New truck..motor grenade 3 months into ownership

[Maximus88]

Ok guys need yalls help and opinion on what I should do.

I bought a 2011 ram 1500 with 43k miles. Truck is still under factory warranty until Dec 2016. The wife and I left tallahassee to go to destin, fl for a week vacation and for our first wedding anniversary. As soon as we arrived in destin, the engine grenaded itself. I had the truck towed to the dodge dealership in ft Walton on Saturday. Yesterday the shop called me and gave me the bad news. The motor had a complete malfunction. The mechanic said the cams had destroyed 6 lifters, all exhuast manifold bolts had broken off, and 3 coils were bad. Also that cylinders 2,4,5 were malfunctioning according to their computers. To put this in perspective, since we bought the truck, I've only put 4k miles on it. Needless to say, the dealership is completly rebuilding the motor. Yesterday I went to look at it and they had everything out of the truck. They told me that the only thing that is going to go back in as original is the block.
So here's where I need yalls help. With a new engine I feel like I got suckered into buying a lemon. I make alot or trips for army out of my state and I feel as tho this may happen again. When I get the truck back, I'm going straight back to the dealership where I bought it from and demand that they make this right. So my question to yall is... what should I do, ask for, etc. My instinct tells me I should ask for a new truck or at least ask for a 5yr 100 miles warrenty for the new engine. What do yall think?

 

[Maximus88]

To make this clearer..I've only owned the truck for not even 3months...

 

[SilverStreak88]

I'm sorry to hear this, what an anniversary ruiner... I doubt they'll hook you up with a new ride as dealers are tight wads like that, but the motor warranty might be more feasible to them (stand FIRM on that it's 5 years 100K from the miles that are on your odometer, not when it reaches 100K), so that's 143K when it would be out and your power-train would be out at 100K. Dealers - whether it's "new" or "used" sucker and force people everyday into buying something that they either can't pay for or know it's a **** and wanna get it off the lot, (that's how they make sales).

 

[Maximus88]

I def understand what you are saying. I feel as tho they atleast owe me a new 5yr 100k warrenty. But if they do go for that, I would want a 5yr 100k "dodge" warrenty not a third party one. I just don't know what I should ask for or go about it bc I am beyond pissed about the situation. But I do feel like they should make it right.

 

[pickupman66]

I thin your hangup would be that they didnt do the rebuild themselves as another dealership did the work. Make sure you bring a full report back with you from the dealership it is at now. they may just agree for the warranty at this dealership only.

 

[SilverStreak88]

We'll try to get it bumped along so it stays up top. I know there's members on here that have been this type of thing, I think there was even one that either threatened to or did file a suite against the dealer he bought his truck from because of inherent issues with it and they wouldn't help him. I've never had an issue like your's, but you are on track with wanting a "manufacturer warranty" and not "3rd party". I had a 3rd party extended warranty and had issues getting stuff taken care of with it.

 

[Maximus88]

Yea I also had bought an extended warranty but found out on Saturday after the engine blew that the company of the 3rd party was closed on Friday thru mondays...so I told my wife that that was complete crap. Bc if i didn't have money in the bank, I would have been stranded on the side of the road with no rental car. I mean so far the truck has been in the shop for 3 days now...

 

[Maximus88]

The only thing that would save me on that hangup..would be that I had another dodge dealership do the work on a dodge product. Not a local shop. I wouldn't imagine dodge would warrenty the work of a local shop but they would since it was by a dodge dealership. I mean am I wrong for thinking that?

 

[WaterBoy1]

I might be wrong, but wouldn't FCA warranty the engine/labour after a complete rebuild without having to go after them?

 

[Sillygoose]

imo, stuff happens, it got covered, right?

 

[Maximus88]

I might be wrong, but wouldn't FCA warranty the engine/labour after a complete rebuild without having to go after them?

That's the thing I have no clue. I've have never been through this before. I just know that when I bought the truck they certified that nothing was wrong with it and that they had done a hundred sum odd point inspection on it before selling it to me. So my thing is that if they did all this. Why is it that 4k miles later my truck is where it's at now. Trust me I'm def not the kinda of guy that wants to go after them for what they have in their pockets, I'm a firm believer in just making things right. Whether it's a new factory warrenty, a truck, or whatever. I'm just in shock that this happened, especially bc I'm still stuck in destin and trying to figure out what I can do for my wife to make the anniversary better

 

[Maximus88]

imo, stuff happens, it got covered, right?

That's how I was thinking about it.. until I asked myself is this going to happen again in the near future.

 

[Sillygoose]

you can say that about any vehicle, i don't see anyone doing anything for you. if you feel that strongly about the truck, might be time to find another

 

[PassivAggressor]

I understand where you are coming from especially being stuck somewhere for your anniversary, but why do you feel like you are owed something? They definitely should cover all the repairs to the engine and anything else that happened, which it sounds like they are doing. The warranty is there to protect you from things like this and in this instance it did its job. IMO this is one of those instances that is a bit frustrating but thank god you had a warranty and it was handled.

 

[Maximus88]

Only thing I'm concerned about is the engine and that the overhaul on it is warrentied. I was just asking everyone's opinion on whether I SHOULD just be thankful that it happened when it happened or if something like this ever happened to one of yall this early into owning it, what you would do.

 

[Am3gross]

ok, if it was me....

i would either ask for a new block or i would buy another block, if everything else is being replaced, might as well replace that as well...

ask for the warrenty, hopefully you will get what you want..

next, while your truck is in the shop, they gave you a rental, if not i would be asking for one...

and lastly, everything is being taken care of, you aer getting a brand new engine, essentially, no need to trade it in or anything else. you will get it back and will be better then ever.

enjoy your anniversary. dont sweat the small stuff, life is to short. merry christmas and happy new year!

 

[THETANK]

as long as you are not asking for a new truck but rather an 11 with the approximate mileage I am fine with that but hey that's just one persons opinion, good luck.

 

[Maximus88]

Oh no I def wouldn't ask for a new 16 ram. That would be rediculous. When I was referring to a new truck I meant a truck that is similar but does not exceed the value of mine. But after taking in everyone's thoughts...which I'm grateful for, I think would just ask if I could get a new warrenty. And if I can't then I'm fine with that. As long as I asked.

 

[SilverStreak88]

Hmmmm, I must have misread... I thought you payed out of pocket for the new motor, if it was covered under warranty and just cost you a headache then idk. It's hard to pin something like this on a dealer and say that they knew about an engine problem before they sold it to you and let it go anyway. If they did the rebuild under warranty without issue then that'll change the playing field because they'll claim that they fulfilled their duty to uphold the warranty and do the rebuild, but getting an extra 100K on just the motor rebuild alone, is, as stated above very unlikely. I understand completely about you being worried about the longevity of this new motor and wanting it be right as I was when I had to dish out 5K for a rear end and transmission. Like (also) stated above if you're worried that it might not last then you should look for a new truck. I hate seeing anyone upside down in a vehicle payment though.

 

[Hootbro]

You bought used with a remaining factory warranty and FCA is making good on that. You are not entitled to anything else.

You drove it for 4K with nary an issue, so this statement of being "suckered" into a lemon has no standing. If prior to that it was not evident to you of having a potential catastrophic issue, then the selling dealer who took it in on trade and sold it to you had no clue either.

Without absolute evidence the selling dealer had prior knowledge of an issue, it is just speculation at best. Sure it sucks but at least you still have a warranty covering this and I would be thankful for that if me. Everybody here is driving a RAM that will eventually fail. Some just give up the ghost early and some rock on for many hundreds of thousand of miles. You just happen to have the bad luck of an early failure.