Stellantis denies EcoDiesel warranty........$19,000

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-...-for-19-000-engine-replacement-1.5752834

Listen to Jiffy Lube, or listen to the engineers who designed and built the thing? Hmm...

That about sums it up. Just think how much money he saved by not using the manufacturer's guidelines. I wonder what an attorney could do with the oil change place that made those recommendations?

If there's proof, they might have some recourse. If it was verbal, good luck.

I'm sure there are times when OEM recommendations/requirements are overkill. If you want your warranty to remain intact, follow them during the warranty period. After that, do what you want. Don't follow them during the warranty period, and you get what you get.

From what I read he never changed the oil in 91,000 km even after the truck's info center alerted him at 50,000 km. Factory change intervals were at 16,000 km and the owner said someone told him 24,000 km and still no proof stated that it was done, no receipt shown. Did he even proof of one of those intervals was adhered to with a receipt?? I'm sure if so he would have produced it for the dealer and media. Customer neglect and abuse. Sorry.

.I don't even trust the factory intervals these days unless that mileage is covered in a quick time. I usually change my wife's car when it says %50 oil life left, she has a short commute so it takes awhile to get there even.

"It's pulling a little to the right, and BTW, since I'm here could you change the oil and filter, it's been a while."

And he says he is going to scrap the truck. What a maroon. But I would probably give him a little better than scrap price for it.

"I don't think I have the money to pay for something like that. Unfortunately that vehicle will have to go to scrap, I can't afford something like that," said Fosuo.

The article states that he’s an electrician. Being a tradesman, he should have some common sense and saying there was no owner’s manual sounds like BS.

I was going to post a link to the old vintage Fram oil filter commercial with the "You can pay now, or you can pay him later" but being Fram you know where that would have ended up within one or two replies In this case it would have been way better to have used any brand good or bad new oil filter and new oil then to have not done anything at all.

Not sure I want a guy who is so willing to cut corners and not follow manufacturer's instructions to be working on my wiring. Actually, am sure.

Maintenance is the customers responsability, plain and simple, it's certainly not the first warranty claim denied due to improper/lack of maintenance. I can attest that they don't come with an owners manual but rather a quick start guide. The owners manual is online and it's over 750 pages. It would be like having a copy of War & Peace in your glove box.
When I have had a vehicle covered by a factory warranty it goes to that vehicles dealership for required maintenance. That way there is a record and they can't say improper oils or filters or whatever were used.

That looks more like sabotage than bad maintenance.

People are willing to pay $$$$$ for a new vehicle (or rather they're willing to finance lots of $$ for one) then they show their WILLING ignorant cheap side by going 15,000 miles between oil changes- running 10w30 when 0w20 is mandatory- relying on Auto Zones $40 code reader as an OFFICIAL diagnosis etc. I don't feel bad for people like the guy in the article. You could tell a person like him that with his type of usage he should change his oil at 4,000 Miles religiously and he would scoff and reply with something ignorant.

So imagine you were given that pickup.

While you could part it out,
if you wanted to re-engine it
what are your options,
besides buying an exact year replacement engine from a dealership or salvage yard?

Seems like the VM diesel was used in some North American Jeeps,
and some European boats?

Like some wrecked BMWs
I suspect that pickup might be shipped to South America or Africa

Who would volunteer to stuff a Slant-6 under the hood,
or ahem,
a Mitsu diesel forklift engine?

I'm going to go out on a limb here an assume it's because people buy these things on credit and are only looking at the monthly payment. Not just cheap, but a cheap idiot.

It all depends what is in the 'quick start guide'. If it has on the road service info (change tire, check fluids, towing instructions, tire pressures) then maybe it's not so bad. But if you are in the middle of no man's land with no service and need something else from the on-line owner's manual....what do you do now?

Problem is that we have created a disposable economy. NOBODY wants to actually take care of something they own. Most people have resigned themselves to just always having a car payment and when the current one dies, they get another one. I see it with my own family. I have tried to get my wife and daughter to actually pay attention to maintenance type items that do require attention. Last week, they came home and told me that there was something wrong with the headlights on her car because they were "dim". Yea......I'm in Michigan and its winter. Nothing that a little glass cleaner could not remedy in about 2 minutes.... Oil? Well, that takes too much time to actually open the hood and check it. I guess part of is that they never had to "make-do" with old junk that DID require adding oil, fixing brakes, etc. We created this level of being dumbed-down.

I'm surprised to hear it had no hardcopy owners manual.
I bought a 2021 Ram 2500 and it came with an owners manual.
Vehicles these days have change oil lights and regardless of what a quick lube place tells you I wouldn't ignore the light. And if they did change the oil and put a sticker in the window saying next change due at a certain mileage and it was wrong, perhaps they would have some liability in this.
My truck was built last March and bought in April. It only has 3400 miles so far and I haven't changed the oil yet. I figure I better do it before it's a year old, maybe beginning of March?

Yeah, my 2021 Ram has a whole library in the glove box.

I have a few thoughts...

1. Part of this is due to the fact manufacturers are trying to draw out maintnance times by adding larger volume oil sumps, fancy oils better machining and such and while these are good things people are more likely to get complacent with a 10,000 mile oil change than if they know they are just supposed to go in every 3000 miles and get an oil change.

2. All the dodges at the local dodge dealer have an owners manual with them and yes the info is also available on the line, either way the customer needs to take responsibility for not looking into things like routine maintnance.

3. Most of those really long maintenance intervals are for drivers in the absolute best driving conditions, very few drivers should ever go that far as most everyone has something that drops them into the "severe service" catagory, the salesman just wants to point out the long interval not the normal one. Again though it still comes back to customer needs to take responsibility to look up the info.

4. I don't understand how this is news, people blow up their engines all the time because they don't take care of them and subsequently get denied warranty work on them. The guy must be buddies with someone at the news org. and is trying to force dodge to do something out of the ordinary for them.

5. You can get low mile long block engines off car-part.com as low as $2500 plus shipping, my labor guide says 17 hrs for a long block swap, at $100 (I charge $80) hr thats $1700 add in antifreeze, oil, filter.. maybe $100? $2500+$1700+$100=$4300 ish? May need to throw in $300 shipping if you can't find one locally... the dealer is not the only place to get it fixed.

That's why there is an oil change light. And no, it's not just based on mileage.



Again, the oil change light takes this into account. All he had to do was get his oil changed when the light cam eon. Short of doing it for him it doesn't get any easier to remember.



The dealer is the only place to get it fixed under warranty and the factory doesn't go junkyard shopping for your warranty engine. Hence the high price listed. Can it be done for less? Yes, but there is no factory warranty involved there.

$19k, pretty steep stupid tax. But the guy's an idiot.

Only person that might get a pass on not knowing you need to change oil occasionally is a teenage girl in a home with no Dad.

You know, the stupid tax is even higher, pretty sure he still owes on the truck too, bank's not going to cut him slack either.

I would be too, but the 2019 Durango R/T we bought new for my wife did not come with a hard copy manual. They pointed us at the U-Connect system for the complete owner's manual. I quickly contacted CS and they sent me two hard copies.I guess it's not that unusual anymore, with all the infotainment/u-connect systems in these vehicles, nowadays.

Me thinks he doesn't have any warranty on the engine he has. And it doesn't run.

It's funny, but my dealer has a checklist they go over with me every time I get a new vehicle. Oil change intervals are clearly explained.

My dad was one of the most frugal guys you could ever meet, but he never, ever skimped on oil changes and his cars ran forever.

Methinks you missed the point, which was that there was no factory warranty involved in fixing his issue. If he paid the $19k the dealer wanted to fix it, then he'd have a warranty once again.

Methinks you missed the point which was that for a fraction of the dealership cost, he could have a running driving vehicle....and be no worse off warranty wise than he is now. So the question boils down to, is the warranty worth ~$10,000? You tell me.

So did mine, they even said let us do it at least once a year, with the coupon.they send out it is the same price as the srt oil and filter costs.
.

I would like to see how many changes were made in 91km. From what I see its one for sure.. Or maybe if he really had it done.I can not believe people are that stupid let alone the jack a$$es giving it air time.

Yup, my 2021 Rebel ecodiesel as well.

Lotsa dialog on this topic on the interweb, 5th gen ram forum, etc. There's a few web sites that spell out the maintenance intervals, parts, and related details specifically for the ecodiesels. As a DIYer, did 1st oil change at 5K, kept receipts for the FCA spec MS12991 oil and Mopar oil filter. FCA has a maintenance record page on the owner account website that you can record maintenance activities.

One particular dealer here does Oil changes on cars bought from them for $20(not sure about diesels). They would change the oil and filter on my wifes 2018 Durango RT for $20. It was worth an early Saturday morning every few months to get that done for that price.

My dealer does the first 3 free, except for my 2014 Dart, they gave me 7 on it. The Service Writer couldn't believe they gave me that many.

The dealership in WI I bought my Challenger from gave me one free oil change. The dealer I bought my Dart from gave me two, one based on an hourglass they put on the table and said if they didn’t get the paperwork done before the sand all ran out, I got a free oil change. They lost.
On my recent Ram purchase at South Oak I got none, oh well otherwise they were good to deal with.

Years ago I worked in a dealership that included oil changes for 3 years. Just call and show up.

We had a customer that ended up having a turbo replacement due to a clogged oil line at 20k. Yep, never came in for the 3 oil changes he missed prior (5k interval)

A year later we denied the engine replacement. Yep, the oil change during the turbo replacement was the only one on record.

2nd most expensive purchase you make, read the instructions? Nope.

When I was still in the dealership we had a lady bring in her F-150 right around 50 - 60 thousand kms. Engine was seized and the oil was grey goo. They asked here when the last oil change was done. the response was an annoyed " I don't know YOU guys did it last!" Yup she got her free oil change when she bought the truck from us done at 5 000kms and never since.

She traded it in on a Focus and we put a new engine in it and sold it.

As a tech I HATE these new filled for life fluids and extended oil change intervals. I see so many camshaft and cam follower failures lately across multiple makes. I stick to 5000 kms in my truck

I've been a tech for over 40 years and the same dealership for the last 32 years (they love us "senior" techs) I really have a hard time with people that need to be told to change the oil in their engine. Some of you techs that have been chiming in seem to agree that oil change intervals are far too long even for synthetic oils. Now I'm a 3-5 K oil change advocate depending on driving conditions and styles. The oil I have seen coming out of the late model cars that recommend 10K services looks very dark and that is not good for the current VVTI engines. Now I have seen these engines go 200K with only 20 oil changes so I would guess engineers know what they are doing. I prefer to have the oil coming out of the pan looking like a medium tan color at 5K intervals

Gus

I have always changed the oil in my personal and company vehicles based on oil color. The units that mostly see around town driving seem to have the oil get to the darker tan by 3,000 to 4,000 miles. Our hiway units sometimes go to 7,000 and maybe even 8,000 miles. This is for a little older units (typically pre-2012) and nothing gets the synthetic stuff. The last company van we sold (2003 3.8 Grand Caravan) had 240,000 miles. Went through 2 trannies due to the towing aspect, but the engine did no down time.

There may be circumstances where 10,000 miles between oil changes is acceptable. But for many (maybe most) vehicles that see significant around town use, I feel that 10,000 is often, too little, too late. If for no other reason other than the dirt, debris, moisture, and acids that can build up.

I agree with the medium to dark tan color as the key indicator.

When the oil light comes on, change the oil. They say his oil change light came on and he didn't change it. If you don't have time to change it right away at least be smart enough to turn the key on, floor and release the gas pedal three times, and turn the key off. That will tell the computer that you changed the oil.

Sooooooooo, one size fits all? Every driving situation and every environment is the same? That may be a good recommendation for those that know nothing about their vehicle, but may not be the end-all, be-all for those that do understand something about their vehicle.

And let's face it, the auto manufacturers and oil slingers have mixed loyalties on this subject. Their own economics play a role in their recommendations. That situation is most evident when you look at the SRT oil recommendations.

OK I will say it.
Toss on an LS and a 700R4 wire it up fire it up done.
You know someone would

he rooled dice and lost