back. He calls back an hour later and says the Chrysler Wharehouse is shutting down early for Christmas (its the afternoon
of the 23rd) and he won't have the pump until Monday. Fine. I then call AutoZone, they have the
pump for $74.95. I call back and tell him the pump is available locally. He says..."Oh, you want to go aftermarket?" . Well YEAH! I then call him back the next morning and he says that the pump
will have to be shipped and they're closing at noon today (the 24th). So now it sits at the dealership until I suspect the middle of next week.

Lessons learned:

1) I will let it sit until I have time to work on it.

2) Never ever take a vehicle to the dealership for any sort of repair.

3) Have plenty of aspirin around to keep my blood pressure down. (Although I never
raised my voice or got angry with this guy.)

The galliing thing about all this is that these people do the work on THEIR timetable,
charge whatever price THEY want and then are totally blameless if the engine blows up
later. WOW! how do I get into this kind of buisness.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Jim
The wxman