Opinions please

[Ramaniac]

So I have a 17 ecodiesel that I picked up last year in April. It has a hair over 10k miles. Earlier this week in inclement heavy wet snow driving at sub freeway speeds I hit a large patch of slush/ice on the freeway and the truck went into limp mode. It said don't shut the truck off blah blah blah and threw every code in the book.
I drove it to the dealer and shut it off. Explained the situation and was told that they would do what they could for warrranty but it could cost up to an hour labor to diagnose.
They figured out it was a harness connector just under the drivers seat next to the frame rail. Apparently a large chunk of ice had hit it and caused it to become loose. It was one of those lever latch's like the ones on the ecm's. It was full of water and they had to dry it out and put some dialectic grease in it.
So here's the part I would like your opinion on. The Stealer charged me $142 to dry it out and re-connect it. I got in a bit of an argument with them and thought it should be covered under warranty and the service advisor stated it was an outside force and I had even stated that I hit a large puddle of ice and water. He stopped short of saying he felt it was my fault but obviously felt that way.
I said I would check with Ram cares to see what they had to say about it and he said he thought I should do that. So am I expecting too much to have Ram cover it? Seems like a common courtesy thing to have them take care of it for a 56k pickup. Think I may have chosen the wrong stealership. Can't wait to get the service quesitonaire.

 

[fraleywp]

Nonsense. Since when is a truck not expected to drive through a puddle. Should be a TSB in my opinion.

I had a similar issue once with a 1991 Ford Ranger I bought brand new. Drove through a huge puddle of water and the next day it got stuck in first gear. The crappy dealer I bought it from tried to say I needed a new clutch. I rejected the diagnosis and forced them to find the real issue. It was a spring that failed on the clutch release. They attempted to say it was my fault until I threatened to get Ford corporate involved. They also understood that my cosigner worked for Ford and gave in. This was my first new vehicle and the last time I bought anything from those a-holes.

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[huntergreen]

This is a sticky one IMHO, and I lean toward shouldn't be covered. I liken it to hitting a deep pot hole and bending some things. Would be more of an insurance issue. Again my 2 cent opinion.

 

[15 Handicap]

I would be shocked if they didn't take care of this issue. How do you put a plug/wiring connector under a truck and not make sure it's not water tight? Sorry for the double negative.

 

[fraleywp]

This is a sticky one IMHO, and I lean toward shouldn't be covered. I like it to hitting a deep pot hole and bending some things. Would be more of an insurance issue. Again my 2 cent opinion.

If he hit something maybe, but in this case it was a poor design decision that allowed this to happen. If you hit a pothole and bent a rim there isn't any issue of protection involved. Add to this the threads I have read on this forum regarding this connector having issues and I stand by my statement that they should have issued a TSB to resolve this defect.

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[Dinky]

Go around the dealer and email dodge them sellf

 

[Tach_tech]

If the connector was lose caused by an impact as you said, no that would not usually be covered. If there wasn’t an impact and it got water in it then there may have been something wrong with the weather seals.

 

[Ramaniac]

Go around the dealer and email dodge them sellf

Thank you, I will.

As far as hitting something. Wasn't like I was off roading. I was driving down the freeway. Hit some slush and ice. Pretty normal stuff on the road when its snowing/melting althouogh it was a deep hydroplaning puddle. Insurance issue? Lets see $1000 deductable vs $142 repair bill. Well that's a no brainer. Don't get me wrong I appreciate every responce, whether you agree with me or not. Thank you !

 

[Dinky]

Thank you, I will.

As far as hitting something. Wasn't like I was off roading. I was driving down the freeway. Hit some slush and ice. Pretty normal stuff on the road when its snowing/melting althouogh it was a deep hydroplaning puddle. Insurance issue? Lets see $1000 deductable vs $142 repair bill. Well that's a no brainer. Don't get me wrong I appreciate every responce, whether you agree with me or not. Thank you !

Get a hold of dodge and just tell how much ******** you had to go through in crap weather. All because some **** designed plug under your truck and once it fails it cripples your truck.

 

[Ramaniac]

This is a sticky one IMHO, and I lean toward shouldn't be covered. I like it to hitting a deep pot hole and bending some things. Would be more of an insurance issue. Again my 2 cent opinion.

I come and go on this forum and did not realize this had been an issue or I would plugged that sucker back in myself. I will sure as heck know next time. One of the first things I did was check the airbox and sure as heck it had water in it.

I guess all in all at the end of the day it's not like it's a $1000 repair charge. Kinda thought the dealer would have taken better care of me. Service after the sale? Sure for a price.

 

[O.R.T.]

“I want this escalated to a Star Case. Please give me the regional Parts and Service Rep’s contact info.”

YMMV

Personally, I believe it’ll be a subjective deal. Would you rather have a connector cam come a little loose or a harness ripped out. Either way it should be a protected item not within the ability for an impact to affect it.

 

[fraleywp]

“I want this escalated to a Star Case. Please give me the regional Parts and Service Rep’s contact info.”

YMMV

Personally, I believe it’ll be a subjective deal. Would you rather have a connector cam come a little loose or a harness ripped out. Either way it should be a protected item not within the ability for an impact to affect it.

Clearly I would rather it just come apart with those two choices. But I would really expect such a critical connection to be better protected in the first place. I have never heard of such a stupid issue with a body harness.

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[Dinky]

Clearly I would rather it just come apart with those two choices. But I would really expect such a critical connection to be better protected in the first place. I have never heard of such a stupid issue with a body harness.

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My old boss had a 2017 Ford king rancher. They had a real bad problem with theirs. It was a short in the middle of the bundle of wires going to the radio. It would short and render the truck dead lol. Happens to my old boss 4 times and it took for 6 months to figure it out. He said the dealer had thousands of trucks with the same issue.

 

[fraleywp]

My old boss had a 2017 Ford king rancher. They had a real bad problem with theirs. It was a short in the middle of the bundle of wires going to the radio. It would short and render the truck dead lol. Happens to my old boss 4 times and it took for 6 months to figure it out. He said the dealer had thousands of trucks with the same issue.

I find the statement about thousands of them having the problem suspect. I had a 2015 and 2017 F150 before this RAM. I was on F150 forums daily and never saw a single post about that issue. There were other issues like frozen door handles and moonroof tracks that crumble, not any widespread harness issues. In the case of Ford, they have issued a recall for the door handles and a TSB for the moonroof. This is my first FCA product and I must admit I am a little concerned with how this harness issue is not covered under a recall or TSB.

Regardless, a body harness should be better protected than any other harness on a motor vehicle. A motor vehicle is constantly exposed to the elements and to have such a critical component so easily compromised seems like a design oversight to me.

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[radkawi]

Large chunk of ice hit the connector, knocked it loose. May be a poor location for the connector but an engineer cannot account for every obstacle we encounter for if they could no-one would build anything cause s**t happens.
If it was a defect in material and workmanship it should be covered but none of us are experiencing the same issue so why would there be a recall or a TSB or anything like that. Was a mishap, a one off situation and not a manufacturing defect. If the truck was 10k, 56k or 100k it does not absolve us owners from future costs of ownership for things like this.
I don't see why it would be expected to be covered if it were me but that's just my opinion/perspective. As said above, if it were a pothole...

 

[Dinky]

Yeah this was a f350 king rancher. They said it was the way it ran over the transmission or something like that.

 

[Dinky]

Large chunk of ice hit the connector, knocked it loose. May be a poor location for the connector but an engineer cannot account for every obstacle we encounter for if they could no-one would build anything cause s**t happens.
If it was a defect in material and workmanship it should be covered but none of us are experiencing the same issue so why would there be a recall or a TSB or anything like that. Was a mishap, a one off situation and not a manufacturing defect. If the truck was 10k, 56k or 100k it does not absolve us owners from future costs of ownership for things like this.
I don't see why it would be expected to be covered if it were me but that's just my opinion/perspective. As said above, if it were a pothole...

That's actually part of a engineer's job is to over think it and look at all different kinds of scenarios.

 

[fraleywp]

Large chunk of ice hit the connector, knocked it loose. May be a poor location for the connector but an engineer cannot account for every obstacle we encounter for if they could no-one would build anything cause s**t happens.
If it was a defect in material and workmanship it should be covered but none of us are experiencing the same issue so why would there be a recall or a TSB or anything like that. Was a mishap, a one off situation and not a manufacturing defect. If the truck was 10k, 56k or 100k it does not absolve us owners from future costs of ownership for things like this.
I don't see why it would be expected to be covered if it were me but that's just my opinion/perspective. As said above, if it were a pothole...

A TSB is intended to provide a workaround to known defects or weaknesses in a product. Considering how long the 4th Gens have been in production, this is a known issue. I am a software engineer and I deal with debugging, isolating and documenting known issues on a daily basis. There is no doubt in my mind that they are aware of this weakness and should provide a TSB to eliminate service hassles for the customer. A TSB is simply a way to document how to resolve an issue and mitigate future occurrences for a customer once they experience it.

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[fraleywp]

Yeah this was a f350 king rancher. They said it was the way it ran over the transmission or something like that.

That is certainly possible, but if one dealer had thousands of them with the issue, I would have to think it was a recall.

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[radkawi]

That's actually part of a engineer's job is to over think it and look at all different kinds of scenarios.

Agree but one cannot account for everything, every scenario for there is someone one out there somewhere that will prove they can undo the over-thinking. Just take a moment and reflect on our current society as a whole.