dealer says one thing chrysler says different who to call?

thanks. I didn't even see that link. What I did was select parts from
the main page.

What about the part? I used to have a service manual but can't find it
now. I've been told the pcm and ecu and ecm are all the same part.
I've been told by other people that they are not. I see ecu and ecm
for sale several places. I can't find a pcm for sale though. For a
'99 are they really just different names for the same part ?

Under electrical/powertrain control there is and ecm link.
mechanicsvilledodge list the same price as the dealer was telling me
it costs so it may be the same part? The ecu/ecms at other sites I
found cost a lot less.


stephen

 

Part of the problem appears to be that the "system" the chrysler
customer support people access has different information than the
"system" the parts guy at the dealer has access to. And they didn't
agree. The customer support people would say 'our systems" shows such
and such and the dealer woud say that was wrong because their "system"
would show something different.

stephen

 

That is what the dealer was telling me. He was telling me it could
only come from chrysler. But if if found a used one from a vehicle
what the same configuration and year as mine would that not work?
Assuming I could find out what configuration items needed to be the
same.

stephen

 

I took it to a dealer for seveal reasons. I thought the problem was
electrical in nature. There are not mechanics close to me that I could
find that had good reputations. In the past I have not had good luck
with independent shops in dealing with electrical issues. It seems to
get worse the more computerized vehicles get. Second, I have had good
experiences with this dealer. I've used them for some time. In the
past they have always done a good job fairly quickly. And they are
close to where I live. Also this area is, or was when this first
started, undergoing a mechanics strike. So that limits the places I
could take it.

As to chryslers obligation I'm not sure. I feel they have some
obligation to support a product they manufacture and sell. I think the
least they could have done after I waited two weeks for the part was
to ship the part via overnight shipping instead of sending it through
their aparently two week distribution system.

stephen

 

I really do think you need to post to a Jeep-only forum - to get more
vehicle-specific help (is that part really bad?, what's the exact
nomencalture and part number for that part if it is bad?, etc.).
Perhaps a dealer tech who knows the vehicle will reply and get you
pointed in the right direction.

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

 

I tried that but got only a couple of responses. I got a lot more
response here.

stephen

 

start with the dealer, then customer service, now that's oxy moron

 

Clearly Stephen left out a part of this lengthy story. The dealer is sure
to get none of your money if they don't order another PCM. I can understand
completely that one person says "I sent it" and another person says "I
didn't get it". That happens all the time, all over the world. What I don't
understand is how you got stuck at that point. This is like if you paid your
light bill, and it got lost in the mail, so your electricity got turned off,
and you sat in the dark for the REST OF YOUR LIFE saying, "but I paid my
bill!"

All of us have to deal with the mail every day, including this dealer. Think
about it.

 

That sounds like an actual scam that Chase Manhattan Mortgage tried to
pull about 7 or 9 years ago with a bunch of customers (including me) to
rack up late fees. I think they ended up on 60 minutes or Dateline or
something like that over that one.

But I digress...

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

 

It's not just dc. Ford is doing this now too. I can't get a stupid
rear tail light assembly for my daughter's Mercury because their system
also relies on a dealer-to-dealer system, and there are none in the
entire U.S. for another 2 months. One of those MBA ideas that looks
good on paper. I'm sure the idea is to cut down on money tied up in
inventory. Like JIT, it just doesn't work in the real world unless
someone violates the principle somewhere in the system and warehouses
parts. When auto manufacturers say they do JIT, all it means is that
they push the cost of warehousing reserve inventory back onto the
suppliers without any compensation to the suppliers so the manufacturer
can brag about their "JIT" system. The costs come right out of the
suppliers' margins.

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

 

I call it "almost just in time".

 

It's AIT "almost in time" technology. We're using it at work.

 

The process of dealer - to dealer is for when there is no parts in that
dealers facing PDC (warehouse) since the part will be backordered, and the
parts ordering system will look at the dealers stock in the area, and send a
request to the dealer for the part. Dc pays the supplying dealer to courier
the part to the dealer that needs it. So how is that bad. Do you want to
wait a month to get it from DC suppliers? this system is provided to help
speed up getting the parts. If it doesn't it is because the other dealers
did not want to sell the part!

 

the suppling dealer is paid about 4 dollars and the actual shipping can run as
high as 30 dollars depending on the part
if vendors were forced to stock parts this would not be a issue

 

There's nothing wrong with shopping the dealers if the system is out of
a given part, and it would be wise to exploit that previously untapped
resource. The *problem* occurs when the system is re-geared to *depend*
on that previously untapped source - IOW, *IF*, as is typical of
scatterbrained MBA-think, what used to be the usual statistically
reasonable levels of warehouse inventory is cut way back, and a new
dependence is built on being able to scavenge from the network of
dealers (with levels of a given part in that "reservoir" being totally
random), then you have happen what is now commonplace: no availability
of a given part for several weeks or even months - not just once in a
blue moon, but routinely. Basically the system is dry until a new
production run of the given part is made to replenish the traditional
warehousing system.

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