2 days ago I cleaned my truck. I keep it very clean and the maintenance on it up and to date. Backed out of my drive way and damn if there was a 2 foot long oil stain on it. Fresh. Crawled up under, and could see oil dripping from the side of the tranny pan. My truck has the V6, 8 speed transmission. I bought used from Alamo Toyota, with only 25K on it 2 years ago. It now has 56K on it and a warranty from them. So I drove it to Alamo Toyota (which has the best service department I have ever seen) and they immediately took it in to look at it. They said that they would have to run dye thru it, gave me a free rental (Tacoma v6...what a dog) and sent me on my way. 4 hours later they call me and tell me that the tranny is leaking from the 'plastic pan' and at the bell housing as well. It is covered under warranty, but only by Dodge. I have a history here with Dodge and to be honest, they are THE WORST service departments I have EVER dealt with. The service manager called the Dodge Service Dept., and they had my truck towed to their dealership. This was 7:00 pm Friday night. So I called the service department Saturday morning around 10:00 and just as I thought, freak'n useless. Wouldn't confirm that my truck was there, because the person that was spoken to wouldn't be in until Monday. Told me that even if it was covered under power-train warranty, they don't do loaners. And since it was a gasoline engine, it would be 4-5 days until they could look at it.
About 10 months ago, I had another oil leak. Like I said, I keep my engine and drive way spotless, just for this reason. That and I like a clean engine. Again, after cleaning my truck, I noticed oil on the drive way. Sure enough, oil leak from the transmission, but turned out it was actually the OSU that was bad, leaking oil at the back of the engine on top of the transmission. Thinking it was transmission related, made a appointment with Dodge (same freak'n dealership) to get it looked at. I won't go into my tirade, but when I arrived I was laughed at, told I didn't have an appointment (which they miraculously found), didn't know who I was (again, they figured it out) so on and so forth. Was told to 'calm down' after being laughed at by a 'kid'. LSS, they cleaned my engine, said it was the OSU and wanted $650 to change it. I told them to go somewhere, give me my truck (had to pay them $100 for engine cleaning and environmental oil cleanup) and took it to Alamo Toyota immediately. They gave me a free loaner, and had it done in 1 day. I have a $100 deductible, but they said I had been thru enough they didn't charge me anything.
I have owned 4 Dodge's in my life (I am 55 now) and NEVER had a problem with any of them, until now. Is this normal? Anyone else experiencing these issues, attitudes from the dealership, etc? I was really hosed over by Chevrolet quite a few years ago and have never purchased another 'bowtie' product again...and never will. Looking more and more like Dodge is going to make that list. It's a shame. Love my truck and the Lone Star version has everything I ever wanted on it.
Rant over. Have a great Sunday.