Yeah! What he said.
But seriously, I've only had my oil changed at a dealership once and they
put too much in. I've done the rest of them ever since. I have a very good
relationship with my service writer (we autoX race together) and he takes
the truck about once every 6 months to give it the once over for me. They
even took it and replaced whole bunches of stuff at 35K for me so that most
of the wearable items would be replaced before warranty expired. They all
know me by name in there...I haven't decided if that's a bad thing yet...
My point is, just talk to them and have them take care of the little things
for ya and build a working relationship and you'll be fine. They've helped
me with many of my modifications and tuning and stuff. They even installed
my Hotchkis kit and aligned the truck to my custom specs.
-- - Josh Lowered 2000 Dakota CC 3.9L<Tubamirbls@aol.com> wrote in message news:1ec.89003d6.2bf00c18@aol.com... > > Hi Jud > It's been my experience with important warranties that if the need to > invoke it occurs it's important to have pre-established a level of trust with > the party that will do the warranty service. With today's motor vehicles it > is absolutely critical that their owners live up to warranty terms and > conditions. Same of course goes for the dealer when it comes to honoring the > warranty. However, if you've done exactly what the manufacturer requires, > have a warranty-covered problem, and the dealer gives you the run-around, > your recourse lies with the manufacturer, after all, he's the one who's > written it and will stand the cost of making his product right. > You can exceed the warranty requirements if you so choose, example is > doing oil and oil filter changes at smaller mileage or time intervals than > the warranty states. You might be throwing money away to do so but, > conversely, it makes an undeniable statement to the manufacturer in the > event you have a problem and your end, so far as required preventative > maintenance is concerned, is in question. > Today's vehicles are the most sophisticatedly complex ever built yet > they are turning in an almost astonishingly good record where frequency of > repairs are concerned. We can take this trend or condition to mean that > unless we mistreat today's vehicle, it should provide long and solid service > assuming we also follow whatever maintenance is required. > If your driving falls under the manufacturer's maintenance plan > requiring oil and oil filter changes @ 7,500 mi intervals and you want to do > these at fewer miles, that's up to you. Record all maintenance info, and if > the work was not done by your dealer (who will have in Chrysler's national > computer memory your service record of work done in a Dodge shop anywhere), > then keep an accurate paper trail, be that sales checks for stuff you bought > and installed yourself, or invoices for service performed by outlets other > than your dealer. If you have a claim and the dealer gives you static with > this situation, appeal to the regional Chrysler staff. If they reject you, > most states have consumer protection legal routes you can take. It's > important that you look good so far as doing all that was required. > Finally, I think it makes good sense during the 7/70 period that you > periodically take your truck to Dodge for an oil change or any of those > periodic service functions advertised in those mailings the factory send you. > If you want to do 3,000 mi oil changes, then do your own @ 3-6-9,000 and @ > 12,000, (or at least once per calendar year, whichever comes first) take it > to your dealer. It looks good in the event of a disputable warranty problem > that you at least gave his service department that much biz and if you're > using Mobil One and he doesn't stock it, bring your own oil along. > > Paul Sahlin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:46:19 EST