Mentioned this in another thread but wondering if anyone at all can give me some input about this.

Back story kept short- Friend tried to change our timing belt, something went wrong, broken rockers, had it towed to the dealership, they changed it all out and bill came to about $3000 (about 1/2 of that is labor). That basically gets us up to last night.

DH gets off work and goes to pick up my jeep. Pulls out of the parking space and loses AC and power steering before he is even out of the parking lot. Opens the hood and sees the serpentine belt is just hanging there- ends up that the shaft the fan clutch is on (or something like that, I haven't actually seen it) broke and flew right into my (brand new) radiator. It was the end of the business day by the time it happened so not much could be done right away but the jeep was left with the service department and we were told to call in the morning and they would have a rental car. Of course, they were also unable to reverse the charges for the payment we made because the office was already closed so they still have our car and also have our money...

So, this morning I call about the rental car and get the run around. Suddenly no one knows anything about it. Our 'advisor' calls me back and says that he talked to the service manager and that they are not taking responsibility for the broken fan, that it was just a 'random parts failure'- yeah, that just happened to occur right after they had their hands on it...

Obviously I have major doubts about that, especially since the tech actually told my husband and our mechanic friend that he had manhandled the fan to get it back on "with a big wrench and a hammer". Even before that, who is to say that their tech didn't accidentally drop it or something. Even more, they made these statements before they could even really look into what happened- the department was already closed for the day when they had to leave the jeep last night and this morning I called before their actually shop hours start. At most they may have had 30 minutes to take a quick look and that's only if someone decided to stay late or start early. I know that they won't want to admit wrong because it's going to cost them but how am I supposed to feel secure with their service when my car can't even make it out of the parking lot?

I've done a bit of searching and so far haven't found mention of this 'parts failure' occurring to anyone else, but maybe I'm not searching for the right thing. Anyone have any experience? Are we wrong to expect them to take responsibility? Anyone have any regional contact information for Jeep? We've got the Jeep and Chrysler group contacts from their website but can't find any contact info for regional management.

In order to make an informed call you need to know exactly what broke and where. Comments:
1. the fan itself is bolted (4 bolts) to the engine side of the fan clutch. From that location if all 4 bolts broke (IMHO impossible) the fan could not physically go into the radiator as it cannot fit past the fan clutch.
2. the fan clutch attaches the fan base via a 36mm nut attached to what looks like a solid metal shaft going into the fan clutch housing. If that shaft somehow broke (I don't really see how and I've never heard of one breaking) or if the guts of the fan clutch came apart so the shaft was no longer attached to the clutch (never heard of that either but...) then the fan and the clutch could impact the radiator. If either of these happened than the fan clutch nut would still be on the fan base. I am disturbed by the comment about putting the fan "back on" with a big wrench and a hammer. One needs those tools to REMOVE the fan but doing so puts zero stress on the fan clutch or shaft going into the clutch housing. One INSTALLS the fan by simply screwing it onto the fan base with no more effort than could be exerted by the average 2 year old child once threading is started.
3. the fan base (what the serp belt goes around) is attached to the engine block by 4 bolts, reached thru cutouts in the fan base. The fan base has to be removed for the timing belt to be changed which of course means it has to be reinstalled properly. Translation while I consider it impossible for those 4 bolts to break it's certainly possible for them to a) not all be installed, b) not any installed, or c) if installed not tightened in any of which cases it's possible for the fan base to come detached from the block and the fan clutch/fan/fan base impact the radiator (frankly at a distance my bet is this is what happened). However, there is likely a bearing in that fan base assembly and I suppose it's possible that the bearing went south and the front portion of the fan base (bottom still attached to the engine) along with the fan clutch/fan went into the radiator.

Bottom line for the serp belt to just be hanging there and the fan clutch/fan to be in the radiator then something drastic likely happened to the fan base that the fan screws onto which is why I suspect they goofed on reinstalling that base although failure of the base bearing might could do the same but in that case part of the fan base should still be bolted to the engine block.

Best I can do without seeing anything.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

This is exactly what I was thinking too- can't figure out why he would have so much trouble reinstalling the fan clutch unless maybe they cross threaded it somehow? From what I understand, the actual shaft was broken, but can't verify what all ended up where. But I can imagine that beating on the shaft or in that vicinity can't be good for it.


I suggested this to our friend who was there and he doesn't seem to think this is the case. But it seems that either way we look at it, they should be taking responsibility for it. Unless of course it was this bearing thing happened, but I've never heard of that either.

Thanks for the input. I really wish they had thought to snap some pics with their phones but I guess no one anticipated that the dealer would be trying to pull this crap since last night they were nothing but cooperative. Of course, they probably just wanted the guys to leave so they could go home. Our friend who was dealing with all of this called the VP of the dealership and left a message this morning. Haven't heard anything back yet and still haven't tracked down a number for the regional office... well, I did find a number for Atlanta but its apparently the wrong number because it goes to someone's personal phone- yikes, I'd hate to have that number!

And just got off the phone with Jeep customer service and that was no help whatsoever. Said we had to work it out with the service manager who has conveniently been 'out of the office' or 'in a meeting' everytime we have asked to speak to him. She did called him herself while I sat on hold for forever but they told her the same thing- they won't be held responsible. Funny though that it went from a 'random parts failure' to them now blaming us- yeah, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the guy beating on it with a hammer! DH is talking about getting a lawyer. I hate that they still have my jeep and I'm stuck here because that sure is giving them plenty of time to cover up their mistakes...

Well I suppose they can try to cover things up but they are pretty much on the hook to produce all the broken parts for inspection and it's easy enough to deduce from those parts what broke, how and why.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

When I did the timing belt I discovered that the service manual incorrectly lists the torque for the bolts that hold the fan mount (those four bolts mentioned above) as 105ft-lbs (or something close - going by memory), whereas elsewhere it is clear that for that sized bolt it should be about 35 ft-lbs. Fortunately, I felt the bolt stretching and stopped before damaging the block.. tossed the bolts and purchased four new ones to complete the install.

My guess is that the tech just looked at the SM, set his torque wrench to 100+ ft. lbs. and if he noticed at all just shrugged and figured that with four of 'em they'd hold.

Pull those bolts and they should tell the story... ; ' (

The erroneous service manual should allow them to save face and cover the damage themselves, if they have the integrity to fess up.

FYI - Mark

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2005 Liberty CRD
2004.5 Cummins 5.9L TD, F1s, NV5600 6-speed in a '93 GMC Suburban

That would certainly do it and msilbernagel is spot on. Both 05 and 06 FSMs say 110 ft. lbs. which is obviously wrong. As I recall there is a similar error relative to glow plug torque.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

I can't believe they'd give you the run-around on this one. When any shop works on your vehicle, they place a warranty on the work, and if you can't even drive it far enough to get it off their lot . . . well, looks like a pretty open-and-shut case to me. Now if they worked on the engine, and a rear wheel fell off, not their fault, but they HAD to work on the fan and clutch assembly, and the tech who worked on it already admitted as much, so what's the big deal?

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear of this whole affair and hope they get their act together and do the right thing without further ado.

If you charged this on a credit card call the issuing card company and dispute the charge untill it's resolved
Forget calling the service manager he's obviously a slime ball, go to the dealership owner or manager and refuse to be passed back to the slime ball.
I would think they have insurance for such "repairs" gone bad.
Does your state have a small claims court? It sounds like you have a good case.

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Atlantic Blue 06 CRD Limited (his)
Joined by a 2000 XJ Classic (hers)

Update:
Yesterday afternoon DH went by the dealership after work and met with the VP who apparently is also the owner's son-in-law. They've got the good ole boy system down pat over there because he is sticking behind what the service guys say. Even said plain out 'I stand behind whatever my service manager tells me, even if he is wrong' (seriously?) However, after much back and forth, DH was able to get them to reverse the credit card charges fully and they came to an 'agreement' that on the new service they would not charge us any labor and they would work it out for it to only cost us about $200 more out of pocket for the parts. And we got that 'quote' in writing with all the VPs contact information if it comes down to it. Not that we were really happy about that and we are still totally fighting this but DH felt at the time that they weren't going to reverse charges otherwise.

We talked to another dealership in the area to get their advise basically about how their shop would handle the situation. They told us that since they had installed the part then they would of course do anything they could to make it right. That service manager was horrified to hear how this is all going down and highly encouraged us to get a complaint filed through Chrysler group ASAP. So, that's been done now. They say we should hear something back within 24 hours but since it's a weekend I'm not expecting anything until maybe Monday. Plus I just got finished completed my service survey from Chrysler and was very detailed in my responses.

What I really don't get is that with all this blame making going on, they haven't actually taken the vehicle apart to examine the broken part. They are so adament that it wasn't their fault and are quick to tell us what 'must have happened' but haven't even looked in to it more then just leaning under the hood. That bothers me. And of course they are now saying that our friend brought them the part messed up and the nut was all chewed up when they got it. That is all a lie for sure. If the nut is chewed up it's because their tech beat on it. But the story on that now is that he didn't 'beat it in' (which were his words) but he 'gently tapped' it in (which even that shouldn't have been necessary). And even then, if the part was not stable when they got it then why did they put it back in? DH asked them that yesterday sarcastically- if they often reinstall parts that are obviously damaged without contacting the owner first (aren't these people usually all about the upsale?) and shockingly they said that, yes they do. I swear those guys must be complete idiots because they keep plain out telling us all these shady things they do!

The good news is they called today to say my jeep is ready (again).

Not so good news is that apparently my battery needs replaced and is no longer holding any charge. They can't start it. (Worked just fine when we brought the jeep in) Probably safe to assume that they haven't test drove it yet then to make sure they didn't screw it up further. Not that they intend to actually test drive it since they obviously didn't the first go round. We do have an extra battery though that DH got for cheap at work a while back so atleast that isn't going to cost us anything additional and its not a huge deal.

The bad news is that they are telling us now that we have to pay cash if we want our jeep. I'm assuming this is so we won't have a foot to stand on as far as disputing charges if (when?) the jeep falls apart again on the way home. Not that we were planning on picking up the jeep until everything is sorted out.

Apparently filing a complaint with corporate is a joke. No final word yet but when they talked to DH the other day they gave him some line about "Well, since the jeep is not under warranty, we really don't have a case".

So, now were contacting lawyers. I'm really amazed that it has even come to this because everyone that we have talked to has said the same thing- how can they not take responsibility? Including other dealerships and my brother who also works for DC. Just worried now that I may never get my Jeep back. Atleast not in the same great condition is was in when I last drove it.