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Dealers and their quality work (long)


01PathySE
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So this past Tuesday I brought my 01 Pathy I bought used in October to the dealership for my first oil change since they offered me a discounted first oil change so I took advantage of it since its been too cold to change it myself and it was pretty cheap. Now I hate bringing my car to the dealer because its always too expensive and they can never seem to do anything right in my past experiences at least. They made a mess of my maxima while I was having the tranny fixed under warranty a few years back and since then I have not let the dealer touch my cars. Well I made an exception this time around figuring they could handle an oil change... Anyways, my belts were a little squealy lately and were looking pretty dry so I decided to let the dealer replace those for me too while I was in for the oil change. So they did the work and then yesterday I was heading back out to school in Boston and I'm on the mass pike doin 85 or whatever and all the sudden i hear a snap sound, A/T oil temp, brake, and the battery indicator all light up on the dash and I lose power steering. So I'm like sh|t, darn belt broke. Pulled over and called AAA and got towed to this small shop in Sturbridge. Pop the hood, I look down and see the belt loosely hanging there but its still in one piece, then I notice the tensioner pulley is missing...... darn thing fell off :furious: so the mechanic at the shop pulled it into the garage and luckily the splash guard caught the pulley along with the nut and the metal cap. The mechanic put the pulley back on for me and I made it to school but now the SES light is on and I'm also wondering if there was supposed to be anymore hardware besides just the pulley, nut, and that metal cap that might have gotten lost on the highway. Can't wait to call the dealer tomorrow and tell them they owe me $58 and maybe a new pulley assembly because of their "tech" who obviously forgot to tighten the pulley. Sorry for the long post, had to rant a bit....

 

Cliffs notes: Got belts replaced on my 01 Pathy at dealer last tuesday, yesterday on the highway tensioner pulley fell off, dealers "techs" are incompetent.

Edited by 01PathySE
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I'll second the "Dealership Techs Suck" motion. A while back I had one perform the 60k mile service on my truck, and they decided to tighten the oil pan drain plug with a freakin IMPACT WRENCH! :wacko: The dealership was in Rochester, NY, and I was in Jacksonville, FL when I discovered that this had happened, so I couldn't just bring it to them to rectify the situation (I was 1400 miles away and already overdue for an oil change!!) I called them and spoke with the general manager of the dealership, and he said "Get it fixed, and we'll reimburse you for the costs." Ok, no problem. I go down to the Nissan dealership in J-Ville, and they quote me $1100 to replace the oil pan!!!!! Figured out that you have to completely disassemble the front end including dropping the diff to replace it....I was like...there is NO WAY I'm letting a dealership do all that! I got it fixed and came out $250 up on the dealership. They refunded me for the cost of the work, plus the 60k service and threw in 2 new front axles. I guess lighting a fire under their arse by calling the NYS Attorney General and DMV got them moving...

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They probably stripped the threads out of the pan... drain plug takes no torque at all to snug up, just foolish (& lazy) for the mech to use a rattle gun on it in the first place. :crazy:

 

I ran into probs with the local Yota dealer when I took my Supra in to have the heater blower replaced. Got the car back & the power antenna wasn't working ~ the leads for it run through the same area under the dash, which I pointed out to them. The mech claimed that nothing for the antenna was in the area that he worked in (wrong, liar). They claimed no responsibility... "merely a coincidence" said the service manager. I ended up taking the CD player out & what do you know ? The switched lead had been torn loose. I'm contemplating sending them a freaking bill for my time & aggravation. :angry:

Edited by hardwaretoad
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vengeful,

$1100.00 to replace the oil pan? Dosn't it have have the lower oil pan like the 2001's? You can get a lower oil pan for around $60-90, just wondering? Anyway I 2nd. 3d , 4th and etc....not going to the dealer. I figure if they can't get the right amount of oil in my car, then they don't need to touch it.

Edited by Trialsin26
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An update on my situation: I called the dealer and told them about the pulley falling off and they agreed to cut me a check to reimburse me for having the other garage put the pulley back on for me. Dealer seems to think the SES light is related to something else which they said they wouldn't cover if it threw a code because they think its just a coincidence that it came on after the pulley came off..... Im going to head to autozone sometime and have them pull the code and see what happens.

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