Dealership Difficulties

[BalancedPete]

My 2020 Overland is at my local dealership currently for a couple issues. Let me know what you think.

1. Some decent vibrations have started while hitting highway speeds.
- I'm thinking this is either the U-joint is worn out or, a weight came off the driveshaft. I plow with my Jeep, and feel the vibrations a lot more when the plow is hooked on.

2. My heater starts blowing cool air after about 20-30 minutes of driving. This has been since I bought it.
-The dealership found the coolant was low, and topped it off. Tech ran the heat and said it was good. We'll see how it performs once I get it back.

3. Biggest issue: It randomly won't start. This is a new problem, and has happened 3 time in the last 2 weeks. Most recently yesterday when I was supposed to drive it to the dealership for all this.
-The dealership called and said they couldn't communicate with the ODB due to my Tazer, and they had to push it out into the parking lot as it wouldn't start again. The Tazer is my fault, totally forgot I even had that on there. Went to the dealership and "un-married" the Tazer. Still can't get the jeep out of park.

Talking things through with the service guys, they are trying to blame all of this on the various mods I've got.
-Mopar 2" lift
-35" Tires
-Tazer Mini
-Plow setup
-Power Window Closer Module Kit
-Aftermarket shifter knob.

The one guy was really blaming it on the shifter knob!!!

I suspect the main problem was just the Tazer, but just to make sure there wouldn't be any other electrical issues they could blame, I disconnected the window closer module as it connects in behind the dash.

When I was supposed to drive it to the dealership and it wouldn't start for me. I immediately called AAA for a battery jump service. The AAA tech checked the battery and found it good and fully charged. He had me try starting, and of course it fired right up.

At the dealership, they pulled both the main and auxiliary batteries (per their procedures) and tested both. Both batteries tested fine/good, and they reinstalled them. Thats when they couldn't get it started, so pushed it out into a parking spot. Then they found it locked into Park.

Does this sound like the dreaded auxiliary battery failure thing, or maybe something else is going on???

Sponsored

 

[Commodus]

My 2020 Overland is at my local dealership currently for a couple issues. Let me know what you think.

1. Some decent vibrations have started while hitting highway speeds.
- I'm thinking this is either the U-joint is worn out or, a weight came off the driveshaft. I plow with my Jeep, and feel the vibrations a lot more when the plow is hooked on.

2. My heater starts blowing cool air after about 20-30 minutes of driving. This has been since I bought it.
-The dealership found the coolant was low, and topped it off. Tech ran the heat and said it was good. We'll see how it performs once I get it back.

3. Biggest issue: It randomly won't start. This is a new problem, and has happened 3 time in the last 2 weeks. Most recently yesterday when I was supposed to drive it to the dealership for all this.
-The dealership called and said they couldn't communicate with the ODB due to my Tazer, and they had to push it out into the parking lot as it wouldn't start again. The Tazer is my fault, totally forgot I even had that on there. Went to the dealership and "un-married" the Tazer. Still can't get the jeep out of park.

Talking things through with the service guys, they are trying to blame all of this on the various mods I've got.
-Mopar 2" lift
-35" Tires
-Tazer Mini
-Plow setup
-Power Window Closer Module Kit
-Aftermarket shifter knob.

The one guy was really blaming it on the shifter knob!!!

I suspect the main problem was just the Tazer, but just to make sure there wouldn't be any other electrical issues they could blame, I disconnected the window closer module as it connects in behind the dash.

When I was supposed to drive it to the dealership and it wouldn't start for me. I immediately called AAA for a battery jump service. The AAA tech checked the battery and found it good and fully charged. He had me try starting, and of course it fired right up.

At the dealership, they pulled both the main and auxiliary batteries (per their procedures) and tested both. Both batteries tested fine/good, and they reinstalled them. Thats when they couldn't get it started, so pushed it out into a parking spot. Then they found it locked into Park.

Does this sound like the dreaded auxiliary battery failure thing, or maybe something else is going on???

It amazes me how many people mod their vehicles then expect warranty to sort out the complaints. Any one that changes a factory part for a different aftermarket part or adds equipment that doesn’t come stock takes their warranty into their own hands.

 

[JTenn]

It amazes me how many people mod their vehicles then expect warranty to sort out the complaints. Any one that changes a factory part for a different aftermarket part or adds equipment that doesn’t come stock takes their warranty into their own hands.

Although I do agree with you, I wouldn't even think of taking my truck in for warrenty work or a claim with all the mods I've done, but maybe I missed something in the post. I didn't see any mention of this being warranty work on his truck. That being said, the dealership is the last place I would go for service or any kind of major work.

 

[ALT2870]

The Tazer is just going to bend you over backwards if they are looking at anything electric related. Power window module probably also didn't help. The plow is most likely the cause of complaint number one. We run F series trucks and even their front ends get beat up after a couple of years.

The Mopar lift? Come on man, that is petty on their part since, gee, it comes from them and warrantied by them. I guess they could go after the 35's somewhat fairly though they would sell a truck with them on to you in a heartbeat.

Best option at this point is to probably unhook any modifications that are electric (and to be fair could be causing the issues) and take it to another dealer.

 

[Hootbro]

Dealerships for warranty work most times have to start with "as built" base to move forward with troubleshooting and working back possible warranty claim issues.

You have done enough to it, that I would also push back that to work it, will be a over and above customer charge to eliminate what you have done before figuring out if you have actual warranty billable work.

 

[sharpsicle]

First, none of us here are going to be able to tell you exactly what your problems are. We can guess in the right general direction based on our impressions, but diagnosis and trial-and-error are going to be what you need. Especially when a lot of things have been added to the equation that absolutely could impact all of the above. This includes suspecting the aux battery is bad. It does no good to just throw things at the wall hoping one sticks, and it's even worse to make guesses based on internet lore rather than real troubleshooting.

The vibrations could be a lot of things, from unbalanced wheels to worn linkages or bushings to suspension issues. Heck, it may be as simple as things needing to be re-torqued. Either you or your shop will need to get under the truck and start investigating and checking things. There's never a straight-forward answer without getting your hands dirty.

Now, as for the Tazer question, have you done process of elimination on the Tazer? Seems like an easy enough thing to do yourself. If you suspect the Tazer is the issue, remove it and see if the problem goes away. And I can understand why the guy was questioning the shift knob if you couldn't get it out of park. A bad install on the knob could result in the shift release lever not actuating correctly.

To me, it seems silly to try and blame things here when little to no diagnosis has been done. If the dealership isn't willing to work on it, that's something else and I would suggest you go elsewhere. If you've posted this just at the beginning of them doing their work, I'd suggest you let them work and give them a chance to do a proper investigation into the issues. To be honest, I'm not seeing "dealership difficulties" here. If I were in their shoes, I too would be looking at the modifications first. What's changed usually leads to what's wrong.

Now on to a small little soap box, but something I think should be said for all:

Many people come here thinking they need us to tell them what the dealer should be doing rather than stepping back and letting people actually do their jobs. Nobody likes to be told how to do their job, especially when they've only begun to work the problem. And it's not your job to judge the validity of their ideas, you never know what may come from the troubleshooting process. One of the worst things you can do is take it to someone because you don't know what the problem is, but then criticize them as though you know what the problem is or isn't. If they come back saying they have no idea and can't help you, then there's a different conversation to be had. Doesn't sound like that's the case here yet.

 

[BalancedPete]

Thanks all for your input and soapbox statements. I have my jeep back. In reading through your comments, I guess I left some info out. First off, this was not warranty work, and I wasn't expecting that. However, there did end up being a rear axel recall, so that was good.

My issues with the dealership are the pettiness of having to work on a non-stock jeep. All of my modifications have been in place for two years or more at this point, so I find it unlikely that any mod would be the cause of these issues. Except the plow, I realize that is going to cause wear and tear for sure.

With that being said, the dealership tech investigated my complaint of excessive vibrations. His observation was that there was "no evidence of balancing weights on the rims, so that is the problem." No further investigation was done. I don't understand why he wouldn't even look at the U-joints?? These are tire & wheel kits from Quadratec. Mounted and balanced. I believe they do the internal balance weight, but the tech didn't want to hear it.

Next, it's winter here, so two tires were low on air. I've got these stupid blue valve caps on my wheels. Tech sees these aftermarket valve caps and states those aren't OEM, we can't fill your tires.

Then its the gearshift, again he states it's not OEM, so it's probably causing problems. The gearshift has been on my jeep since about a week after I bought it new. They have worked on this jeep before!

They investigated my complaint of the heat fading after about 20 minutes. They found the coolant was low and topped it off. Okay, might help, but this has been since day one of owning the jeep. I know that coolant was full the two previous winters, and the problem was still happening.

The jeep not starting, which thankfully did actually happen to them while they were working on it, forced them to push the jeep out into the parking lot. This action caused the jeep to go into it's security mode and lockout the shifter. They couldn't log into the jeep via the ODB port due to the Tazer. Totally my fault, I forgot to remove it. So I went there, removed it, and they were able to log in, clear the code and finish the service. But still, no answer, or even a guess as to why the jeep is randomly not starting. I would think there must be some codes in there indicating why it was not starting these last few weeks. Right??

I feel this is them knowing there is a problem, but finding any excuse to not have to work on it. I'm not asking for it to be done for free, I just wanted a qualified tech to sort it out. At this point, I'll probably try to find a good private mechanic and see what they find.

Sponsored