300M clunking is fixed

I haven't picked up my car yet but the Dodge dealer who accepted the
challenge called me up and was all excited and declared the car fixed.
Apparently, with the very warm weather today (70 degrees here in NC) the car
did it consistently. 3 technicians (one in the car turning the wheel)
worked it until they found a torn inner tie rod bushing. It was also not
properly torqued. He says case is closed.

My question is that in replacing the 2 front struts would the Chrysler
dealer have touched that bushing?
How about when changing the steering rack?
How about when changing the bottom half of the steering column?

I am asking those as separate questions to determine at what point, if at
all, the Chyrsler dealer messed up.

Thanks for everyone's help on my clunk. By the way, there were surely
multiple clunks involved.

 

Art,

So glad it *finally* worked out for you. Any way to get something back from
the first dealer as in terms of free maintenance or are you done with that
dealership?

Ken

 

I did a google search and came up with this interesting complaint regarding
previous generation LH vehicles:

http://www.daimlerchryslervehicleproblems.com/steering_lawsuit.htm

 

Anyone read this page? It is hilarious.

http://www.daimlerchryslervehicleproblems.com/

Might make a chrysler owner afraid to drive.

 

I am shipping the car to my in-laws in Florida. We will be without a
Chrysler product for the first time in 13 years. I am interested in finding
out whether the first dealer messed up but all of this mess began with a
pothole and some expensive repairs were done under warranty when it could
have been denied. So my in-laws get a car with a new steering rack, new
struts, new strut bearing plates, new bottom half of steering column and a
few odds and ends. I spent $900 at the Chrysler dealer and I don't know
what at the Dodge dealer. I'll post the amount when I find out. But the
rack would have been $1400 installed I believe and some have failed way
under the 100k mile mark so it could be worse. They will certainly drive
the car more than 100k so hopefully they will escape the cost of the rack
because of the clunk solution process.

 

Perhaps Chrysler would be interested in your adventures?

Ken

 

Sounds bogus me. I've never had problems as described by this site. I have
had three Chrysler products since 1991 to present.

Hmmmm

 

I guess I should also state that just because it didn't happen to me doesn't
make it impossible.

 

Actually most of the issues there are well known but dramatized and
comparable issues probably exist for other makes. I remember when Honda
first went to timing belts. When they started to fail prematurely they sent
letters telling owners that the maintenence interval had been decreased and
you better get your belt changed soon at your cost.

 

They could have, but shouldn't have. IOW - it's much easier to
disconnect at the outer tie rod than the inner tie rod, and the outers
have to be disconnected at some point in the process to remove the old
struts (i.e., each outer tie rod attaches directly to an arm that is
part of the its respective strut). A competent mechanic would not have
touched the inners for that job - it would have been time wasted.

Absolutely. The inner tie rod bushings are what attach the tie rods
(two - left and right) directly to the rack. Each inner tie rod (there
are two - left and right) has a hole in it. The hole has the annular
ring bushing in it. A bolt goes thru that bushing and threads directly
into the (side-to-side) moving element of the rack.

I'm not sure about that one - but if the rack did not have to be removed
for that process, I'm thinking 'no' to that one.

With as common and known a wearout problem as the inner tie rod bushings
on an LH car are, someone had to be pretty freaking dishonest or
incompetent (or both) to have missed that until $1000 later in the
troubleshooting process. I'd be pi$$ed, but sometimes you have to cut
your losses and move on. Once again, I'm dreading the day when I can no
longer work on my own cars for exactly this kind of crap!

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

One other detail on this, Art: When an alignment is done, if the
technician locks the adjuster sleeve down with the tie rods leaning over
fore or aft, the tie rod gets into a binding situation when the wheels
are turned (as in turning left or right) - the result is an awful
twisting stress on the tie rods that will wear the inner bushings out in
no time flat. A good alignment technician knows that he has to manually
rotate the tie rods to be pointing fairly close to straight up as he
tightens the adjuster sleeve (some sideways leaning is OK, but not a
lot). I'm not saying this is what caused your problem. Most likely
some of the previous repair work that was done is to blame, or at least
it should have been discoverd before now. The fact that one of the
inner tie rod bolts was (apparently loose - reading between the lines of
what you were told) is some indication that that is the likely
explanation. On the other hand, the new dealer said the bushing was
"torn" - that would point more to acute extreme physical stress as in
the not-straight-up-pointing tie rod after an alignment (or
re-assembly). Hard to say for sure. Like I said - sometimes you just
cut your losses and walk away - not worth fighting with them over unless
you find a real smoking gun.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

I pretty much knew the answer regarding the steering rack/inner tie rods. I
don't understand how the original Chrysler dealer could reassemble the front
end after replacing the rack and screw it up then. The same dealership then
would have done an alignment to finish the job. I figure that is where they
screwed up. I will talk to the Chrysler dealer about this but will not get
into a frenzy. I am thinking they should at least cover the Dodge dealer
repair cost. Though I doubt they will.

 

to change a rack the inner tierods are taken off the rack and it would
have been caused by the tech doing the rack change
i would be looking at all my paperwork in the order the work was done
after the rack and start thinking about some refund money if parts
were replaced after the rack was put for the same klunk

 

Also, it should be a matter of course on the LH's to replace the inner
tie rod bushings when replacing the rack ($20 for the bushings, 98% of
the labor is already there for the rack job). But then again, even if
they replaced them, if they got screwed up because of the subsequent
alignment (the tie rod lean-over thing)...

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

u think thats bad just wait untill the hyundi owners find the timing belts
letting loose at 60 k and it not covered under the 100 k warranty they have, and
that includes the bent valves because it's
a interference motor
i have done 3 in the last 4 months

 

True. Timing belts and inteference engine design both in the same
low-end consumer vehicle: Engineering malpractice at its best.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

So, now this means you WON'T be giving your In-Laws a Clunker?

--
A young girl I know told me I drive like an old man

I told her, actually, I drive like Mario Andretti.
It's just that too many other people on the road
drive like Paul Tracy...

 

Looks like the Dodge dealer fixed it. No sign of clunk. Too bad they
didn't get steeing wheel back exactly straight. I'll leave that to my
father in law. I will talk to the Chrysler dealer Monday and see what they
say about their errors.

 

I almost forgot. They charged $200 which I thought was a bargain
considering.

 

Is this a particular problem with with LH cars or is it a issue on other
makes and models?