You should check your state lemon laws as there may be several qualifying criteria including the number of days its been out of service. Passing a certain numbers of repairs for the same problem can also qualify. In California, more 4 failed attempts to repair the same problem or more than 30 days out of service qualifies a car to be repurchased or replaced by the manufacturer.
Renegade repair thread
- Thread starter digitalwanderer
- Start date
You should check your state lemon laws as there may be several qualifying criteria including the number of days its been out of service. Passing a certain numbers of repairs for the same problem can also qualify. In California, more 4 failed attempts to repair the same problem or more than 30 days out of service qualifies a car to be repurchased or replaced by the manufacturer.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Digi I feel for you but for god's sake why do you keep driving those plastic freedom shit mobiles instead of buying terrorists/freedom fighters car of choice and just be done with it?
digitalwanderer
Legend
I've driven a 2010 Infiniti M35x for 10-11 years now as my daily driver. She has over 166000K on her but she's still in great shape and not only does what I want/need her to do but does it very well, very quickly, and in great comfort. I still smile everytime I drive her still, her name is Emmy.
I did not choose any of the Jeeps nor was I in favor of their purchase, but around here I don't make those decisions. The Jeeps are my wife's thing, she had a CJ-7 back in the 80s and a lot of fond memories of it she's trying to recapture with her current ones. Not gonna knock her if it's what makes her happy, but I don't think I'll ever be a Jeep fan except for the normal fun I have with fixing broken things or upgrade projects.
Next up for me when I'm healthier is a full tune up for Emmy. She needs new plugs, oil, and mebbe an 1/8" plenum expansion to improve performance/efficiency by getting a bit more air to my back 2 cylinders. Did I mention Emmy is uber comfortable? Most comfortable car I've ever sat in. Got her for cheap back in 2012 used and have never, ever regretted it.
digitalwanderer
Legend
Called the dealer and my regular contact wasn't in. All they could tell me is they're waiting on a back ordered "coolant bypass thingy". I asked about lemon laws and they said it had to be in 3 times for the same repair. This is the third time and on Saturday they will have had it for 3 months this time, my usual guy is supposed to call me tomorrow about it.
digitalwanderer
Legend
Almost 4k on the brand new loaner and when I called the dealer today they told me they were waiting on a part. They couldn't tell me what part or why since the normal service guy wasn't in, but the nice sales guy explained to me that it didn't matter how long the vehicle was in the shop it had to have been in for 3 times to get the same repair done and it failing to be fixed. I pointed out this was the 4th time we've had it in for the same problem and he just said, "Hmmm, you should be eligible for a claim then."
He's having Chris (the service guy I've been dealing with) give me a call later with more details, I also asked him to mention to Chris that he'd told me about the 3 times thing and I'm interested in making a claim.
He's having Chris (the service guy I've been dealing with) give me a call later with more details, I also asked him to mention to Chris that he'd told me about the 3 times thing and I'm interested in making a claim.
digitalwanderer
Legend
Not eligible for lemon laws, jumping through corporate hoops to try and reach the Jeep side of the STAR thing to find out what's going on.
digitalwanderer
Legend
I'm 5'10" and don't own nor carry firearms. I prefer "curteously deferential" for an attitude.
digitalwanderer
Legend
Oh I am! Been on the phone with Jeep corporate where they're opening an investigation in to it and then spent some time on the STAR tech line where I learned that our vehicle is not a STAR case according to a VIN search even though the dealer told me they had it as a STAR case since June.
Called the dealer to get the STAR case number in case they messed up the VIN, as usual I'm waiting for them to call back. If nothing else I got corporate on 'em and investigating, made me feel a little better.
If they don't have a STAR case number to give me though it's going to get unpleasant. I can do unpleasant quite well, I just feel bad doing so.
Called the dealer to get the STAR case number in case they messed up the VIN, as usual I'm waiting for them to call back. If nothing else I got corporate on 'em and investigating, made me feel a little better.
If they don't have a STAR case number to give me though it's going to get unpleasant. I can do unpleasant quite well, I just feel bad doing so.
digitalwanderer
Legend
I did not get my 9:30 call so at 11 I called them. My regular contact Chris was busy so they gave me his assistant Brian. I told Brian I just needed the STAR case number, he went to check.
He came back and told me there was no STAR case for our Jeep, they never started one and just diagnosed it inhouse...which means Chris has been lying to me since 6/19 according to my notes and he's been continually lying to me about it using it as an excuse for the delay. I thanked Brian sincerely since he told me more than the dealership has in the past 3 months and asked him to have Chris call me before the end of the day or my lawyer would be contacting them tomorrow.
Gonna get on the phone with Jeep FCA Customer Care. Not really sure what they do or can do, but yesterday the opened a case on it and gave me a case number and said an investigator would be contacting me in a few days. I think I'll inform them of this development.
He came back and told me there was no STAR case for our Jeep, they never started one and just diagnosed it inhouse...which means Chris has been lying to me since 6/19 according to my notes and he's been continually lying to me about it using it as an excuse for the delay. I thanked Brian sincerely since he told me more than the dealership has in the past 3 months and asked him to have Chris call me before the end of the day or my lawyer would be contacting them tomorrow.
Gonna get on the phone with Jeep FCA Customer Care. Not really sure what they do or can do, but yesterday the opened a case on it and gave me a case number and said an investigator would be contacting me in a few days. I think I'll inform them of this development.
digitalwanderer
Legend
digitalwanderer
Legend
Got a call from the Jeep FCE specialist yesterday. They contacted the dealer and told me they talked to the head of repairs and he said the parts had just come in and the renegade woulde be ready tomorrow.
I said,"Was his name Chris? Because he's told me that a lot too"
Turns out he lied to her about a bunch of stuff when we compared notes so they're getting all the documentation to review and are preparing to file a complaint against the dealership...but she advised me not to do that until we get our jeep back which I get. She's following up on progress daily with me and the dealer, so I sort of feel like they're doing something. Just more waiting.
Big thing that bothered me is he's claiming it was brought back for different problems each time, which is just factually incorrect and the documentation shows that. Why did he think he could lie about that?
This is gonna end ugly, but it will end.
I said,"Was his name Chris? Because he's told me that a lot too"
Turns out he lied to her about a bunch of stuff when we compared notes so they're getting all the documentation to review and are preparing to file a complaint against the dealership...but she advised me not to do that until we get our jeep back which I get. She's following up on progress daily with me and the dealer, so I sort of feel like they're doing something. Just more waiting.
Big thing that bothered me is he's claiming it was brought back for different problems each time, which is just factually incorrect and the documentation shows that. Why did he think he could lie about that?
This is gonna end ugly, but it will end.
digitalwanderer
Legend
I don't even want to post about it anymore! It ended up with me trying to change dealerships it was being worked at but there's no where with openings right now. The dealer's "documentation" consisted of 3 pages. 1 about the changed aux water pump, one about me requesting the dealer change, and a third which was just the hand written notes of the tech of the first page. That's all the paperwork on our Renegade?
They made us return the 2022 Compass since they said we had it too long, but they gave us a new loaner the same day we brought it in. My wife is now driving a 2023 Pacifica Touring L and doesn't care how much longer they keep her Renegade. (The Pacifica is pretty nice)
Oh and my 13 year old car needs new brakes but I won't be medically cleared to take the wheels off for another week and a half since they weigh about 50lbs each. <sigh>
They made us return the 2022 Compass since they said we had it too long, but they gave us a new loaner the same day we brought it in. My wife is now driving a 2023 Pacifica Touring L and doesn't care how much longer they keep her Renegade. (The Pacifica is pretty nice)
Oh and my 13 year old car needs new brakes but I won't be medically cleared to take the wheels off for another week and a half since they weigh about 50lbs each. <sigh>
digitalwanderer
Legend
Ugh, Jeep news. They finally got the new water pump all in and working. It overheated within 2 hours. They fixed that, then the oil started overheating and it started misfiring badly.
Tomorrow they start tearing the engine apart again, they think it may be the head gasket. I don't think they have much of a clue.
Tomorrow they start tearing the engine apart again, they think it may be the head gasket. I don't think they have much of a clue.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Ugh, Jeep news. They finally got the new water pump all in and working. It overheated within 2 hours. They fixed that, then the oil started overheating and it started misfiring badly.
Tomorrow they start tearing the engine apart again, they think it may be the head gasket. I don't think they have much of a clue.
It's a Jeep, there's never a rational reason why things don't work.
That probably makes it hard for actual mechanics to fix things.Just kidding ... or am I?
Regards,
SB
At some point this either gets lemon law'd out of your life, or it becomes a lawsuit and they pay you to go away.
There's no way I would want a car they haven't been able to repair for nine months. I'd probably start with whoever the Jeep Pro Repair Chick is; remind her how many times it has been in the shop for literally the same thing, casually get into conversation about having a lawyer buddy to helped you with a prior issue related to this car, and ask her about how much longer before the lemon law solves this problem before you have to find an alternate way to get satisfaction.
Cuz right about now I'd have the lower half of my leg forcefully crammed into someone's posterior orifice and would be using them as a hipwader boot until they bought it back.
There's no way I would want a car they haven't been able to repair for nine months. I'd probably start with whoever the Jeep Pro Repair Chick is; remind her how many times it has been in the shop for literally the same thing, casually get into conversation about having a lawyer buddy to helped you with a prior issue related to this car, and ask her about how much longer before the lemon law solves this problem before you have to find an alternate way to get satisfaction.
Cuz right about now I'd have the lower half of my leg forcefully crammed into someone's posterior orifice and would be using them as a hipwader boot until they bought it back.
digitalwanderer
Legend
New year, new update!
Now they're pretty sure the headgasket is warped and they're going to put a new engine in it. My wife finally asked the big question of "Can we just be done with it and get another vehicle?" to which they replied they'd work on it and get back to us with some numbers.
Yes, this IS insane.
Now they're pretty sure the headgasket is warped and they're going to put a new engine in it. My wife finally asked the big question of "Can we just be done with it and get another vehicle?" to which they replied they'd work on it and get back to us with some numbers.
Yes, this IS insane.
What is this? A Tesla?
Also, I don’t engine good, but wouldn’t you typically replace a warped head gasket with a new, unwarped head gasket rather than a new* (*to you?) engine?
A reasonable question for a non-gearhead; I'm happy to explain!
The function of a head gasket is to seal the cylinder head (think of where the valves and spark plugs live) to the much larger engine block (think of where the pistons live, moving around inside the cylinders.) Modern head gaskets are typically steel, and in fact are usually multiple layers of sandwiched steel - referred to as an MLS gasket. Compare this to old-time head gaskets, which were usually a fiber of some sort, with perhaps a thin steel or copper sealing ring just surrounding the cylinder wall mating surfaces.
Engines run by very tightly compressing air and fuel together, igniting it, and converting the expanding burning gasses into mechanical leverage to turn the crankshaft. There can be thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch inside each cylinder when the engine is at full throttle. As you might imagine, the cylinder head bolts which serve to hold the cylinder head and block together, with the head gasket in the middle, must withstand incredible force to keep everything together.
When you hear about a blown head gasket on a modern engine, it is near-always not a failure of the gasket but instead a failure of the head bolts (irregular clamping pressure allowing a leak) or a failure of the block or cylinder sleeves. In a scant few rare cases, it can be a failure of the compressed fire ring in the gasket usually as a function of a design flaw (the 2.3L Ford Ecoboost engines in the Mustang and Focus RS were an example of this.)
No matter the cause of the blown head gasket, the resulting damage always requires both the cylinder head and the engine block to be machined back to perfectly smooth, flat and square again. Failure to do this right will near-certainly guarantee another failure of the head gasket in the future.
It's also worth noting that both coolant and oil pass thru this gasket in multiple places. If a head gasket has leaked for a while undetected, it may have permitted oil and water/coolant to mix, which may have caused damage to oiled bearings elsewhere in the engine, particularly in the big load-bearing rotating components like crank mains and big-end rod bearings. This can also lead to premature failure of bearing surfaces, which ends up causing the engine to grind itself to seizure and death.
If it has taken a mechanic nine months to figure out a head gasket failure, you should be entirely suspicious of the engine's remaining life.
The function of a head gasket is to seal the cylinder head (think of where the valves and spark plugs live) to the much larger engine block (think of where the pistons live, moving around inside the cylinders.) Modern head gaskets are typically steel, and in fact are usually multiple layers of sandwiched steel - referred to as an MLS gasket. Compare this to old-time head gaskets, which were usually a fiber of some sort, with perhaps a thin steel or copper sealing ring just surrounding the cylinder wall mating surfaces.
Engines run by very tightly compressing air and fuel together, igniting it, and converting the expanding burning gasses into mechanical leverage to turn the crankshaft. There can be thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch inside each cylinder when the engine is at full throttle. As you might imagine, the cylinder head bolts which serve to hold the cylinder head and block together, with the head gasket in the middle, must withstand incredible force to keep everything together.
When you hear about a blown head gasket on a modern engine, it is near-always not a failure of the gasket but instead a failure of the head bolts (irregular clamping pressure allowing a leak) or a failure of the block or cylinder sleeves. In a scant few rare cases, it can be a failure of the compressed fire ring in the gasket usually as a function of a design flaw (the 2.3L Ford Ecoboost engines in the Mustang and Focus RS were an example of this.)
No matter the cause of the blown head gasket, the resulting damage always requires both the cylinder head and the engine block to be machined back to perfectly smooth, flat and square again. Failure to do this right will near-certainly guarantee another failure of the head gasket in the future.
It's also worth noting that both coolant and oil pass thru this gasket in multiple places. If a head gasket has leaked for a while undetected, it may have permitted oil and water/coolant to mix, which may have caused damage to oiled bearings elsewhere in the engine, particularly in the big load-bearing rotating components like crank mains and big-end rod bearings. This can also lead to premature failure of bearing surfaces, which ends up causing the engine to grind itself to seizure and death.
If it has taken a mechanic nine months to figure out a head gasket failure, you should be entirely suspicious of the engine's remaining life.
