Make one of thier tech ride with you. The place i go just grabbed a tech and he rode with me and diagnosed the prob fast. I knew how to make that rear end sing so i did what i knew would cause them to hear it and all the different characteristics.

If they won't, i guess try to find another place? Or is that 1800 number in the warranty stuff? I know its on this website, try the sticky at the top with the usual questions title.

 

I wish that would work for me. My truck is at the dealer again. I took it in to get a broken frame fixed in the driver's seat, and while it's there I'm TRYING to get whatever is wrong with the trans diagnosed and fixed.

When I took it in yesterday, I took the service manager for a ride and showed him and made him listen to what was going on with it. He took it out for a drive later in the day AND they said the 3rd shift SM took it out for a ride that night. Even after showing the guy the clunks and clatters and whines it makes driving and sitting in the parking lot they STILL say there's nothing wrong with it. I talked to the service/parts advisor/manager, or whatever they call him, this morning and told him I don't want the truck back until they figure out what's wrong with the trans and fix it. Unfortunately, I know they're going to say they couldn't duplicate any problem and that it's fine.

And all this is AFTER they already had to replace the pilot and throwout bearing last year. So there's even history there with some problem and they're still trying to give me the runaround. Ugh!

 

The 1-800-992-1997 might be able to set up a District Manager to come out, but you might have to get the service manager to do it.

 

NMaybe you could just do something to make it worse? If the tranny is going out, help it out a little. I don't know if they can see if you did a bunch of neutral drops or not, but i would be doing something to "help it along" to make it worse. Maybe keep it in park and peg the throttle?

 

Son of a...

Just got back from the dealership and they stuck it in with no lube again. The seat is fixed like brand new, but they gave me the runaround on the tranny again. I took a service manager out with me while I drove around the day I dropped it off, he said he drove it again later in the day, the 3rd shift guy said he drove it, AND the service advisor told me he drove it. The tank was 1/8th lower when I picked it up so I KNOW they actually took it for tests drives. They're telling me though that NONE of them can find anything wrong with how it shifts, etc.

When I picked it up and found all this out, I JUST about came unglued. So the service advisor came outside and I duplicated one of the noises for him (when you depress the clutch, put the shifter in gear but dont move the truck, drop it back out of gear and release the clutch there's a loud clunking sound from the trans) and he's like....uhhh I gotta talk to my tech about that. He goes in the shop and comes back out a few minutes later and says that the tech told him the noise is normal. Something about that the shifting forks releasing or some bs. I'm like, well Greg the truck didn't make that sound for the first 35,000 miles and now it is, but that's apparently "normal"!

But...it's not ALL bad news. I was like, ok dude listen. I'll take the truck home and I'll drive it until the damn trans blows up, then Chrysler can pay to fix the whole freaking thing rather than finding out what's wrong now and doing preventative repairs. So he tells me, if you have ANY trouble or if it breaks you call me. I'll personally guarantee you that I'll get Chrysler to put a brand new transmission in it rather than fixing the broken one.

Is that a good tradeoff or did I get hosed...again?

Also, if anyone here has a 4.7 with a 6 speed and can duplicate that sound I'm talking about, please let me know. That's not the only one (there's also a whine coming from the trans at certain RPMs and it's shifts hard in some gears under certain driving conditions), but the clunk when releasing the clutch pedal was the loudest and easist to reproduce.

 

Man, this guy is feeding you a line of bull. There is a thing called the 70% rule. This guy cannot say " I'll personally guarantee you that I'll get Chrysler to put a brand new transmission in itrather than fixing the broken one". Let me try to explain this as best as I can... Let's say that a new transmission cost $1000.00 (not real numbers here) but thebroken one only cost $699.99 to fix. Chrysler is gonna say to fix the broken one and not put in a new one. If the cost to repair the broken one is less than 70% of the "cost" of a new one then the dealer has to fix the broken one. If the cost to repair the broken one is more than 70 %, the dealer can put in a new one. Of course he can say more is broken than actually is and inflate the cost to repair the broken one, but when he sends the broken one into Chrysler and they diagnosis the problem and the cost to repair it was inflated, the dealer is gonna get charged back for the entire repair. Not trying to be the bearer of bad news here, just wanting to spread the truth so you can have the most knowledge when you visit the dealer...DAVID

 

Ok, I guess sarcasm can be easily missed online just reading words. I TOTALLY think I got hosed. The only good part might be that if the thing goes, hopefully I have recourse now. Even if it's after my warranty goes out, there is a record of a repeated customer complaint on a particular problem that has been an issue in the past. Hell, last year the pilot and throwout bearing were replaced, but now they're saying that it's not making any noise or anything to give them reason to think there's any bearing problem, or reason to drop the trans.

In a weird way, I think I actually got somewhere today with the service advisor. He was actually on his hands and knees on the wet pavement in khakis and a buttondown crawling under my truck when he heard that noise. Haha. I'm the kind of person that won't let things go (just ask my gf), and will be a pain in their *** until one way or the other I eventually get the trans fixed.

Honestly, I think one of the problems with this is that Dakotas with a 6 speed are pretty rare (at least around here) and the techs and service managers at the dealer have very limited experience with them. I'm actually thinking of trying to run in by a buddy of mine who has a transmission shop and see what he thinks.

 

my latch did just the same but i sprayed good ole WD--40 in it and it has worked like a charm. My truck has always periodically idled funny but it may do it once and then not again for 1000 miles. About 35k I had transmission problems but i got the trans serviced with new fluids and filters and after the second of filters in a week it worked ok.