My dakota POS! - Long

From: Ken Allgood (kenallgood@home.com)
Date: Sat Dec 09 2000 - 02:29:37 EST


Ok, now that I got your attention, let me vent my frustrations on you guys.
1st, I have a 97CC SLT 5.2L. Have had it JUST over a year (bought it last
Thanksgiving with 54k miles). If you remember, last week I was having heat
problems. Replaced Radiator cap and tstat, and had what was apparently
orange coolant. Well, truck ran fine for about..ohhhh. 2 days... So here
I am, truck had been running around 170 water temp the last 2 days.. now, I
see my temp rising, not even a mile from home where I had just left...
I'm watching it.. gets to about 200.....210....220 all in about 20
seconds.. I'm thinking wtf?!?!?! I'm at a stoplight, and I see, yes,
smoke coming from my hood.. So I quickly pull over, and take a look over
(and its dark outside). Pop my hood, can't exactly see where smoke is
coming from, can just tell from the passenger side in the back of the
engine.. get on my knees.. ahhh damnit, coolant leaking like a SOB! so I
let it sit there for a min, and I'm pretty much in a rush to get somewhere.
So hop back in my truck, and get it back home safe and sound, and glad it
didn't overheat/sieze on me (coasted the last 1/2 mile in neutral with
engine off in my neighberhood). So, I get it towed to the dealer, and he
calls me today. And here's the story. Coolant is rusted, caused waterpump
to leak. but that's the least of my worries cause one of my Freeze Plugs is
rusted out so bad, it MUST be replaced. Waterpump is covered by my great
extended warrenty, that I have to pay $100 deductable. But Lo and behold,
my freeze plug is NOT covered.. total cost you ask?? $976.. but WAIT!! it
gets better... my other freeze plugs are rusted too!!! they could go any
day or in 2 years, who knows. Replace them now or pay a bigger fee later on
cause they WILL need to be replaced, so i'm told. Well, how much can that
be? Get out the checkbook, that just added $700 to the bill!! My total
bill is coming out to about $1700. it's going to be waterpump, Freeze
plugs, gasket package (they have to take off cylinder head to replace freeze
plugs???), flush coolant system to get rid of rusty coolant, oil change, and
they have to do a state inspection..
FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
still got another 4 years to pay on this thing!! ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH

Don't get me wrong, I love my truck to death. But this is the 3rd time it's
been in to the dealer in the 1 year I've had it, and it only has 73k mies on
it. I have a 90 Ford Probe I've had for 4 years, and it was only to the
dealer for, you guessed it, recall, but at least that was covered!!! I've
only spent maybe $500 in total repair bills on my Probe in those 4 years,
and I drive the hell out of it.

  Oh, and yes, my coolant was checked during my state inspection about 4
months ago and was fine, so no negliagance on my part as far as I can tell.
If it's my stupidity, fine, I can handle that. I can fix my stupid
mistakes. But this happening like this with apparently nothing of my
doing.... well, just frustrating.

Hey Ted O., how's that 00 Lightning doing? Come on up here to Newport News
and give me a looksee :)

Truck will be done Tuesday, we'll see how everything goes then... until
then, I'm one depressed dog

Ken Allgood
97 CC SLT 5.2L



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