Dealership Disasters: When Mechanics Miss the Mark
What else might be incorrectly installed.
If I had a dollar for every story I've heard about dealership mechanics, I might just have enough saved for a down payment on a 392 Jeep. From loose lug nuts and botched oil changes that turned into serious problems, to narrowly escaping a major accident, the tales are endless and unsettling.
First story is a personal one that happened to me. In my other article I went over how I had to replace my entire engine block. I dealt with that and it was what it was and I bit the cost. As soon as I was able to pick up the Jeep, which only took them a total of three days to complete — a turnaround I thought was impressively quick — I remembered that some gasket sealants require 24 hours to cure before adding oil, so I thought that was to quick of an engine replacement. When I began a careful inspection of the Jeep, I noticed the upper oil pan had two bolts coated with an excessive amount of gasket maker, and then to my shock I discovered one bolt had actually broken off and remained stuck in the new engine block. They left it that way and just added more gasket maker into the hole.
I am very meticulous and do not like things done half‑ass, so naturally I used my broken bolt removal kit to bore out the snapped bolt and replaced it with a Mopar bolt (I always have a variety on hand). I then removed the two other bolts that had excessive gasket maker, thoroughly cleaned everything out, and reinstalled those as well. All set.
I didn’t notice anything else under the Jeep, so I moved on to the engine bay area. As I went to lift the hood, I noticed a dent they’d made when pushing the hood all the way back against the windshield, which is common practice when working on a Jeep to create extra space. I have a Hummer‑style snorkel with a mushroom cap, and you have to be careful when laying the hood back because it can press against that snorkel cap. They didn’t care and left the dent.
Next thing I noticed, my Mishimoto radiator had a pretty decent dent in it. I’m 100% certain there was no dent in the radiator before I dropped the Jeep off for the engine replacement. Now I’m getting both pissed and concerned — what else might they have missed or accidentally damaged during the job that I can’t see right away? I took clear pictures of the dents and sent them to the service manager.
About two months later I noticed the notorious complaint every Jeep owner dreads: a distinct radiator fluid smell. I thought to myself, here we go again. The first thing I did was grab my USB-C snake camera, attach it to my phone, and peer into the cavity beneath the upper plenum to check whether any coolant was leaking from the oil cooler. Sure enough, there was a significant amount of fluid. Once I crawled under the Jeep, I could see it pooling by the transmission — exactly what happens as the coolant starts to run down toward the rear while you drive from the cavity. This is not my 3rd time replacing the oil cooler.
I begin to remove the upper plenum and get to work on getting the Mishimoto oil cooler removed which I had installed about two years ago, which had been performing perfectly until now. Clearly, when the mechanics transferred the oil cooler and other components from the damaged block to the new one, they made an error. Sure enough, they had damaged the underside of the Mishimoto oil cooler, causing fluid to leak from one of the ports. Unreal.
Tire goes rolling on its own
The next story comes from a baseball dad who owned a 2023 Jeep JL. I had helped him install a Pedal Commander and add a 2.5-inch lift as well, and the Jeep was running great. I always warned him that if he ever needed to head to the dealership for mechanical work, he should only use one particular dealership about 45 minutes from us, since they’re the only ones I trust — so I thought but after the problems I encountered during my own engine replacement, I no longer trust any of the dealership mechanics.
This particular weekend I was away and could not change the oil on his Jeep and replace the filters. He thought to himself, it’s just an oil change — what could possibly go wrong? He made an appointment with the local Jeep dealership in town and dropped it off on a Saturday morning. Four hours later he received a call from the service manager letting him know the Jeep was all set. Great.
As he drove away from the service area and onto a two-lane, fairly busy road in town, he began to feel the Jeep grow unsteady, as though he were driving through deep sand or slushy snow. Glancing in his rearview mirror, he saw, to his horror, the passenger-side rear tire bouncing free, rolling down the road, vaulting the median and tumbling into the ditch beside the pavement. Thank goodness it didn’t strike any oncoming vehicles, and a serious accident was narrowly avoided. He managed to pull the Jeep safely to the shoulder, then jumped out and went to retrieve the errant tire.
He was livid at this point, beyond angry with the dealership for such a careless, inexcusable mistake. How could they simply forget to tighten the lugnuts? He wasn’t too far away and sprinted back to the dealership to get immediate help and arrange to have the Jeep towed. After a closer inspection, he discovered that two other tires on the Jeep were also dangerously loose because the lugnuts hadn’t been tightened properly. If he had had his two kids in the car, he could easily have gotten into a serious accident — and who knows what the outcome might have been. I told him to go straight into the dealership, threaten a lawsuit if necessary, and demand that they replace the Jeep entirely. After some tense back and forth, he was eventually able to get the manager to give him a new Jeep from the lot that was equivalent to his. Unreal.
Pool of oil after the valet retrieves the Jeep
Next story comes from one of my wife’s dance‑mom friends. She had recently purchased a 2025 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, brand new from a dealership about two hours north of us only a couple of months old. They needed to change the oil (they received an alert on the digital display), and it so happened I was away the weekend they wanted to do this and couldn’t get to it during the week. They decided to take it to the local dealership, even though I had asked them to wait for me to return and not to take it in. But because they had a planned long trip down to Miami, she wanted to get the oil changed before they left.
They arrived at the hotel in Miami, and my wife and youngest child were with them for the dance event they were attending. The Grand Wagoneer stayed in the hotel valet area for the next two days. On the final day, as they were preparing to check out, the valet went to retrieve the Grand Wagoneer and discovered a pool of oil beneath the engine compartment. He immediately informed the owner, and my wife called me to ask what they should do. I said it was most likely just a loose oil pan drain plug or a loose oil filter. I told them to go get one quart of oil and have the valet put it in for them. They did and were on their 2-hour ride back.
After returning home, she went the next day to the dealership to drop it off, and a few hours later they reported it was some sort of crack in the lower oil pan. Which is odd — you would have to strike something pretty hard to crack it; normally the pan would bend first. My immediate thought was that the valet might have caused it, but the Jeep Grand Wagoneer had been in a normal flat parking spot, they had watched where it was parked the whole time, and there was no way this could have happened there. Today we believe someone left the drain plug loose, which would explain the leak without any obvious impact.
DTC errors and electric nightmare
The next story is about a 2021 Jeep JL whose owner began getting DTC codes and check engine lights after owning the Jeep for about eight months. He had purchased this Jeep used from a dealership as a certified pre-owned vehicle. Everything was fine for nearly a year until the nightmare began.
The first DTC code appeared, and it was indicating an electrical problem. Once electrical issues begin, diagnosing the root cause can quickly become difficult and time-consuming. Start by checking the core wiring first: make sure all grounds are clean and securely connected — frame to engine block, negative to engine block — and confirm positive feeds to modules such as the TIPM are solid and free of corrosion. Continue on from there checking continuity and using the DTC code to point you into the right direction.
He swung by so I could hook up my sophisticated Autel OBD-II scanner and check what issues were showing. Right away I started seeing permanent codes indicating problems with his turbo as well as multiple PCM wiring faults. I printed the report for him and told him straight: you still have warranty coverage for this head through the dealership, so take it in and get it sorted — despite my low opinion of their sloppy, lazy mechanics — because fixing it under warranty will cost you next to nothing.
The dealership got back to him 24 hours later and said they needed to replace a bad USB port between the radio and the dash, which they claimed was triggering the PCM DTC code. I found that hard to believe, but they have access to the main cloud-based diagnostic system that I don't, and it provides their recommended fixes. They replaced the “faulty” USB port and also swapped out a turbo “sensor”, and after those repairs, he was back on the road.
Exactly one day after picking up the Jeep, he started seeing more DTC codes pop up. Two of the codes were identical, and on top of that he had two other new ones. He was also experiencing hesitation on startup and when sitting at lights — issues that were separate from the terrible start/stop feature (which I’ll cover in a different article, because it often causes more harm than good to an engine). He was understandably pissed and called me right away. I told him to swing by after work so I could take a look. Sure enough, the Jeep was throwing a bunch of DTCs and the problems appeared worse than before. I should also note that when he bought this used Jeep it had an aftermarket radio installed. My suspicion is that whoever did that installation wired it incorrectly and may have damaged the PCM and the wire harness. For example, never disconnected the negative battery before starting the installing the new radio. Which you should never do. Period.
I told him to head back to the dealership since he had this work completed 24 hours earlier, and to push for either a full replacement of the Jeep or a complete redo of the wiring system, including installing a new PCM and TIPM. He returned confident with the solid argument I had prepared for him and was instructed to stay firm; I also offered to meet him there to explain the situation to the service manager and general manager and act as his wingman if needed. As a result, he was able to get them to replace the entire wiring harness, PCM, and TIPM, and, to our surprise, they also acknowledged a major issue with his transmission and agreed to replace that as well. I suspected from the beginning that he had a lemon, and it turned out I was right. Now he essentially has a new Jeep and the problems are gone. We’ll continue to maintain the Jeep going forward.
