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What did you do to your Ram today???

I’m sorry to post this here & you guys as admin‘s can delete this after the fact but I need a quick answer and this seems to be the most popular thread. Getting an oil change and tire rotation right now on my wife’s 20 Durango and they snapped a stud that the Lugnuts attach to. Wanting to charge $172 to replace the stud 🤯 $125 for the stud itself plus the half hour labor and said it’s not covered under warranty. Are the studs considered a wearable item then? I plan on pushing back on the service manager but haven’t got to that point yet. Thanks in advance!

Edit: Dealer says studs are considered wearable item per warranty contract. I used to do my own service but simply don’t have the time anymore so been using dealer & also easier to keep records this way. Feeling like I’ll figure out how to make time to start doing sh*t myself again. I already know what likely happened - they broke the lugs free with the impact or torqued them back on instead of breaking or tightening by hand.
 
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Tricky one there. Neither party can prove there wasn't an underlying weakness or issue unless one side admits negligence.
They will always accuse the last shop of stripping or stretching the studs, it's never their fault. :rolleyes:
I'll buy the parts if they eat the labor and that's the best offer I'd give them. It goes downhill real fast if that compromise gets refused.
 
lapoolboy said:
Uh, if they snapped a stud then they should be replacing it at their expense. This is a no-brainer.s
lapoolboy said:
Uh, if they snapped a stud then they should be replacing it at their expense. This is a no-brainer.
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This!!!

They crosstreaded one my lugs and I had them replace it under warranty. I was only at 13000 km at the time mind you, but that shouldn't matter.

If they break it, they fix it. Period!
 
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I pushed back on the service manager here who has been here a long time & he is cool. Fixing it for $15 & taking the blame for it - for now anyway, not finished yet. At first the service advisor said the Durango had no record here & texting my wife to confirm since my memory sucks - I brought it to a different Ram dealer for the first change, another Ram dealer for the next 1 or 2, & this dealer for this one & possibly the last one & trying to confirm.

I brought my last Ram here & the new one here every 5k miles. Will keep you updated but would think they should cover at least most of it. I can hear them arguing over it in the office now between themselves.
 
Bpebler said:
I pushed back on the service manager here who has been here a long time & he is cool. Fixing it for $15 & taking the blame for it - for now anyway, not finished yet. At first the service advisor said the Durango had no record here & texting my wife to confirm since my memory sucks - I brought it to a different Ram dealer for the first change, another Ram dealer for the next 1 or 2, & this dealer for this one & possibly the last one & trying to confirm.

I brought my last Ram here & the new one here every 5k miles. Will keep you updated but would think they should cover at least most of it. I can hear them arguing over it in the office now between themselves.
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Fair enough. It could have been over torqued at some time which could have caused a stress fracture or other damage. But, they should not be stealing from you. It’s less than $8 their cost and can be changed in less than 30 min. Something you might consider now is the condition of the others. You might want to swap them out at home soon. It should be an easy job If you have the right tools.
 
I agree. However, I’ve realized now that we took it to a different Ram dealer for the last oil change/rotation & they cross threaded the lug onto the stud so it’s that dealer that should be responsible, not this one.

On the other hand, it only has 22k on it so Ram should cover it under warranty in my opinion even if it is considered a wearable item. If I was in the manager’s position I’d think I could help out my customer & claim under warranty to get paid by Ram. And that sounds like that is what they are doing now - charging me $15 & likely getting the rest out of Ram or just biting it.

I do think I’ll show the service advisor the actual cost of the stud now that you’ve shared that with me because that’s straight up maddening. Thanks!
 
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Rock Crawler said:
Fair enough. It could have been over torqued at some time which could have caused a stress fracture or other damage. But, they should not be stealing from you. It’s less than $8 their cost and can be changed in less than 30 min. Something you might consider now is the condition of the others. You might want to swap them out at home soon. It should be an easy job If you have the right tools.
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Yeah I’ve had to replace them on the Jeep Cherokee before & wasn’t too bad. Figured should be about the same. At first I asked the supervisor if they had to swap the entire hub & if the studs are welded to it & if that was why the price was so high. Now it feels like it’s just him trying to take advantage of me - probably because I complained about him to the veteran service advisors here for his lack of concern when I told him to tell the techs to break the lugs by hand instead of with the impact since I just put the Vossen wheels on. My brother & one of my best friends have been mechanics for a out 2 decades - I’d think a real tech would know to break the lugs by hand when seeing custom wheels in any case without having to be told.
 
Ended up buying a package again for my wife’s vehicle especially since I am here each month with my ram as many miles as I drive but in the end they ended up covering 100% of the cost.

Now to open up a new can of worms – low totem pole service advisor says they use Castrol full synthetic and I get the paperwork back and it says synthetic blend 😑 I read a lot on these forums about full synthetic oil types and Castrol is not one of the brands mentioned so does anyone here have any experience or hopefully good things to say about it? Otherwise I will just start taking at least my Ram back to the dealer that uses full synthetic Pennzoil, if I remember correctly.
 
Bpebler said:
I agree. However, I’ve realized now that we took it to a different Ram dealer for the last oil change/rotation & they cross threaded the lug onto the stud so it’s that dealer that should be responsible, not this one.

On the other hand, it only has 22k on it so Ram should cover it under warranty in my opinion even if it is considered a wearable item. If I was in the manager’s position I’d think I could help out my customer & claim under warranty to get paid by Ram. And that sounds like that is what they are doing now - charging me $15 & likely getting the rest out of Ram or just biting it.

I do think I’ll show the service advisor the actual cost of the stud now that you’ve shared that with me because that’s straight up maddening. Thanks!
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They should be able to look under the maintenance history, if it was done at a different dealer, and see who the last to touch the lugs were. The dealers can fight over the cost, but it's definitely not your responsibility to pay to fix it.
 
Bpebler said:
Ended up buying a package again for my wife’s vehicle especially since I am here each month with my ram as many miles as I drive but in the end they ended up covering 100% of the cost.

Now to open up a new can of worms – low totem pole service advisor says they use Castrol full synthetic and I get the paperwork back and it says synthetic blend 😑 I read a lot on these forums about full synthetic oil types and Castrol is not one of the brands mentioned so does anyone here have any experience or hopefully good things to say about it? Otherwise I will just start taking at least my Ram back to the dealer that uses full synthetic Pennzoil, if I remember correctly.
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This is a non-issue to me. Even "full synthetic" oil isn't really true synthetics anymore. They are all group 3 based hydrocracked oil. The quality isn't going to be any different between the Castrol or the Pennsoil the other dealer uses. Even the Pennzoil isn't a true full synthetic.
 
HSKR R/T said:
This is a non-issue to me. Even "full synthetic" oil isn't really true synthetics anymore. They are all group 3 based hydrocracked oil. The quality isn't going to be any different between the Castrol or the Pennsoil the other dealer uses. Even the Pennzoil isn't a true full synthetic.
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Good to know & hear from someone who knows the industry as well as you, Husker. Thanks man! No true full synthetics to choose from really anymore though huh?
 
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Bpebler said:
Good to know & hear from someone who knows the industry as well as you, Husker. Thanks man! No true full synthetics to choose from really anymore though huh?
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You have to be very specific and look at the molecular makeup of the "group" of oils.


To piggy back off what hskr said I think it's something like all readily available full synthetics are now group 3? You can still order the other groups but it would be "boutique" oil. Think of amsoil where you can't just walk into autozone and buy it.

Bobistheoilguy is where I get a lot of my information cause they're oil nerds.
 
Grape_Ape said:
You have to be very specific and look at the molecular makeup of the "group" of oils.


To piggy back off what hskr said I think it's something like all readily available full synthetics are now group 3? You can still order the other groups but it would be "boutique" oil. Think of amsoil where you can't just walk into autozone and buy it.

Bobistheoilguy is where I get a lot of my information cause they're oil nerds.
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I just ordered a kit from Blackstone & going to take a sample before my next (7th) oil change. Maybe I will switch to a quality oil like this and take the same samples and then compare the numbers for everyone.
 
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