Right To Repair

[scorpionsix]

Yep, here in the Vermont NEK the farmers were especially pissed about that. I'm so glad they can go back to repairing their own tractors.

I still remember years (decades) ago I had a 1980 Subaru GL and it needed some service that the owners manual actually stated a special tool was required and to take it to the dealership. I can see something like this at some point. Certain parts are constructed with what will almost be tamper resistant methods to "require" a trip to the dealership.

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[GinaC]

I still remember years (decades) ago I had a 1980 Subaru GL and it needed some service that the owners manual actually stated a special tool was required and to take it to the dealership. I can see something like this at some point. Certain parts are constructed with what will almost be tamper resistant methods to "require" a trip to the dealership.

Yeah, I remember being surprised when I found out that those panel pry tools were available for anyone to buy. (This was before Amazon.)

 

[alphawolff]

most dealership employ morons OR they dont pay much of anything to real mechanics and hence employ morons.

there just aren't enough techs left in the field these days. most shops are lucky to even have one genuine talented tech on staff. you can scream from the rooftops that xyz dealership doesn't know what they're doing, but you'll find most shops don't know what they're doing.

not really sure what the solution is here. the aftermarket shops have even less expertise usually. i focus on electrical issues as my forte and make an absolute killing diagnosing and repairing issues in minutes when your average tech would take hours. hell, most issues i can diagnose just from the repair order as i've seen it all already. there's good money in the field, but most guys never see it.

personally i'd only recommend a dealership visit if you've got some weird shit or heavy line work that needs done. even the less diagnostic inclined technicians have pulled the same cylinder head hundreds of time by this point. practice makes perfect and all that

 

[aeonixx1001]

Dealerships are fucking horrible. My 35 year old son has a Ram 1500. It is under warranty. The 4wd was not working. He took it to the local Ram dealership in Fayetteville North Carolina. They told him it was a $5000 repair and it was not under warranty because th the drive axle shaft was rusty. They charged him $300 to do the diagnostic for the truck. His truck has never off road. He take excellent care of his vehicle and it is super clean. He was at the dealership for 3 hours.

He calls me and tells me what the dealer hold him. The truck has about 48,000 miles on it and it is a 2023. So it is still under the drivetrain warranty and the corrosion warranty. Not that it is a corrosion warranty anyway.

I tell him to take it to a different dealership as it should be fully covered under warranty. He drove to different dealership. They looked at it for 15 minutes, and covered it under warranty with no out of pocket cost. It was not a $5,000 repair it was about $500 to replace a front axle shaft.

This is why dealerships don't get work. they can not be trusted. My son went back to the Fayetteville dealership and got his money back for the diagnostic charge and ripped the service manager a part.

Like fuck, dealership for maintenance. My Jeep came with three free oil changes. The first and second oil change, they put 6 pts in the Jeep that takes 5 qts. of oil. I did not use the 3rd free oil change. as I could not trust them. I went to change my oil and the drain plug was so tight, I had to put my Milwaukee 1/2 impact on the drain plug to remove it.

So trying to force me to use a dealership is a no go.

I dont trust Dealerships at all. They dont give a shit about your vehicle or how the repair is done. Most jobs have been more than sloppy and require some type of clean up. Here is the latest. Went in for a "Free" oil change. While watching through the window, the tech pops the hood and unscrews the oil filter. Normally this would be fine if the oil pan has been drained and the filter emptied, nope, fucking oil went everywhere. The worst thing on your engine is oil all over. They did a half assed job of cleaning it off( just wiped most of it off, it was still dripping) OMG I hit the ceiling, incompetent MF'ers. They had to steam clean the engine and ensure nothing got wet and still functioned properly. Dealership are training grounds for real mechanics, and they all have a shitty attitude because they dont make the money they should. Yes they had to keep it overnight and they didnt want to give me a loaner, I had to talk to the :Big: Manager, Dealerships are nothing more than an expensive money trap. I dont trust them.

 

[LSJKU]

I still remember years (decades) ago I had a 1980 Subaru GL and it needed some service that the owners manual actually stated a special tool was required and to take it to the dealership. I can see something like this at some point. Certain parts are constructed with what will almost be tamper resistant methods to "require" a trip to the dealership.

Everybody says this is coming to a dealer near you "soon." Well, it may be coming soon en-mass, but as your Subaru example above shows, this has literally been in the works for decades. Witness my experience below.

In 1989 I bought my wife a new Honda Accord off the dealer lot. Awesome car for the most part, it lasted over 250k miles between my wife and daughter. At the time I did most all the maintenance on our daily drivers and had my first project CJ-5 in parts. I had all the tools and my wife's Accord needed an oil/filter change, so I headed to the garage. Lo and behold my disappointment when I found the oil filter on the back of the engine, jammed up close and personal to the firewall! No way that rascal was coming out w/o some major work. I called the dealer service department and they confirmed the oil filter change required the motor mounts to be loosened and the motor angled to get the filter out. I never did one oil change on that vehicle. not because I wasn't willing to do it, but because I wasn't willing to do that much pre-work merely to change an oil filter. Talk about "tamper resistant...."

Maybe there was an easier way to remove the filter, but I never discovered it. The thought of bashing a workable dent in the firewall near the transmission tunnel as a permanent fix did cross my mind, but my wife never bought into that "fix."

edit - I'm getting old as father time himself, the mind must be going. I now cannot remember if it was her Honda Accord or her later Pilot, but it was a Honda for sure.

 

[LSJKU]

I dont trust Dealerships at all. They dont give a shit about your vehicle or how the repair is done. Most jobs have been more than sloppy and require some type of clean up. Here is the latest. Went in for a "Free" oil change. While watching through the window, the tech pops the hood and unscrews the oil filter. Normally this would be fine if the oil pan has been drained and the filter emptied, nope, fucking oil went everywhere. The worst thing on your engine is oil all over. They did a half assed job of cleaning it off( just wiped most of it off, it was still dripping) OMG I hit the ceiling, incompetent MF'ers. They had to steam clean the engine and ensure nothing got wet and still functioned properly. Dealership are training grounds for real mechanics, and they all have a shitty attitude because they dont make the money they should. Yes they had to keep it overnight and they didnt want to give me a loaner, I had to talk to the :Big: Manager, Dealerships are nothing more than an expensive money trap. I dont trust them.

I hear you, but some things cannot be done without dealership involvement. TSB's. recalls, major warranty work, etc, they all require dealership involvement. Buyer beware when selecting a dealership though. Be aware of your surroundings and proceed with your eyes wide open.

And never, ever buy an extended warranty from the dealer. It is designed to do two negative things very well: (1) it ties you into dealership service for a very long time, and; (2) it makes you worry every time you want to do a modification how that mod may affect your "extended warranty." Our Jeeps should be enjoyed, and not become a source of worry.

 

[Dusty Dude]

Everybody says this is coming to a dealer near you "soon." Well, it may be coming soon en-mass, but as your Subaru example above shows, this has literally been in the works for decades. Witness my experience below.

In 1989 I bought my wife a new Honda Accord off the dealer lot. Awesome car for the most part, it lasted over 250k miles between my wife and daughter. At the time I did most all the maintenance on our daily drivers and had my first project CJ-5 in parts. I had all the tools and my wife's Accord needed an oil/filter change, so I headed to the garage. Lo and behold my disappointment when I found the oil filter on the back of the engine, jammed up close and personal to the firewall! No way that rascal was coming out w/o some major work. I called the dealer service department and they confirmed the oil filter change required the motor mounts to be loosened and the motor angled to get the filter out. I never did one oil change on that vehicle. not because I wasn't willing to do it, but because I wasn't willing to do that much pre-work merely to change an oil filter. Talk about "tamper resistant...."

Maybe there was an easier way to remove the filter, but I never discovered it. The thought of bashing a workable dent in the firewall near the transmission tunnel as a permanent fix did cross my mind, but my wife never bought into that "fix."

edit - I'm getting old as father time himself, the mind must be going. I now cannot remember if it was her Honda Accord or her later Pilot, but it was a Honda for sure.

Anyone who designs something like that should be slapped, right along with their parents.

 

[iklo]

A dealer fucked up a tire rotation! Had to redo it, because what they did followed no pattern whatsoever (I had the wheels marked). So I got a free workout for myself after that freebe. Still have one left.

 

[AFD]

Once I took a look inside the engine bay of a Bronco, it was VERY obvious that Ford designed that engine bay with the purpose of discouraging owners from ever attempting to fix their own vehicles. It literally looks like you need a GPS and coordinates to find engine parts inside.

What, you don't like playing Tetris? Their 2.7L EcoToot bay looks like it was designed by someone that *really* just didn't give af at work that day

 

[LSJKU]

What, you don't like playing Tetris? Their 2.7L EcoToot bay looks like it was designed by someone that *really* just didn't give af at work that day

I'm looking at the photo and thinking... "well, where's the engine?"

 

[LSJKU]

A dealer fucked up a tire rotation! Had to redo it, because what they did followed no pattern whatsoever (I had the wheels marked). So I got a free workout for myself after that freebe. Still have one left.

Well, you need to educate that dealer. Ask him to just repeat "back to front, front to back" when he is rotating your tires on the next freebie.

 

[aeonixx1001]

Whoooaaaa, thats 10 lbs of shit stuffed into a 5 lb bag isn't it...

 

[Ratbert]

Well, you need to educate that dealer. Ask him to just repeat "back to front, front to back" when he is rotating your tires on the next freebie.

Ignoring the spare and its 20% of your tread?

 

[LSJKU]

Ignoring the spare and its 20% of your tread?

No, I did not want to get too specific with the technicians. Some owners do, some don't. I do rotate my spare into the mix.

If I included the spare in the rotation sequence, no way the technician would remember a multi-step mantra. He would probably end up putting every tire on the carrier at some point in the process. So I applied the KISS theory, leaving the spare decision to each owner.

I apologize to all tire technicians out there for the lack of specificity and clarity I displayed above.

 

[JeepinPete]

Whoooaaaa, thats 10 lbs of shit stuffed into a 5 lb bag isn't it...

I'm an engineer. That is just piss poor design. I do 99% of my own automotive work, and I have worked on Fords in the past. Won't touch them anymore. That's not to say Jeep is much better. But a Bronco has a normal size engine bay, no reason for that spaghetti.

Once upon a time I had a '06 GTO. GM had it right back then. Cleanest engine bay I have seen on anything made in the last 40 years. Car itself wasn't great. Bought it used at 20k miles, pretty certain the prior owner had beat the hell out of it. Ended up needing the trans and rear diff replaced under warranty. Helluva road trip car though, it would eat up the miles.

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