I've noticed recently the floor knocking under my left foot while turning around in my gravel driveway. (auto trans). Could it be tie rod end loose or some other component, Gonna take it to an independant mechanic first them if its much rush to dealer before warranty runs out in two months !
"Roy" wrote in news:oI-dnYHppYOrAILbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
Because I want to be an informed person, how do I know they say there is nothing so I run out of warranty by the time something fails. I only trust service writers as far as a desk is deep... Ron
Some dealers are better than others. The worst of the bunch will not spend time to diagnose a tough problem because they won't get paid for that time under warranty, only the time it takes for the repair itself. I have had cases where I had to pay an independent shop to find the problem, then have the dealer make the repairs under warranty. Luckily my current Dodge dealership doesn't play such games. They spend whatever time it takes.
Dealers get paid to fix it, not diagnose it. Often some dealers will spend very little time to determine if theres a problem or not and decide its not worth their time.
Actually, a bit of diagnosis time is built in by way of higher labor rates to compenstate for non billable time. Customers don't like to pay directly for diagnosis, due to both reasonable and unreasonable expectations. The unreasonable one is they expect a mechanic to be able to look at any car and immediately know what's wrong. The reasonable one is that if actual diagnostic time is billed, they can't know if the time, if high, is because the problem was a difficult one or if the mechanic wasn't very skilled at diagnosis.
I see no differrence here between taking the car to an independent mechanic and paying for diagnostic time, and taking the car to a dealer and offering to do the same, except that the dealer mechanic might determine the problem more quickly due to having factory service bulletins available and experience from mostly working on one brand of car.
If the car is under warranty I have seen many dealers say a problem is normal when in fact its not. They do so for the reasons I stated. They decided it would take too much time and labor to diagnose and fix the problem for the book value they'll get paid.
I have a problem with my 2004 Durango. There is something knocking in the front end especially when its warm out. Feels like someone is banging on the floorboard. While it isn't fixed yet the dealer has spent numerous hours trying to track it down. They don't deny it has a problem and will be looking at it further soon. A previous dealer noticed the issue but said it was normal..why? Probably because they dont want to spend the time my current dealer is willing to do.
Experience shows me that Dealers deny problems for exactly the reason Miles states below. I can go to an independant that has proven his reputation with our other vehicles and ask for an estimate. They likely wont charge....and they have nothing influencing their diagnosis like what is and isn't under warranty. If the dealer hadn't dragged their heals on my Sundance tranny a few years ago, and refused warranty on some earlier issues with my Dak they might be more believable. Ron,
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