[ezdays]

I mentioned before, that less than 24 hours after we purchased our Touring-L, it spent the next 10 days in the dealer's service department waiting for Chrysler to send them a new EGR valve. They were good about it and gave us a new Pacifica to drive as a loaner. Well, I noticed some clear fluid leaking under the rear of the driver's side of the engine, I checked the brake fluid and it was down, less than an inch left. We went to to store and lunch, and it was down another 1/8" from before. The dealer said that they'd have it towed in, but no loaner this time. Before it was the sales dep't that made that decision. Since there's a dealer about three miles away from us (the other one is a good 35 miles away), we're just going to go there, we have an appointment today. But it's a pity that we have to rent a vehicle to get around when we have an expensive brand new one that likes to spend it's time in a service garage. I'm hoping that this time, it's an easy repair and we don't have to wait ten days to get a replacement part from Chrysler engineering.

 

[CenTexas]

Arghh . . .

Keep us posted.

 

[cue003]

Man that sucks. I thought for all warranty repairs they should be giving you a loaner.

Such an expensive car and you can't get a loaner for a non wear and tear item? Not to mention it is **** near a brand new vehicle??

 

[ezdays]

Well, the dealer tells me that since I don't have the extended warrantee, I'm not covered for a loaner. Yeah, that sucks, less than 1400 miles on the top of the line vehicle that Chrysler makes, and they want to squeeze a few more bucks out of you. I had the same problem with a Lincoln-Mercury dealer. We could drive our Lincoln in and drive out with a loaner, but when we bought a new Moutaineer, we were denied a loaner and had to opt for a rental.

Well, here's the latest, it wasn't brake fluid as I thought, but transmission fluid was leaking out of the case. I though transmission fluid was reddish in color, but they're telling me that not anymore. Anyway, the part they need is on backorder and they can't get one before Tuesday, so I'm now driving a 2015 Jeep Renegade with about 4000 miles on it. Compared to the Pacifica, I'm thinking that I'd have a more comfortable ride if they gave me a 1950 Tractor. I'm sure I can grizzle it out for a few days, but this is starting to get a bit much, twice in the shop and twice delays for a lack of parts.

 

[CenTexas]

Is the Jeep rented from the Chrysler dealer doing the repair? Boy - wouldn't that be a conflict of interest! (or just smart business?)

I had similar problem with my 2011 Genesis. Soon after buying, an idiot light came on indicating a problem in the engine and smog control. It took 5 different service visits (with the dealer continually implying I caused the problem because I changed the oil myself) before being fixed. Each time wife had to pick me up at shop because the dealer stopped offering shuttle service (!) - much less a loaner. I was pretty upset.

 

[ezdays]

Is the Jeep rented from the Chrysler dealer doing the repair? Boy - wouldn't that be a conflict of interest! (or just smart business?)

I had similar problem with my 2011 Genesis. Soon after buying, an idiot light came on indicating a problem in the engine and smog control. It took 5 different service visits (with the dealer continually implying I caused the problem because I changed the oil myself) before being fixed. Each time wife had to pick me up at shop because the dealer stopped offering shuttle service (!) - much less a loaner. I was pretty upset.

Yes, the dealer is the one doing the rental. No extended warranty, no free ride even if you just bought a new vehicle and haven't had it more than a few weeks and less than 1400 miles. Worst of all, these delays are because of the lack of repair parts from Chrysler, nothing else. I do plan to ague that point, a repair that should take a few hours, now is expected to take five or six days.

 

[BrettP]

Well, the folks on this forum who haven't purchased yet need to know how warranty repairs are going. If they aren't treating us well then people need to know. I would be steaming mad if they told me I had to buy extended warranty to be eligible for a loaner and if I had read that before purchasing I would have likely passed them over.

I have to take mine back tomorrow morning too. A couple weeks ago the driver's side 3rd row seat stopped working and they fixed it saying the computer got confused and had to be reset. It's going back tomorrow because now we've noticed the driver's seat (and mirrors) won't move when you press one of the two seat memory buttons on the door and also the driver's seat doesn't move when we press the Sto-n-go button. It does, however, move when we press the primary seat adjust buttons so we aren't sure exactly when this new problem surfaced ... before, during or after the last service call because we just don't use these functions daily.

 

[ezdays]

What's happening with us is that a normally two hour job where we could just wait there for them to do, is going to turn into a five or six day job waiting for a part to be shipped from Chrysler. That's the same deal we had the day after we took our van home. It went to over 10 days and they didn't charge us for a loaner car then (but they did have a loaner contract), and I'm going to put up a battle this time if they want to charge us. It's not my fault that Chrysler has the part on back-order. I think I'd rather drive my van with the leak and all rather than the Jeep they gave us. I had an old pickup years ago that road smoother than this does.

I will keep you posted, there should be no way that this should be treated as a routine service job, or as a non-warranty one either. Maybe if I had put 20-30K miles on it before bringing it in, but not at 1400, this should be interesting.

 

[Tsuter]

Yeah, that's a pretty shitty deal. Especially coming from premium brands. Audi would give us a loaner no matter what vehicle we brought in for service. My wife's was over 5 years old and no hint of warranty left, but if we scheduled the service a few days in advance, they would get us a loaner car. The situation with the back ordered parts should be even more of an incentive for the dealer to accommodate people in for service. Have you tried other dealerships? We have 3 Chrysler dealers, actually 4 within 10 miles of our house. Wouldn't hurt to shop around, no matter where the purchase was made.

 

[ezdays]

Yeah, that's a pretty shitty deal. Especially coming from premium brands. Audi would give us a loaner no matter what vehicle we brought in for service. My wife's was over 5 years old and no hint of warranty left, but if we scheduled the service a few days in advance, they would get us a loaner car. The situation with the back ordered parts should be even more of an incentive for the dealer to accommodate people in for service. Have you tried other dealerships? We have 3 Chrysler dealers, actually 4 within 10 miles of our house. Wouldn't hurt to shop around, no matter where the purchase was made.

The dealer that we bought from is a good 35 miles away. They gave me a loaner the first time, but said we'd have to get a rental this time, so we brought it to a dealer that's a few miles from us thinking that it would be a short repair job and we could wait.

We'll see if this dealer tries to charge us, my argument is going to be the long wait for parts.

 

[Gohawks1224]

You know some insurances offer a new car maintenance add on to your premium. When I bought my Mazda 3 new in 2010, I purchased it. Was just $16 extra every 6 months. They would provide a rental in the car was in the shop for an extended amount of time. Never to use it though!

 

[ezdays]

An update, the dealer said that the part isn't in yet, "maybe Thursday", I said that I hope they didn't think I was paying for a rental car when it wasn't our fault. His reply, "you aren't paying for a rental, you have a brand new vehicle and we're going to bill Chrysler for the rental". They first told me that they didn't do loaners, well, I guess this is one way to solve that problem, charge it back to Chrysler. I'd still like to get my van back, but this takes a bit of concern off my mind, somebody has to pay, glad it's not us....

Thinking about it, that's one negative for being one of the first to own a new vehicle, there are no spare parts in the pipeline yet. It seems that all available parts are on the line making new ones.... Somehow Chrysler had better think about servicing existing customers first before building new machines for new customers.

 

[ezdays]

I called the dealer this morning, "gee, Mike is off today, let me find someone else that knows about your vehicle and have them call you back". I asked for them to call back quickly since I had to go out, one hour later I decided it's best to just drive to the dealer and find out what's going on.

Talked to a service writer, he goes out to the shop, comes back about ten minutes later, "your van is in the air right now and is being worked on".... Wow, it's 10:00 now, I'll be back around 3:00. "No, make that 5:00"....Must be a tough part to change out, seven hours to change it, put new oil in the transmission and test drive it... Hey, they're the experts, but I think I'll stop by around 4:00 anyway.

 

[BrettP]

Hey, ezdays, please post here the part they actually replaced so we will have it documented.

Mine has been back to the dealer twice for seat computer configuration problems. A very minor annoyance thing but no parts had to be replaced. Both times the dealer supplied a loaner. I enjoyed the big RAM 1500 truck we had for two days this week (my wife, not so much). Absence makes the heart grow fonder in my wife's case because since getting the Pacifica back two days ago, my wife has posted me both days "I love my van". No buyers remorse on her part.

 

[ezdays]

Yeah, as far as I know, it's the transmission cover. Don't know if it's for the whole transmission or some partial cover, but they said that a couple of bolts were loose and they didn't want to take the chance that there was something wrong with the cover, so they ordered a new one. It was on "back order" when they order it, but apparently,someone at Chrysler had a heart and found one. Still, I've owned it for about six weeks, and it's been in the shop three of those.

They were telling the truth, I drove by the service bay and I could see my van up on the rack.

 

[ezdays]

Picked up our van, parts replaced were an external oil feed tube and a rear transmission cover kit. They added 3 quarts of transmission fluid and I've got my van back... What a difference to drive. The Jeep magnified every bump and crack in the road, steering was stiff and I could hear every sound withing a mile, and I've got bad hearing.... One will never appreciate the Pacifica's ride fully until you go out in something like the Jeep I had as a loaner. Well, they called it a "courtesy car rental", all charged back to Chrysler.

 

[BrettP]

I sure hate to hear they found loose bolts even on an exterior tranny cover as that is both a lazy workmanship issue as well as a quality control issue and is totally avoidable. Seems like something as repetitive as tranny cover bolts would be tightened and precisely torqued by a standard assembly line robot.

So far, people on this forum aren't reporting too many trips back to the service department so that gives me hope that your case and mine are isolated cases and not iceberg tips.

On mine they tell me they have to keep resetting the computer (both times) but they expect a software reflash to be coming to fix. I don't really buy the software reflash theory because if it was software then others on this forum would be reporting that their 3rd row and drivers electric seats were working one day but not the next. i think it is a hardware bug probably in a connector or a seat control module needs replacing.

 

[ezdays]

I expect that us "early adapters" have to deal with a few bugs that those buying in a few months won't have to. My complaint is that Chrysler in both cases, didn't respond quickly enough. I always remember, a happy customer will tell 10 people while a disgruntled one will tell 100. Why not overnight the parts?

And yeah, a couple of loose bolts tells the story of a lazy robot not doing their job. The tech in his report says that he had to remove a mount to be able to torque those bolts, maybe the bots just didn't feel like doing that in the factory. Remember, bots are getting smarter and smarter, pretty soon they're going to demand equal pay.........:surprise:

 

[ezdays]

...So far, people on this forum aren't reporting too many trips back to the service department so that gives me hope that your case and mine are isolated cases and not iceberg tips.

On mine they tell me they have to keep resetting the computer (both times) but they expect a software reflash to be coming to fix. I don't really buy the software reflash theory because if it was software then others on this forum would be reporting that their 3rd row and drivers electric seats were working one day but not the next. i think it is a hardware bug probably in a connector or a seat control module needs replacing.

Just wondering, are all Pacifica vans made in the same factory? Ours came out of Windsor, Ontario, could be that one plant is a bit more conscientious than another.

 

[BrettP]

The Windsor Ontario plant is the one I see in all 2017 Pacifica Specs as the main assembly plant.

The engine shows as being manufactured in Mexico

I read that the 948TE TORQUEFLITE AUTOMATIC NINE-SPEED Transmissions are made in Indiana.