Dealership Tech drilled through cylinder head when removing exhaust stud

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Ron Hyatt

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So on Monday I dropped my 2014 Ram 1500 off at the dealership for some warranty work. My truck had developed the Hemi tick which would happen on a cold start for the first 20 seconds of idling, it would promptly go away after a very short amount of time. On Tuesday at Noon I gave the service rep a call to get an update, turns out their were a few broken studs on the exhaust manifolds which needed to be replaced and while we were on the phone he was told that the repair was going to be a more extensive repair then first thought because the technician while trying to remove the broken exhaust stud on the right side drilled through the cylinder head. Now today on Thursday I am being told that the new replacement head won't be delivered to the dealer for another three weeks, and there's a potential situation that they may choose to use used parts on my truck for the repair. I have a rental car which is being paid for by the warranty work so I have transportation, but this all just seems really odd. Have any of you experienced anything like this and is there anything that I should be on the lookout for?
 

Mopar1987

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When I worked for a local dealership in parts, we had a seasoned tech drill into the water jacket while doing the stud repair. It happens, I wouldn't let them use used parts though.
 

JohnnyMac

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This is what happens when kids play video games their whole childhood and don't go out in the garage to help dad wrench on the lawnmower. They go to "tech" school and learn how to plug into the data ports of these vehicles and make changes to firmware, but god forbid you put a power tool in their hands......

Throughout my daughter's growing years, I made her come out and help me any time I worked on her bike, skates and car. She's since been able to change out her own brakes, replace a busted radiator and replace her valve cover gasket by simply youtubing the process and having the experience working with hand/power tools.

Sorry to break off on a tangent there, but I fear things like this will continue until all cars are electric, run off an X-Box CPU and have no moving parts...

As far as the repair, I would ask them to at least provide you with compression test numbers for all the cylinders and demand that whatever parts they use are at a minimum remanufactured (preferably new) and not just some old used part. Also not sure how much more warranty you have, but to make sure you get at least a year out of their work.
 

smithwessn

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Is this a factory warranty or an aftermarket warranty? If its a factory warranty, there's no way in hell they should put used engine parts on the truck. Remanufactured maybe, but never used.

Some aftermarket warranty companies are known to use junkyard motors and transmissions but I've never heard of one authorizing used engine parts. I've also seen aftermarket warranty companies pay parts and labor for a yard trans that wouldn't drive out of the shop after it was installed, pay labor to put a second yard trans in that was also no good before finally ponying up for a factory reman.
 

MoparBrent

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This is what happens when kids play video games their whole childhood and don't go out in the garage to help dad wrench on the lawnmower. They go to "tech" school and learn how to plug into the data ports of these vehicles and make changes to firmware, but god forbid you put a power tool in their hands......

Throughout my daughter's growing years, I made her come out and help me any time I worked on her bike, skates and car. She's since been able to change out her own brakes, replace a busted radiator and replace her valve cover gasket by simply youtubing the process and having the experience working with hand/power tools.

Sorry to break off on a tangent there, but I fear things like this will continue until all cars are electric, run off an X-Box CPU and have no moving parts...

As far as the repair, I would ask them to at least provide you with compression test numbers for all the cylinders and demand that whatever parts they use are at a minimum remanufactured (preferably new) and not just some old used part. Also not sure how much more warranty you have, but to make sure you get at least a year out of their work.
Not to change topics of the thread. It truely does suck for the OP and I wouldnt settle for used parts.

But I would like to say I grew up playing video games, Xbox, computer almost all day everyday from the age of 6 and still do play video games at the age of 26 now. However my dad did make sure growing up I learned how to change brakes on a car, do an oil change, change a blown tire, etc. From there the interest grew myself, not just for the sake of pleasing my father.

I’m now a licensed airplane mechanic and drill out screws/bolts daily. Don’t bash us that love video games lol
 

Burla

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They accepted responsibility, be happy. Your head is plenty old, and to be honest it is a very rare item to fail, they only usually fail under extreme heat of towing and then quick cool downs. I don't know what the rule is under your warranty, if they are just responsible to fix it, but I wouldn't worry that much especially if the part if warrantied for a year. If you go the year clearly the replacement head wasn't warped. Warped heads don't last long. And, consider this, at least they told you, if you ask me that is pretty killer, most of the time they would have just done it. Maybe ask for two year warranty in writing if they want to use a used head? doesn't hurt to ask, I see what they are trying to do, avoid paying for a rental car for a long time.. In the end it is their mistake if you want tell them you would rather wait for new, but they seam pretty cool, just say'n.
 

Tach_tech

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**** happens, they’re fixing it. Back when this hole issue first started happening we had one of our guys do the same thing, drilled to far and hit a water jacket. Put a new head on it.

I’m honestly surprised they even bothered with trying to drill it out. We just weld a nut onto the broken stud. Never had an issue since we started doing that. There’s just to much room for error trying to drill out a broken stud.
 

savage_46

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**** happens, they’re fixing it. Back when this hole issue first started happening we had one of our guys do the same thing, drilled to far and hit a water jacket. Put a new head on it.

I’m honestly surprised they even bothered with trying to drill it out. We just weld a nut onto the broken stud. Never had an issue since we started doing that. There’s just to much room for error trying to drill out a broken stud.
Very well said. Now that we always weld them at our shop, it's been a 100% success rate. Plus a lot less of a headache for the service advisors & managers.
 

guru1ofatl

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I'd wait on the new head if it is an option. Not knowing the history of the used one would concern me since overheating them can cause potential issues.
 

smurfs_of_war

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**** happens, they’re fixing it. Back when this hole issue first started happening we had one of our guys do the same thing, drilled to far and hit a water jacket. Put a new head on it.

I’m honestly surprised they even bothered with trying to drill it out. We just weld a nut onto the broken stud. Never had an issue since we started doing that. There’s just to much room for error trying to drill out a broken stud.
I'm really surprised that trick isn't the defacto method. I have a rattle can full of various nuts to use to take out broken bolts on the machinery. It is the most reliable method. If you ever see me break out the drill, you know it's too ****** to fix haha!

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
 

load97

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This is what happens when kids play video games their whole childhood and don't go out in the garage to help dad wrench on the lawnmower. They go to "tech" school and learn how to plug into the data ports of these vehicles and make changes to firmware, but god forbid you put a power tool in their hands......

Throughout my daughter's growing years, I made her come out and help me any time I worked on her bike, skates and car. She's since been able to change out her own brakes, replace a busted radiator and replace her valve cover gasket by simply youtubing the process and having the experience working with hand/power tools.

Sorry to break off on a tangent there, but I fear things like this will continue until all cars are electric, run off an X-Box CPU and have no moving parts...

As far as the repair, I would ask them to at least provide you with compression test numbers for all the cylinders and demand that whatever parts they use are at a minimum remanufactured (preferably new) and not just some old used part. Also not sure how much more warranty you have, but to make sure you get at least a year out of their work.

You should take YouTube away as well. God forbid you might have to pull out a Haynes or Chilton manual.
 

RoadRamblerNJ

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Not to change topics of the thread. It truely does suck for the OP and I wouldnt settle for used parts.

But I would like to say I grew up playing video games, Xbox, computer almost all day everyday from the age of 6 and still do play video games at the age of 26 now. However my dad did make sure growing up I learned how to change brakes on a car, do an oil change, change a blown tire, etc. From there the interest grew myself, not just for the sake of pleasing my father.

I’m now a licensed airplane mechanic and drill out screws/bolts daily. Don’t bash us that love video games lol
You, my boy, are the exception.

I have taught myself auto/motorcycle mechanics, how to sweat copper pipe, carpentry, masonry, electrical and about anything else you would need to own a house and raise a family.
I had both my sons help me all the time.

They're 25 & 29 yrs old now and neither of them has any tools other than the "emergency kit" I gave them as they moved out. It's a generational thing. None of their friends have tools either. Heck, when I was 18 I begged for a new Craftsman torque wrench for Christmas. I was building a small block Chevy in the basement from parts I found in 8 different places. Plasti-guage, two books and a torque wrench guaranteed success!

It don't make me any better than anyone else but, them boys are useless as ***** on a bull most of the time. And, it's intentional. I showed them how and they just went la-la-la-la I can't hear you.

Their loss. They'll pay many thousands of dollars over their lifetime. I tried.

Glad you caught the bug. A little advice...buy the best tools you can afford and take care of them.

You got big stones and confidence working on flying machines, son. Good for you!
 
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RLJ10X

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RoadRam, I couldn't agree more. It's like I wrote your post.

Back to the original topic, I got Shortys from Matt before any bolts broke. Quite often, things are a whole lot easier to fix before they break. It's called Preventive Maintenance.
 

RoadRamblerNJ

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RoadRam, I couldn't agree more. It's like I wrote your post.

Back to the original topic, I got Shortys from Matt before any bolts broke. Quite often, things are a whole lot easier to fix before they break. It's called Preventive Maintenance.
Well, thank you RLJ10X! I've been thinking about just replacing all mine with better ones BEFORE they break. Preventive Maintenance! I've drilled out broken studs before. It sucks. I have no "small" E-Z Outs left, OK.

I made a living for 26 yrs doing "PM's" on hospital medical equipment. Far better to schedule maintenance than to wait for failure and have an emergency. OK, your truck bolts don't count as an emergency but, it's inconvenient at best.

I still have 42 months or 40,000 miles of warranty left so, I won't be doing headers, just better bolts. At least when header time does get here, I know I'll get the bolts out!

Great, I just Jinxed myself, LOL.
 

chrisbh17

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Maybe Ram could, I don't know, start putting a better grade of manifold bolts on so they stop having this issue?

Something has to give, if the bolts break first then the manifolds warp.

If you put in stronger bolts, my guess is eventually they would start pulling out of the heads, which is a whole different animal to fix.

Under warranty maybe the owner doesnt care, but even with MaxCare Lifetime I would much prefer them replacing things like studs and manifolds than cylinder heads.
 

Casper

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So on Monday I dropped my 2014 Ram 1500 off at the dealership for some warranty work. My truck had developed the Hemi tick which would happen on a cold start for the first 20 seconds of idling, it would promptly go away after a very short amount of time. On Tuesday at Noon I gave the service rep a call to get an update, turns out their were a few broken studs on the exhaust manifolds which needed to be replaced and while we were on the phone he was told that the repair was going to be a more extensive repair then first thought because the technician while trying to remove the broken exhaust stud on the right side drilled through the cylinder head. Now today on Thursday I am being told that the new replacement head won't be delivered to the dealer for another three weeks, and there's a potential situation that they may choose to use used parts on my truck for the repair. I have a rental car which is being paid for by the warranty work so I have transportation, but this all just seems really odd. Have any of you experienced anything like this and is there anything that I should be on the lookout for?
***
Aluminum can be challenging.
Obviously you did not have the Hemi tick, you had an exhaust leak.
Your Hemi is a 2014. A single new head could actually be worse than a similarly aged used head.
Of course, if you don't know the provenance of the used head, that could be bad too.

Enjoy your rental and
 

Dinky

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I would try and stand my ground on new parts only they ****** it up no you. you are paying for a service and their tech ****** it up. part of having employees in reality. also depending on how many miles you might talk about the other head at this point you dont want one side of your motor with all new parts and the other warn down. stand your ground and dont budge lawyer up if you have to cheap than paying for it later down the road.
 

Dinky

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Not to change topics of the thread. It truely does suck for the OP and I wouldnt settle for used parts.

But I would like to say I grew up playing video games, Xbox, computer almost all day everyday from the age of 6 and still do play video games at the age of 26 now. However my dad did make sure growing up I learned how to change brakes on a car, do an oil change, change a blown tire, etc. From there the interest grew myself, not just for the sake of pleasing my father.

I’m now a licensed airplane mechanic and drill out screws/bolts daily. Don’t bash us that love video games lol


your generation ****** that up for you lmao. you will always fight being listed as one of them lol. Ive had to deal with that for awhile because of your generation it does get old. there is always people that will not fall into their category but when 90% of your generation lives at home with no job and wants free **** and cant tie their shoes. that will follow you for a long time lol.
 

Jrod

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Not to change topics of the thread. It truely does suck for the OP and I wouldnt settle for used parts.

But I would like to say I grew up playing video games, Xbox, computer almost all day everyday from the age of 6 and still do play video games at the age of 26 now. However my dad did make sure growing up I learned how to change brakes on a car, do an oil change, change a blown tire, etc. From there the interest grew myself, not just for the sake of pleasing my father.

I’m now a licensed airplane mechanic and drill out screws/bolts daily. Don’t bash us that love video games lol

I wouldn't sweat it. Every new generation smacks on the previous gen. It's just the way it is.. I grew up in the 70's, started playing counsel games in the 90's, PC games in early 2000's, and I just picked up The Division 2 on PC last week.. Somehow I own a garage full of tools and I know how to use them too.. LOL
 
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