Dealership is in denial

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cajun87

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2013
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5.7
The local dealership has about a dozen brand new lifted and or leveled trucks for sale and about half of those are half tons. I stopped by to take a look at the upper control arms and to find out what their take is on our 2013/14 ball joint predicament is. I should have taken pictures, but EVERY SINGLE HALF TON had ball joint slippage. Not long after I started poking around the trucks a brainless sales associate came and asked if I needed anything, so I asked him about the ball joint issue, he had no idea what a ball joint was and assured me that there is no issue so I pointed to the gaps in the joints and he said that this is not a problem. After a few minutes of discussion we went over to the service department to talk to their "guy" that knows everything. It turns out that a local rim shop, not a 4x4 shop, is contracted to do all the lifts, levels, and rim swaps on all of the vehicles at this dealership and the dealership does none of the work themselves. The service guy has never heard of the upper ball joint issue and has never heard anyone complain about the lift failing. According to him, the rim shop uses approved mopar parts and everything is signed off on and conforms to the factory warranty, and if something was to fail it would be covered under warranty. I asked him about upgrading the control arms to better, stronger arms, and he said that doing this would void the warranty. He insisted that the ball joints and control arms are safe from the factory and will hold up fine with a lift/level. Needless to say I left that dealership somewhat aggravated, we either follow blindly to the advice the dealership gives and risk truck damage but retaining our warranty, or make safe improvements and void suspension warranty. Looks like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because my truck needs a level.
 

Diminus

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Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador Canada
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2012
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Hemi 5.7
A little dangerous for a dealership to be blindly putting level kits on a model ram that loves to spit the ball joints out. If I bought a truck and was un aware of those issues and something happened on the highway or something. The sales rep better be a fast runner when I busts thru the dealerships front doors lol
 

Etroze86

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Grand Forks ND
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I forsee that dealers name changing in the future to whoever wins the law suite on their dumb socalled upgrades.
 

Ramunit

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If their going to back them up with warranty then what's the big deal?
 

ballisticram

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The dealership honoring the warranty is great. Providing a very lucky scenario your safe and the truck is in one piece after the ball joint fails. It's not a matter of if it fails, it's a matter of how fast you are driving when it does. If the dealership was smart and didn't have there head up there ass. They would contact STAR and supply pictures to remedy the problem.
 

ballisticram

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And I can confirm the ball joint issues.

I installed two lifts. A 6" on my 12' Ram CC and on my buddies 14'. His ball joints popped after a few days. Mine have not. Neither one of us 4 wheel but I do go to construction sites where the roads are very bumpy.
 

arod412

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I wanna see the trucks!!:p never seen a dealer have a "factory lift" on at 1500.
 
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cajun87

cajun87

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Ill take pictures next week. I cant believe i forgot to take pictures.
 

BoldAdventure

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Even with warranty, have you seen the mental prices they charge for dealer installed stuff?
 

myoung84

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I wanna see the trucks!!:p never seen a dealer have a "factory lift" on at 1500.
Dealers around my area also install level kits, lift kits, and wheel and tire packages. They had a couple of expresses with lifts on them when I bought my truck. I never bothered to look at the price or what kits were installed.

Even with warranty, have you seen the mental prices they charge for dealer installed stuff?

It's absurd what they charge for their add-ons.
 

RyanJM

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Houston
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2014 Express RC Black Edition
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Hemi 5.7
I can see how they can warranty it at the dealer I got my trick from. They had several 1500 4x4's if different trim levels all with 6" rcx kits fuel and xd wheels with 35" Toyo MT's and various step bars with a bull bar and a couple lights and that was a $10k add on. I couldn't believe the mark up they had. They could afford a few warranty issues with the money they added on. I checked out a 4wheel parts before I traded my 13 in and they quoted me$6k for a pro comp 6" with a 5yr 60k warranty, with nfab bars, fuel or xd wheels, pro Comp 35's (my choice), and a light or bull bar(my choice) with 2-4 kc lights. It was a much better deal. I know a few dealers that use them and sell the setup for $8k. Some I know have little private shops do their work and I can say some aren't that good. I had a 2" level done on my 13 to keep the warranty and I paid like $600 ready lift spacer and it took them 5 hours and did a half ass alignment on it. Never again I learned to always ask who does there installs if it isn't a reputable place I have heard of I would go to another dealer that way it will have the right control arms installed and I don't have to worry about taking it in for a warranty fix after it leaves me stuck on the side of the road or worse in a wreck.
 
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