I moved to Houston from Chicago and found a Dodge Dealer (Allen Samuels) close to my apartment. My first breakdown - splash shield fell off causing my belt to come off. They fixed that and did my brakes which had a major problem of very poor brake action such that I could have had an accident from poor brakes. They replaced my master cylinder, rebuilt 2 front calipers, replaced two rear cylinders, resurfaced the rear drums, cut the rotors, and bled my system. This first repair seemed fair to me and it totaled $1221.28

Well, my 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport broke down again on my way to work Dec 20th. I nursed it to the dealer with a broken water pump that made the belt slide off. I just told them it was a slipped belt from a bad splash shield but when they diagnosed it they said my water pump broke. Then they mentioned additional repairs - 2 coolant hoses needed replacing, the thermostat needed replacing, the Oil pressure switch needed replacing, and the coolant system needed flushing. I didn’t think the oil pressure switch or coolant hoses were bad, and my big mistake was I said it was ok to do the work before getting a price quote for it all. I was in a bit of hurry to go to work. So after I came back from work, this is what they charged -

Oil Pan Gasket -
Parts - $42 Labor $219.95

Oil Change $9.95

Belt & Spalsh Shield Repair - Free Warranty Repair

Water Pump Replacement
Parts - $90.00 Labor 219.95

Cooling System Flush
Parts - $48.70 Labor $147.84

Thermostat and Gasket
Parts $21.00 Labor $100.00

Oil Pressure Switch
Parts $30.00 Labor 100.00

Total $1230.72

I think I paid too much for Labor on the Oil Pan Gasket, Thermostat, and Oil Pressure Switch. Anyone know the proper charges for my items!

Don’t make the same mistake I made! Ask for a quote before authorizing any work!

 

I'm not sure which engine you have, but if it is a 3.3 or 3.8, I can relate to the amount of work since I've done them. I will say that the labor charges are excessive. Yes--dealer charges can be high, but they should normally fall within the "flat labor charge" for each item that most dealers adhere to. I don't think that any of them sound reasonable.

 

I'm not sure what thier labor rate is there. For the times it should take the labor rate almost looks like 100+ an hour. Oil pressure switch would not take an hour. The oil pan is way excessive. It seems almost like they didn't take into consideration that if you water pump was being replaced, the coolant would be already out. But in that case my question would be. Did it run? just leak a litte? because to do a coolant flush you must put a checmical flush in the system when it is at operating temp, evac it, and put new in it. Depending on the machine they may be able to put some pressure through the system to push debris out.

I feel bad when things like this happens to customers. It gives us honest guys a bad reputation and that dealers are just aholes trying to get money. Have faith there are some good ones out there. You just need to be selective, and keep your ear to the ground. I feel you already learned that lesson (i don't mean in any way to rub it in).

 

Their labor rate is $95 / hour. Maybe I'll give them a complaint call tommorrow to see if they can give me a partial refund based on some feedback.

At first, I thought $147 was too much to change 2 hoses. And I changed 5 hoses (in 1.5 hrs) on my 1999 Honda Civic HX but it was such a bitch to do. Maybe those Dodge hoses were hard to reach.

 

I agree they must have saw you coming I am sorry it looks like they took advantage of you a local dealership did the same to my folks I would talk to the sevice manager and explain that some of the work done should have been included while water pump was being changed if not chrysler has a service complain line I would look for another dealer not all of them are like that where I live we have two close by one is shadier than the day is long the other is awsome chrysler may help with the automakers sales in the toliet they may want to make things right to keep things right for future sales I know ford did this to me when I purchased a ranger from them I got a new one out of it still had pay for it but I got a new one out of the deal Good Luck

 

And THAT's why I NEVER go to the stealership unless it's a 100% FREE warranty repair.

 

It does sound like they saw you coming!
The water pump "broke"???
Water pumps do not break! They slowly go bad but you get plenty of warning,,,if you pay attention.

Find an honest shop and read these forums to get a feel for what to look for the next time something "breaks".

 

All of that costed too much.

With all the things in the cooling system, maybe it was not a bad idea to replace them but with the oil pressure switch, how did they decide that it was bad?

A lot of shops, especially stealerships, will want to replace a lot of crap whether it needs it or not.

Don't ever be in too much of a hurry to get a little more thorough explanation of what needs to happen.

 

3.3/3.8 water pumps are notorious for leaking.

 

which engine do you have? assuming you have a 3.3/3.8 the Alldata labor times are as follows.

oil pan gasket 1.0 hours, sounds like you got overcharged on that one

water pump 0.9 hours, again overcharged.

thermostat 0.7 hours

oil pressure sending unit 0.7 hours. these are the times my dealer would have charged, and thats at 106 an hours. rediculous i know but I didn't make the rate. it still seems to me you got overcharged by a couple hundred dollars at least. ask for a break down of all the work then call them out on it.