I brought my truck to the dealership on May 15, 2006, they confirmed it had a blown head gasket, and to my surprise it was still under warranty. That was the only warm fuzzy I got from the ordeal. They kept my truck until June 14th! I am still pissed about that. They had to replace the heads and assorted gaskets, but I could do all of that in a day and a half, and that's conting beer breaks and a nap. My wife and I both own Chrysler vehicles that we bought new. I guess I was just naive when I thought a dealership would take care of our needs and make repairs in a timely manner. To add insult to injury, when I picked it up from Mike Smith Dodge, my drivers side window suddenly quit working. I sent a love letter to Mike Smith Dodge and to DaimlerChrysler Customer Assistance. I got a reply from the latter thanking me for my input.
I see a Ford or Chevy in my future.

 

jgbour,

I am sorry to hear your dealership did a poor job of keeping you informed on the progress of the work they were doing. So why are you pissed at Chrysler when they fixed your truck under warranty?

IMHO, why would you think that Ford or Chevy would be any better? I have read the Chevy & Ford message boards and see that they have many more dealerships that are not so great then I have heard about Chrysler.

Right now Chevy has had overheating problems for over 2 years and until recently just acknowledged the problem with a TSB and then they make the owners jump through many hoops to get the problem taken care of. Also I have read & heard from a person who works at a Chevy dealership that Chevy has told the dealers to try and void the warranty on any work needed if they see any mods on the trucks even going to an extreme of they changed the tires to a bigger size.

You will find good and bad in any vehicle on the road today. Good luck with what ever you decide.

Charles

 

I am new to this forum and I have a 2004 4.7 with 82K. I bought thistruck new.Like you my check engine light is on. We have a code scanner and we hooked it up and it's showing the P0301 - Cylinder 1 Misfire. Right before that lovely scanner came, I took it to Port City Chrysler Dodge in Portsmouth, NH where I bought it, had told them that it was very hot and went over the 1/2 mark on the trip up to the dealership, white smoke coming out of my exhaust...though it did not overheat. I put the heat on blast (in 90 degree weather even) to get the temp down. So you know what the dealership did? They put brand new spark plugs in and prob cleared the light and it came back on when I got my truck back. After dropping 219 bucks, 183 of it was labor. SOOOO, I took it to a friend of a friend who is mechanic. He just called me and said it might be that there is a head leak issue where coolant is somehow getting into the spark and causing the misfire...thus too the white smoke.

So would a leaking head gasket be an expensive fix? I am surfing this site and all I see is 2000 and more to fix. I am screwed if that happens. I got rid of a Honda Civic because of a major expense. This is very disheartening. I guess I will read some more to educate myself.

 

How many miles are on your truck?

 

how many miles on your truck?

 

New to this site, but have gotten a lot of information from it about my '02 Quadcab 4.7 automatic. Same problem here, had issues with Gunn Dodge in San Antonio. Interesting information on the 4.7 overheating problem. Same thing here: no problems, temp shows overheating and check engine light. Replaced hoses and thermostat (stock 195 @ $25.00!!). New coolant (50/50) and good for two days before head gasket blows. Dealer wants $9200 for new engine, $6200 for used. Owed about $1000 to pay off truck w/ 108k on it. No thanks. Getting friend to fix and getting rid of truck. Really disappointed that "maintenance issues" were the reason for this failure, even though dealer did not discuss with me!! Won't buy Dodge again (or Chrysler or Jeep).

 

Thank you for the reply. I actually have a semi resolution, but I am going to send your post to the Dodge dealership. I am soooo tempted. I luckily had an extended service plan which I purchased when I refinanced the truck last year. I had a blown head gasket and yeh they even broke the timing chain during dissembly. So my cost would have been 1984 something like that and I paid only 172. The point is I guess I love my truck, but reading your issue sort of makes me wonder what lies ahead. So I have to show this to my boyfriend. Incidentally, did you do the proper coolant flushing at 30K and 100K as it says you are supposed to? Is yours a 2004 and do you tow with it? I don't do any towing and really have not abused this truck. That is the sucky part. We drive in the mountains and I use my 4 wheel drive in the winter, but there is no out of the ordinary use. It's a truck for crying out loud.