330 miles added to a brand new Glad

[ahr6912]

In my case, the MIL (engine light) came on around 515 miles. There was no noise or issue apparent to me.

I brought it in to the servicing dealer the next day. They had it for 14 days. I called many times during those days to check on my brand new Jeep Gladiator ‘22.
During one of those calls the service advisor informed me of another vehicle matching mine that had the same issues.

Later on that first week he told me its engine was going to be replaced and I was looking at the same issue. Since the chief tech now had the vehicle due to no clear cause of the malfunction from the other techs. They were now in contact with FCA star techs. The service adviser actually called me on Friday asking if it was ok to take home the vehicle for the weekend to try and duplicate a “ misfiring engine”. I agreed. Yet, I informed him that the Uconnect app on my phone gave me a triggered alert, “powertrain” not a misfire. I also got that message in an email from Jeep service.

I called first thing after that weekend, the service advisor told me the vehicle is ready for pickup, and that there were an additional 333 miles added to the odometer. I was in shock, he added that he took it home once (60 miles) and the chief tech the rest on the miles.

I used the Uconnect/Mopar app to locate the vehicle of which the only location was the service advisor's home, not the bulk of the miles driven. Stange how the location app only recorded the service advisor's mileage and not the chief techs.

I picked up the vehicle during a nasty rain in which I looked for dents or damage. I then noticed the gas gauge. Empty. After filling it up $83 later. I called him back and asked why didn't they return my vehicle with the gas level in which they received it when I dropped it off. (Only 1.3 gal. remained) He said they don't get reimbursed from the factory. (FCA).

When I finally got a hold of the service manager to get answers, he said he'd check into it. Never got a return call. Filed a complaint with FCA jeep customer care. Thoughts?

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[j.o.y.ride]

In my case, the MIL (engine light) came on around 515 miles. There was no noise or issue apparent to me. I brought it in to the servicing dealer the next day. They had it for 14 days. I called many times during those days to check on my brand new Jeep Gladiator ‘22. During one of those calls the service advisor informed me of another vehicle matching mine that had the same issues. Later on that first week he told me its engine was going to be replaced and I was looking at the same issue. Since the chief tech now had the vehicle due to no clear cause of the malfunction from the other techs. They were now in contact with FCA star techs. The service adviser actually called me on Friday asking if it was ok to take home the vehicle for the weekend to try and duplicate a “ misfiring engine”. I agreed. Yet, I informed him that the Uconnect app on my phone gave me a triggered alert, “powertrain” not a misfire. I also got that message in an email from Jeep service. I called first thing after that weekend, the service advisor told me the vehicle is ready for pickup, and that there were an additional 333 miles added to the odometer. I was in shock, he added that he took it home once (60 miles) and the chief tech the rest on the miles. I used the Uconnect/Mopar app to locate the vehicle of which the only location was the service advisor's home, not the bulk of the miles driven. Stange how the location app only recorded the service advisor's mileage and not the chief techs. I picked up the vehicle during a nasty rain in which I looked for dents or damage. I then noticed the gas gauge. Empty. After filling it up $83 later. I called him back and asked why didn't they return my vehicle with the gas level in which they received it when I dropped it off. (Only 1.3 gal. remained) He said they don't get reimbursed from the factory. (FCA). When I finally got a hold of the service manager to get answers, he said he'd check into it. Never got a return call. Filed a complaint with FCA jeep customer care. Thoughts?

 

[Hootbro]

Thoughts?

Did you post about this in another thread?

I got nothing other than you are right to be pissed but you did agree for them to take it home and extended drive it for monitoring. Did they abuse that, probably but other than what you have already done, there going to give corporate a story it was necessary.

 

[jeepers29]

I would expect that truck to be returned full and nothing less.

 

[Barnaby’sdad]

On the mileage…they may have had an issue duplicating the problem. Not sure that I’d complain about that.

On the empty fuel take…that’s just a dick move on their part.

My 3.6 JTR has some kind of sporadic misfiring issue (first popped up around 900 miles). I’ve only seen a CEL twice and it doesn’t store the code(s), so I haven’t run it to the dealer yet. I don’t want to just have someone run around with it, put on a bunch of miles, and tell me they weren’t able to duplicate the issue.

 

[ahr6912]

Better? God knows everonevhates run on sentences...

 

[ahr6912]

I would expect that truck to be returned full and nothing less.

Thanks for that, I agree.

 

[ahr6912]

Did you post about this in another thread?

I got nothing other than you are right to be pissed but you did agree for them to take it home and extended drive it for monitoring. Did they abuse that, probably but other than what you have already done, there going to give corporate a story it was necessary.

Yep I did post it under the thought yhat a brand new truck newed an engine.

 

[ahr6912]

Did you post about this in another thread?

I got nothing other than you are right to be pissed but you did agree for them to take it home and extended drive it for monitoring. Did they abuse that, probably but other than what you have already done, there going to give corporate a story it was necessary.

I believe there is a difference between a test drive and a vacation/holiday.

I've had the truck since 3/15/22.

They managed to add 330+ miles in the span of two days. And steal all that fuel. Let along never even cleaned out all the footprints from the dash, sand in the truck, passage seat misaligned from original positioning.

Seriously, got to find a new service dealer or sell this.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I believe there is a difference between a test drive and a vacation/holiday.

I've had the truck since 3/15/22.

They managed to add 330+ miles in the span of two days. And steal all that fuel. Let along never even cleaned out all the footprints from the dash, sand in the truck, passage seat misaligned from original positioning.

Seriously, got to find a new service dealer or sell this.

You did give then permission to drive it to try to find the issue. You placed no limit and no expectations were ever discussed.
The location thing isn't live - and if there wasn't great cell reception where it was, then it won't track it. It's not a live GPS recording device.
I've been in the business for decades - and I've been given permission to drive vehicles to find problems. I would always ensure the same amount of fuel was in it that it arrive with IF I was using it to get me any place. If I was strictly spending an hour or two driving it through the day to try to duplicate an issue, then it's part of the cost of diagnosing. I'd only replace fuel if I used it to get me home for lunch, to a diner for lunch, or home after hours and back the next day - then I was using it as transportation. Otherwise, miles placed on it were not for personal use but for troubleshooting.
It should always be returned at least as clean as it was dropped off - no matter what the issue. If it's there for a simple task, it should be returned at least as clean as when it arrived.
Getting a truck back that's more dirty is a bad thing.
I guess that's how I've always done things - I used to do work on IHP cars - one of the troopers would arrive to pick up his car, get his white gloves out of the glove box and proceeded to put them on and wipe his hands over the door handles, steering wheel and other areas of the car......I am not kidding. The glass had to be spotless, no finger prints on door handles or any trim or knobs. *(and for some reason, I was generally assigned his car to work on. A clue, maybe?)

Frankly, based on my experience as a tech, and my experience with vehicles that mis-behave until taken to the doctor, I'd be thrilled if anyone actually DID drive my vehicle to honestly try to duplicate a problem. I had a Cherokee years ago with a weird issue that was hard to describe. I took it back to the dealer 3 times and each time I said PLEASE PLEASE drive this thing! I don't care where to or for how long - drive it, take it home..... 2 times, they didn't - they did only simple test drives and it was returned to me only to misbehave a day later once fully warmed up and having driven it for 30 minutes or so.
The third time, another tech worked on it and he did drive it home for lunch, back and forth to work and he caught it in the act - and fixed it.
I was thrilled that they actually did drive it and use it like any customer would.
Last time my Gladiator went in, I was real happy to get it back with a bit over 25 extra miles on it. Yeah, I was happy they actually drove it this time and put some miles on it.
You can't pull a vehicle into a stall, start it and let it idle and find every problem.

Being dirty, that's inexcusable, but the miles - too much is unknown, and, was there any expectation other than customer wants problem found and fixed or else?

I guess I approach things differently having been on both sides of the fence, and sometimes straddling it trying to stay out of the mud (or get gored by the bull on the other side)

 

[punk'n]

333 miles to diagnose sounds like too much to me. Did they ever fix anything? If not, it sounds like someone needed a vehicle for a few days. There is no way I'd be happy letting them drive for 333 miles with no diagnoses or repair.

The fact they they used it to drive to their house and not refuel is also unacceptable. If they drove it during business hours to diagnose fine. But, you should not be paying for their commute or pleasure rides (I believe you mentioned passenger seat was moved and sand in the back?)

 

[KevinC]

Do you have a right to be concerned and upset with the events you mentioned? Yes. And I would be as well if it happened to me.

Is anything going to be done? Probably not. If you get a $25 Visa card from them it might be best to call it good and move on. You will be fighting a losing battle.

KevinC

 

[Jefe1018]

Did you take it to them with a full tank?

 

[sharpsicle]

What's the real issue you're trying to solve here? Is it the miles they drove to try and replicate the issue? Or is it the "lost gas"? To be honest I can see the "I wish I had the same gas in the tank" comment, but that's it. In all honesty, though, that's a small price to pay for doing what they could to make sure the MIL didn't come back before returning it to you. Most shops would say "cleared the code, didn't return" and returned it immediately rather than taking the time running it and actually trying to make it come back. How they drove it or where they went is useless speculation unless you have hard evidence of shop misconduct.

You talked through this in your original thread here:
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/engine-replace-after-525-miles.58633/
Why not keep all your info in one place? It looks like they tried everything they could to replicate the issue so they didn't give it back to you with the same problem.

If they barely used any gas and only drove it 20 miles, I'm sure you'd be complaining about that too. So what was the expectation here?

Having worked in repair shops in the past, I'm getting strong feelings of this:

 

[ahr6912]

r

You did give then permission to drive it to try to find the issue. You placed no limit and no expectations were ever discussed.
The location thing isn't live - and if there wasn't great cell reception where it was, then it won't track it. It's not a live GPS recording device.
I've been in the business for decades - and I've been given permission to drive vehicles to find problems. I would always ensure the same amount of fuel was in it that it arrive with IF I was using it to get me any place. If I was strictly spending an hour or two driving it through the day to try to duplicate an issue, then it's part of the cost of diagnosing. I'd only replace fuel if I used it to get me home for lunch, to a diner for lunch, or home after hours and back the next day - then I was using it as transportation. Otherwise, miles placed on it were not for personal use but for troubleshooting.
It should always be returned at least as clean as it was dropped off - no matter what the issue. If it's there for a simple task, it should be returned at least as clean as when it arrived.
Getting a truck back that's more dirty is a bad thing.
I guess that's how I've always done things - I used to do work on IHP cars - one of the troopers would arrive to pick up his car, get his white gloves out of the glove box and proceeded to put them on and wipe his hands over the door handles, steering wheel and other areas of the car......I am not kidding. The glass had to be spotless, no finger prints on door handles or any trim or knobs. *(and for some reason, I was generally assigned his car to work on. A clue, maybe?)

Frankly, based on my experience as a tech, and my experience with vehicles that mis-behave until taken to the doctor, I'd be thrilled if anyone actually DID drive my vehicle to honestly try to duplicate a problem. I had a Cherokee years ago with a weird issue that was hard to describe. I took it back to the dealer 3 times and each time I said PLEASE PLEASE drive this thing! I don't care where to or for how long - drive it, take it home..... 2 times, they didn't - they did only simple test drives and it was returned to me only to misbehave a day later once fully warmed up and having driven it for 30 minutes or so.
The third time, another tech worked on it and he did drive it home for lunch, back and forth to work and he caught it in the act - and fixed it.
I was thrilled that they actually did drive it and use it as any customer would.
The last time my Gladiator went in, I was really happy to get it back with a bit over 25 extra miles on it. Yeah, I was happy they actually drove it this time and put some miles on it.
You can't pull a vehicle into a stall, start it and let it idle and find every problem.

Being dirty, that's inexcusable, but the miles - too much is unknown, and, was there any expectation other than the customer wants the problem found and fixed or else?

I guess I approach things differently having been on both sides of the fence, and sometimes straddling it trying to stay out of the mud (or get gored by the bull on the other side)

I got it, I guess in retrospect it may be OK to test to drive the car because the service advisor asked if it was ok to drive it to determine the trouble. The term in law, " reasonable expectations" is how we are judged by our actions or lack thereof and when visited by a prudent person is asked their interpretation of the occurrence in question. Again, 333 miles is not required to test a misfire. Gas should be replaced per the factory, and clean as it was brought in. Anything else is simply BS. THANKS.

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