Greetings, My 00ES broke 60K so I took it to the dealer to have the drive belts replaced. The reason I took it to the dealer was to have some other issues looked at with it. To date, there has been no issues. At my 57K oil change (I change it on a rack at the military hobby shop), I noticed wetness around a weep hole on the right side of the transmission above the transmission pan. I suspected it was differential fluid because it didn't look or smell like transmission fluid. I cleaned it up and at my 60K oil change the "wetness" was there again. So I asked the dodge dealership to give me their best guess. They said it was a transfer shift seal that was the culprit. Needless to say there it'd be over $1k to dive in and fix that. My executive decision is that I'm going to monitor it. There isn't any pooling or anything beneath the car. The second issue was the steering wheel "sticking" while turning right. This would occur rarely, but when it did, right after starting to drive away. I initially attributed it to the cold weather and sticking joints, etc... Well, it happened twice after driving a substantial distance. It would stick after about a half steering wheel right turn. You'd then turn it to the left and then back to the right--normal. It is very intermittent (happening 3 times) considering the number of times you turn right. The dealership diagnoses...need a new rack and pinion set. He said parts alone would run around $900...add in labor and you're over $1k. Arggg. Then to top off this "bad" news. I look under the hood and they only replaced the serpentine belt...not the A/C belt. I called the service manager and he said the mechanic felt that the belt was OK. Geez, Louezzz...ya gotta take the serpentine belt off to replace the A/C belt. I mean the guy was in there. While I have no doubt that the belt is still "good," but I doubt for another 60K maintenance interval. Sigh....
- posted
20 years ago