DC Modern Mopar Club

lets see if I can insert a sense of humor into this.

Dear Tate Dodge of Glen Burnie,
Thank you for living up to all the bad postings I have read about your dealership. (waiting for the "I told you so"). After leaving my car for 2 complete work days to diagnose the horrible clunking noise from the front end you informed me that I needed to replace the 2 bushing on the front sway bar at the cost of $340 (can we say rip off since the bushings only cost like $10). However, after pyaing my bill and departing your service lot I found the issue to still exisit (because as I found out they did not test drive the car after the repair). Today I decided to visit you again and voice my concern to which you replied "we are way backed up and I can get you in early next week." I indicated worry over the fact that I was worried about driving the car in this condition but you assured me that the tech who drove the car said it was nothing major...just something loose under the hood.

On my way home I decided to stop into the local GoodYear a few miles from my home since I grew increasingly troubled by the terrible noise and the clunks I could feel in the gas/break peddle and steering wheel. "Sure Mr. Quick we can take you right in and give you a call later on." After making the long walk, yes I walked, home I recieve a call. "Mr. Quick can you come back we need to show you some things." So I drove, uhh its too damn hot to walk, to GoodYear and here is what they came up with.

1. Both rear bearings need to be replaced as he demonstrated by the rear tires moving bach and forth.
2. There is a bolt on the rear assembly that the shop that lowered by car must have broken or replaced with an incorrect bolt as the nut on it is only halfway threaded.
3. The front tie rod on the driver side is completly shot and he advised me to not drive the car as it is unsafe and needed immediate repair.

All said and done about $1000.00

So thank you Glen Burnie Tate Dodge for putting my life at risk!!

Oh I should also state that I now have 38000 miles on the car and the warranty expired at 3600. NICE!!!

That sounds like thye have terrible diagnostic skills at that shop, just terrible! Wow, sorry it happened to you Steve.

Damn man sorry to hear about that. Hope things get better.

Ouch that bites. It kind of freaks me out too because I have some wierd clunking noise that seems to be coming from the front end. I took it to my non dealer shop (Spring Mall Auto Body) as they would look at it for free for me. BTW Kudos to them for giving me a good deal on a condenser replacement for my wifes nissan. And thank you for fixing the sliced o-ring on the brand new low pressure line that my wonderful local nissan dealership installed. And they fixed it for free. OK tangent complete. So I took it over there thinking it was shocks. They checked and the shocks have no leakage at all on all 4 corners. Nothing loose or shot in the suspension that they could find.

When they test drove it they couldn't even get it to make the noise. It comes and goes and occurs when I go over dips in the road. Not bumps but when the front end slowly rises and falls I can hear it. Any ideas from those of you who do their own work?

Eric

I can say from experience that yes tie rods can be an issues on these cars many times failing prematurely. I had to have BOTH of my tie rods replaced last year (luckily it was just before my 5 year extened warranty ran out).