How Stellantis Destroyed Jeep (YouTube Video)

TJMexico said:
I watched a video from a mechanic who took in a late model (it was either current or previous year) Dodge Ram that would run 30 miles and shut off, then restart after a rest. Dealer and several mechanics had been unable to find the issue.

He located a short in the wires going to the rear right tail light. The short had messed up the ECU (or whatever the hell they call them now days). By the time he had it all fixed, the cost (including new ECU, fixing the short, parts, labor) came to over $5,000. And that's not including what the owner had paid other shops to look for the issue.

$5,000 damned dollars for a short in the tail light. I guess that's what they call progress now.
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I get a call one day from someone who knows we are pretty good at fixing the difficult stuff asking if we would be willing to take a look at a rig that had been out of commission for a year while the owner had thrown every internet fix at it possible including all the sensors, PCM, OPDA, pulled the head, and all manner of other bullshit because the internet told him it was the problem. It had a continual crank no start condition and would throw O2 sensor codes if it fired off before dying only to not restart.

I told him sure, we can fix it, it won't be cheap and it won't be easy. Well, he has a lot of money invested in building his rig and he doesn't want that to go to waste. Fine, drop it off.

Per usual, go through the basics and don't guess. If you don't know it is good, swap in a known good part. 3500 dollars later and a new PCM we had it running.

We went through every harness and found where he had mounted a solenoid in front of the tail gate and put a screw through the sensor wire in a harness which would drag the PCM down and eventually take it out.

We've fixed several like that, it is never cheap and the owners will say anything to get you to work on it and across the board they all have a similar reaction to your response above when it comes time to pay the bill. My answer is always the same, if you or anyone else could have fixed it, you wouldn't have brought it to me. And I always have to make the same deal, we don't fix it, you don't owe me a dime. If I do though, you pay me for every minute we spent on it. Using your logic, we got paid 3500 to pull a screw and patch a wire. Nope, we got paid 3500 because no one else could find that screw and we did.

We did another one where the owner told us if we couldn't fix it we were his last hope since it had been to 3 dealerships and 5 shops who all threw in the towel on getting it to pass smog. I don't blame them, no one knew to look for a speedo correction device than never dropped below 1-2 mph at key on. That fools the system into thinking that the motor has never been shut down so it can't run any of the monitor tests. We found it, fixed it, and then all he wanted to do was snivel about the price. Same deal, no fix, no pay. I called him and told him I have good news and bad news. The good news is we fixed it, bad news it he has to pay us for every minute we spent on it. He was a lot more sad than I expected him to be.
 
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mrblaine said:
I get a call one day from someone who knows we are pretty good at fixing the difficult stuff asking if we would be willing to take a look at a rig that had been out of commission for a year while the owner had thrown every internet fix at it possible including all the sensors, PCM, OPDA, pulled the head, and all manner of other bullshit because the internet told him it was the problem. It had a continual crank no start condition and would throw O2 sensor codes if it fired off before dying only to not restart.

I told him sure, we can fix it, it won't be cheap and it won't be easy. Well, he has a lot of money invested in building his rig and he doesn't want that to go to waste. Fine, drop it off.

Per usual, go through the basics and don't guess. If you don't know it is good, swap in a known good part. 3500 dollars later and a new PCM we had it running.

We went through every harness and found where he had mounted a solenoid in front of the tail gate and put a screw through the sensor wire in a harness which would drag the PCM down and eventually take it out.

We've fixed several like that, it is never cheap and the owners will say anything to get you to work on it and across the board they all have a similar reaction to your response above when it comes time to pay the bill. My answer is always the same, if you or anyone else could have fixed it, you wouldn't have brought it to me. And I always have to make the same deal, we don't fix it, you don't owe me a dime. If I do though, you pay me for every minute we spent on it. Using your logic, we got paid 3500 to pull a screw and patch a wire. Nope, we got paid 3500 because no one else could find that screw and we did.

We did another one where the owner told us if we couldn't fix it we were his last hope since it had been to 3 dealerships and 5 shops who all threw in the towel on getting it to pass smog. I don't blame them, no one knew to look for a speedo correction device than never dropped below 1-2 mph at key on. That fools the system into thinking that the motor has never been shut down so it can't run any of the monitor tests. We found it, fixed it, and then all he wanted to do was snivel about the price. Same deal, no fix, no pay. I called him and told him I have good news and bad news. The good news is we fixed it, bad news it he has to pay us for every minute we spent on it. He was a lot more sad than I expected him to be.
Click to expand...

Wow. Did they pay you?

Do you remember whose speedo corrector it was? Hopefully, it isn't the one I have!
 
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mrblaine said:
I get a call one day from someone who knows we are pretty good at fixing the difficult stuff asking if we would be willing to take a look at a rig that had been out of commission for a year while the owner had thrown every internet fix at it possible including all the sensors, PCM, OPDA, pulled the head, and all manner of other bullshit because the internet told him it was the problem. It had a continual crank no start condition and would throw O2 sensor codes if it fired off before dying only to not restart.

I told him sure, we can fix it, it won't be cheap and it won't be easy. Well, he has a lot of money invested in building his rig and he doesn't want that to go to waste. Fine, drop it off.

Per usual, go through the basics and don't guess. If you don't know it is good, swap in a known good part. 3500 dollars later and a new PCM we had it running.

We went through every harness and found where he had mounted a solenoid in front of the tail gate and put a screw through the sensor wire in a harness which would drag the PCM down and eventually take it out.

We've fixed several like that, it is never cheap and the owners will say anything to get you to work on it and across the board they all have a similar reaction to your response above when it comes time to pay the bill. My answer is always the same, if you or anyone else could have fixed it, you wouldn't have brought it to me. And I always have to make the same deal, we don't fix it, you don't owe me a dime. If I do though, you pay me for every minute we spent on it. Using your logic, we got paid 3500 to pull a screw and patch a wire. Nope, we got paid 3500 because no one else could find that screw and we did.

We did another one where the owner told us if we couldn't fix it we were his last hope since it had been to 3 dealerships and 5 shops who all threw in the towel on getting it to pass smog. I don't blame them, no one knew to look for a speedo correction device than never dropped below 1-2 mph at key on. That fools the system into thinking that the motor has never been shut down so it can't run any of the monitor tests. We found it, fixed it, and then all he wanted to do was snivel about the price. Same deal, no fix, no pay. I called him and told him I have good news and bad news. The good news is we fixed it, bad news it he has to pay us for every minute we spent on it. He was a lot more sad than I expected him to be.
Click to expand...

How long did it take you guys to figure out that it was that screw? How did you track it down?
 
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Chris said:
How long did it take you guys to figure out that it was that screw?
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Took about a half hour to find the screw. Took about 2 1/2 days of going through the basics to make sure it was all good.
Chris said:
How did you track it down?
Click to expand...
After we checked the basics, harness known bad places, OPDA timing, O2 sensors, O2 sensor heater circuit TSB, etc., we swapped in a known good PCM, got it to start, run, and then drive, but a short drive smoked the O2 sensor circuit. That's when we started looking for something intermittent like a harness rubbing on something sharp that would get bounce around. Found it back by the right side tail light. But hey, we're just techs trying to fuck over the customer, right?
 
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Zorba said:
Wow. Did they pay you?
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I thought that was pretty clear, no? They always pay. They aren't happy, they snivel, but they always pay.
Zorba said:
Do you remember whose speedo corrector it was? Hopefully, it isn't the one I have!
Click to expand...
Spend a bit less time bitching about smart phones. I wrote it up on here very clearly. Jet does not give a shit about their product problems.
 
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I love how Rich Rebuilds is "reviving" ten year old abandoned EVs.

And they'll still be doing yank and cranks on YouTube...the old cars will still be around just 100 years old.

-Mac
 
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mrblaine said:
You have a short grace period to go remove that face palm or wind up on my blocked list faster than you can type smartphone. I don't tolerate that shit at all.
Click to expand...

Ok buddy - so this is how you treat a loyal customer? I have purchased from you (multiple times), talked you up, etc, etc - and your fragile ego just cannot stand to have someone disagree with you. Fine - FUCK YOU. I'm done with you - just because you're very knowledgeable does NOT give you license to abuse the entire fucking forum, and Goddess only knows who else . I wouldn't treat a rabid dog the way you treat people here. You don't "tolerate that shit at all"? I'm done tolerating YOUR shit, and won't stand to be threatened - you were looking for a fight, and you got one. Make it a two sided block, I'm tired of reading your put-downs to damn near EVERYBODY"S innocent questions, and treating EVERYONE here like shit. I don't know how the hell you stay in business. The BMB sticker is coming off my Jeep as soon as I get out there with a razor blade. I'm done.
 
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Zorba said:
Ok buddy - so this is how you treat a loyal customer? I have purchased from you (multiple times), talked you up, etc, etc - and your fragile ego just cannot stand to have someone disagree with you. Fine - FUCK YOU. I'm done with you - just because you're very knowledgeable does NOT give you license to abuse the entire fucking forum, and Goddess only knows who else . I wouldn't treat a rabid dog the way you treat people here. You don't "tolerate that shit at all"? I'm done tolerating YOUR shit, and won't stand to be threatened - you were looking for a fight, and you got one. Make it a two sided block, I'm tired of reading your put-downs to damn near EVERYBODY"S innocent questions, and treating EVERYONE here like shit. I don't know how the hell you stay in business. The BMB sticker is coming off my Jeep as soon as I get out there with a razor blade. I'm done.
Click to expand...

You going to go all the way and remove all the BMB parts too, right? Be done done, no half measures.
 
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Joined a local group here recently (Central NJ) and a lot of JL owners and 2 Gladiator owners have had start failures, dash gremlins and random shut-offs happen to them. I think most of the JK's are sorted though one of them had a front axel failure recently, which reminds me that the axel on a JL had to be replaced too. So yes, major issues and not cheap to repair. Total turds IMO. Even my JKU. It's been relatively reliable but I dont use it every day and I still have a finicky CEL for small evap a leak.
 
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fourpointzero said:
Joined a local group here recently (Central NJ) and a lot of JL owners and 2 Gladiator owners have had start failures, dash gremlins and random shut-offs happen to them. I think most of the JK's are sorted though one of them had a front axel failure recently, which reminds me that the axel on a JL had to be replaced too. So yes, major issues and not cheap to repair. Total turds IMO. Even my JKU. It's been relatively reliable but I dont use it every day and I still have a finicky CEL for small evap a leak.
Click to expand...

We used to get that evap leak in our 2016 JKU all the time too. For us, it's been the fuel cap o-ring seal every time. We replaced the cap once, but we just started wiping the o-ring off every time we fuel and the problem doesn't come back until someone forgets a few fill ups in a row. We have also had a recurring issue with one of the tank vent lines plugging up and creating that wonderful (turn the nozzle upside down) slow fill issue
 

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