The other Dodge dealer thread got me to thinking and I didnt wanna post there to derail that one sooooo.... My primary service van is a 07 Sprinter. Basicly a Benz with dodge badging. Its been a good van with very little major issues for over 200K miles. Early last summer it started to mess up. running sluggish / going into limp sometimes so I did what any non European mechanic would do and hit you tube hard. Stated throwing common parts at it that would potentially fix the issue which basically turned out to be low boost. After trying everything the last resort was the turbo itself. In the spring the intake hose broke right at the turbo. who knows how long it ran like that before I noticed on the next oil change. Was some damage to the compressor wheel and it was leaking oil out the front and probably the back. The cat converter had to come off to access some of the mounting bolts for the turbo and thats where I hit a snag. The cradle and engine has to drop to get access. At that point decided to let someone else do this crap. Only place close was Lake City Dodge Made the appt and dropped it off. 8+ weeks later I get the call its done. Pick it up and drive home. Running better but still under powered. Service advisor says the computer has to be reset so the truck will recognize the new parts but they dont have the program to do it. Mercedes only. Fine! Get home, park it and come out the next day to find a puddle of oil under the van. Call em up and of course he says not leaking when it left here but bring it back we'll look at it. 4 days later he calls and says it looks like the oil is coming from the front cover but its so dirty they cant tell. Take it home, clean it up and then check. I did just that. Weds AM after letting it dry out from the pressure washer, fire up, lift the van and see a stream of oil coming from under where the turbo sits. Send the advisor a vid . Again its not from our work. Bring it back and we'll try to fit it in. Dropped it off yesterday. Told the guy if its from something other than your work bill me. While looking up there in the back of the engine and just below the turbo is a heavy stainless steel bracket missing two bolts which threads into the ex manifold . Who knows what else they cut corners on. Below is a vid of the leak.
Uh, Houston we have a problem!...wow talk about a serious leak! Only advice I can give is to keep documenting everything you can with pictures and videos. I don't know if Dodge would help address problems with one of their dealers or not since the vehicle is older. Had a similar issue years ago with a local VW dealer but I was able to resolve it by going to a different dealer in the area. Jim
Jeez, thats pouring out of there. "Not related to their work" Yea, right. Especially with missing bolts. Its their fault, they should fix it. Good luck.
Its almost certainly the turbo drain. I do know that the early sprinter vans were very tough to service. Some were able to be serviced at the Chrysler shops and others had to go to the benz dealers, and there was seemingly no rhyme or reason for it. They also sold them by the basket full..
Shitty mechanic that worked on it, yeah it may not be easy to access, but you HAVE to remove what you have to remove. Few people take pride in their work anymore. I got so tired of hearing flat rate techs saying “ I didn’t get paid for that” I thought “Your OVER paid!”
Poor service is not just limited to automobiles. The ice maker quit working on our refrigerator. Called the "hometown" (buy local!!) appliance store where we bought it and requested a service tech to come and take a look. Was told they now only service appliances that they sold and that are still under factory warranty. But you sold it, shouldn't your service it? Not if it is out of warranty. The local independent appliance repair guy was backed up 3 months before he could look at it. Put in a new unit, lasted 3 weeks and failed. He put us on his list again as to when he would be able to stop by again, that was 4 weeks ago and haven't heard from him again. I HAD been doing business with this appliance store for over 20 years, and having rental properties probably have bought close to 15 appliances from them. If I can't count on "service after the sale" they are no different than buying my appliances from Menards. With the availability of repair parts online I really see no reason to set foot in that store again.
The only reason not to buy from Home Depot or Menards is that they’re big enough to demand the manufacturers build a cheaper but cosmetically (and sometimes numerically!) identical product with cheaper components. Many do. Some say no and rely on the small stores for their distribution (Stihl claims that they’re not in any big box retailers for that reason). That said, we have a four year old GE fridge from the local shop, and it looks like it was built cheap. Brittle plastic, finicky (and LOUD) icemaker… Patrick
I think I've seen Stihl at Ace Hardware or Lowes...or both. Can't remember. But it was a big box store.
Walmart or Sam's Club was known for that. Their computers or TVs are spec'd different than everyone else's of the same basic model, but they may be missing one small option...so different model number and you can't get any other store to price match because of it. You also are missing a feature or two. Kind of sucks. But cheaper price if you don't mind. Edit... Sorry for the hijack, Briz... That oil leak is NOT a coincidence. The mechanic had to have forgotten something.
Well seeing as were headed down the rabbit hole I had a crappy exp with Amazon this week. Ordered the Shark robo vacuum. Was all excited. opened the box and it was a return. Looked sort of beat up and missing several parts. Amazon would not send the parts or simply replace the unit. Only option was to return it, wait for a refund then buy another one. On the side of the box was a cust service number. Called Shark, gave them the story and the guy happily sent me all the parts it was missing. Got the parts in a few days installed them and charged the battery( which was missing).. Pushed the clean button and it moved 3" and stopped. Little robot voice said something wrong with the drive wheel and call cust service error 18. Called them again and after a few trouble shooting steps the lady is sending me a completely new machine 100% free. They sent a link to my phone so they could use my camera to see the unit and what it was doing. She was in Columbia and sounded pretty hot. To bad the camera feed is only one way.
^^^^^^^ Super hot? Funny.. When I worked for Ford, Ski-Doo, and Arctic Cat. I would frequently call Bombardier in Canada. All the French women would sound super hot…
4 year old GE Dishwasher at a vacation condo we own used maybe 2 or 3 times a month, was working fine, then all of a sudden, no power the day before a tenant arrives. Check all the usual suspects, GFI, Power Cord, loose wires etc, no bueno, so I assume that is it the motherboard. Online, $120 if I replace it myself and I really do not have the time or desire to. Service call $100, plus marked up part, likely $250, / new dishwasher with Warranty $475 - Sold! Just the way it is now, everything is disposable.
Sounds like the person that did the work slapped the parts on and shoved it out the door......never confirmed they actually completed the repair properly.
I'd occasionally get sent into La belle Province during my trucking days. From direct interaction, you're fairly correct. That French accent and their way of speaking was quite alluring.
8 plus weeks wasn't enough time to put all the bolts back in! Guess you shouldn't rush them, I hope they stand behind their work it sure seems like their error.
According to the service advisor he personally looked the job over for leaks.. Umm Ya, right. One would hope so. 3500$ is not chump change. Thankfully I have a back up van thats filling in while this gets sorted out.
Well clearly not well enough to see the missing bolts or massive pissing of oil. Now your stuck fighting a fight with a shop that clearly can't do the job correctly......I wouldn't want them to put air in my tires much less do anything major cause clearly they don't know how to fix it
They sold these vans new before Dodge went to the Promaster. My thinking was they would have a service guy there that would know. The dealer I'd used in the past was farther away and had a really good factory trained Sprinter mech but he's retired and that dealer declined to take on the job
