Chrysler - Don't Mess With Me-Update 1

I drive a van, I know, I know, not very friendly toward the environment, but I bought it when my Mom was still alive and we needed to transport walkers and various other things when we travelled. Now of course, I wish I didn't have it but I'm stuck with it for a while longer.

Last week the air conditioning died a slow death and I took it to the dealer. Now even though this van is on the older side, it only has 95,000 KM on the odometer and you would think that air conditioning should last a little longer, right? Well turns out that during a certain period in the late 90's, Chrysler had a problem in that regard. In fact when I took this van to my regular mechanic he did tell me that the air would die at around 100 K. Guess he was right.

Only thing is, it actually has been a problem from about 65,000KM and I had complained about it and it had a previous repair done. I bought it (second hand) from a authorized Chrysler dealer and during one of the times it needed repair, they pumped in something called "Sealer" without my authorization. The job of this sealer is to go through the system and plug little leaks. I know from previous experience that this stuff doesn't work and clogs up the entire system. So fair warning to anyone out there who wants to use it, it doesn't work long term. It's a down and dirty, cheap way to fix the air on car that you don't intend to keep for long.

When I got my bill for this "cheap" repair it was over 500 bucks so I hadn't a clue what was done. At least not until this past week when I realized to my horror that I now have to replace my entire air system, front to back, at a hit of over $2000. When I questioned the Assistant Service Manager she insisted that she had told me and after much discussion conceded there might have been a "misunderstanding". Nope sorry, I understand things quite well and I wasn't told. In fact because the repair was over 500 bucks and the bill just said "sealer kit" I assumed it was things like seals, gaskets, you know that kind of stuff. I saw no reason to think blow in sealer was used knowing that that wouldn't have cost more than 125 bucks tops. I assumed that a leak had been found an fixed. Never, ever assume...

Expensive lesson, yup...don't trust anyone, read your bills, question every single thing when you take your car for repair. See, now they want to replace the compressor to the tune of 900 bucks but my mechanic, well he says, don't waste your money it won't last. That sealer will get into the new compressor and kill it.

But I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I have sent an email to the Service Manager and if I don't get a timely response, I'll try the owner of this particular Chrysler dealership. If that doesn't work, well, there's always small claims court. I am not letting this go, there are principals if not money at stake.

My own mechanic, sweetie that he is, has offered to let me come to his shop and copy all his research on the sealer in question so I have more ammunition against the dealer. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow. Meanwhile, I await a reply to an email I sent to the Service Manager. Let's see how long that takes and what the response will be...


Just to update the above post, the Service Manager of the dealership has finally contacted me but not until I followed up the email with a fax. Judging by my telephone conversation with him, I know he's going to try to browbeat me tomorrow when we meet. He actually raised his voice to me on the phone and that doesn't bode well. I'll keep you informed.