2007 Warranty about to expire need Letterman Top 10 warranty items to check for

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Shulkster

Guest
The goal of this thread is to give myself and future people a list of items that they can take to their dealership to pro-actively check prior to their warranty expiring. Ranking the importance of 1 very very common or very expensive issue and try to push the dealer to check and/or replace and 10 not as important or costly once you are out of warranty. In creating the list including the url to a prior discussion on the topic would also be helpful. This would give me great leverage when I see the dealer over the next 20 days. I will start the list off with a current post that gave me this idea not sure were on the list it belongs but tossing it up ?

1) Problem: Original battery dying or a charging problem = Solution: Check battery Cable
Discussion Thread: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10155
From Josh 2/20/10: :cheers: Recommendation Possible cause may be high resistance in the cable from the starter motor to the battery, caused by a loose crimp at the 300 Amp fusible link. Perform a voltage drop test over the cable from the starter to the battery while at the same time doing a â??wiggleâ?? test on the cable at the fusible link. If corrosion is present and/or the cable does not pass the voltage drop test, replace the cable.

So the above is a perfect example for me who just purchased this vehicle will have the ability to go to my dealer to have them check for. Thanks in advance for your help in creating the top ten list.

First Posting - My history on buying the Sprinter -
Was in a car accident by myself in the 2004 Sienna on 1/24/10 and the car was totaled, no one hurt, 23 year old kid crossed the double line you know the rest, he lied on the police report and blamed it on me :yell: bla..bla,,. Started researching and test driving the 2010 Sprinter Van. Decided on the 2010 Passenger 144" high top, was only able to find 2 in the USA for immediate delivery $52k :cry:. Decided to search for a used one and found (2) 2007 in New Hampshire at a Dealer who had purchased both from Enterprise Rental Car out of NYC. One had 7,500 miles and the other had 10,000 miles drove both and purchased the 10,000 mile one for $33k. Was not willing to buy the extended maintenance program through Chrysler. Got it home and started to have a diesel smell in the car, being under warranty took it to the dealer and one of the lines on the fuel rail was loose and the hose to the turbo was leaking that they replaced. Everything was covered under warranty which expires on 5/30/10. Have installed the new logo kit which I overpaid for and just had a trailer hitch added.

Currently have 13k miles and the wife loves it.
Happy Wife Happy Life :rad:
 
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S

Shulkster

Guest
# 5) Check your Power Steering Gear assemble or Steering Rack Assemble for leaks, I was in for my final review and inspection before the warranty expired. I mentioned to the mechanic that I noticed it was leaking with 13,000 miles on it :idunno:. He ordered me a new one $ 2,200 parts + labor took him 2 hours to install + 1 hour to do the new alignment . I have attached photo's of mine below removed and the leaking on the boot and the rest of the unit. This is very easy to see once under the engine.

Laymen Terms: The steering wheel connects to a rod (Pic 1) then connects to this unit which enables you to turn your wheels, look for fluid leaking around the boot (Pic 3) with blue gloves. I had to bring this to the attention of the dealer proactively :yell: , they had not seen this at my prior visit :bash: when they looked the car over. This is the reason for this post.

My wife and I really love driving this vechicle with the kids, now that the 3 year/36k miles warranty is over I hope I continue to love this vechicle .
 

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Chandlerazman

Active member
I still find it amazing about the parts that fail on this vehicle and the costs associated with them. I would never dream about a power steering rack failing at under 36k. Thanks for the heads up.
 
S

Shulkster

Guest
Now I am on the other side of my expired warranty and I just replaced my front continental tires at 23,000 miles. I purchased 4 new Michelins from TireRack.com. Decided to move the Continentals from the back to the front and put the new Michelins on the back for now.

Went to the dealer to have the tires mounted. The service tech comes up to me and says that they need to replace both Tire PSI sensors because they are corroded and broken. See below pictures, cost $ 157 each :yell:. They would have been covered under the warranty.

If someone would had given me the advise I would have gone to the dealer prior to the expiration of the warranty and put a new set of Michelin tires on the car so they could have inspected all the PSI sensors or pay them to swap the existing tires around on each individual rim. By forcing them to take the tire off the rim they have to remove the stem in the value stem. My mechanic had to break them away from the tire rim.

****It is very important that all caps are on the value stem to prevent anything getting in to corrode the value stem*******
 

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jdcaples

Not Suitable w/220v Gen
I have a 2007 Sprinter and the warranty expired in the last few days of Sept 2010.

I'd add this to the above:

1) Check the roof-top antenna gasket for erosion.

Mine was replaced under warranty at an MB dealership even though they saw no evidence of leaking.

2) Have the vehicle scanned with MB Star Diagnosis System for diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs). MB re-imburses tech time to dealerships if scanning under warranty (according to MB of Lynnwood, WA).

There are EGR valve actuations that can toss new DTCs after code clearing.

3) Front suspension should be reviewed for lose knuckle joints etc.... look for tire wear

4) Check for leaks of engine oil, transmission fluid, rear axle fluid.

5) verify the torque on chassis bolts (see guidance for first 10,000 mile service)

7) Check battery and charging system

8) Belt tensioners - verify they're in spec - and belts for wear.

9) If you have paint worn off on the interior side of the doors, ask if they'll repair (esp where paint touches the weather seals on doors)

10) Verify all your mirrors retain full motion (electric mirror adjustment is standard, I think)

11) Pull the engine covers off and review for contamination, evidence of leaking, compromised plumbing joints, hoses, other fluild conduits.

12) See if you can get the transmission solenoid's actuators run - requires a scan tool (These are system tests available on Chrysler's StarMOBILE/WiTECH scan tools - there must be analgous tests on MB SDS). The goal here is to get your transmission and associated parts to cough up a DTC to be repaired.

-Jon
 

piper1

Resident Oil Nerd.
Before the warranty is up, Piper's list of checks:

Thorough examination of the driveshaft and all bearings and u-joints with it. On some variations of NCV3's this has been a frequent issue, updated parts available

Get all the belt tensionner and idler pulleys checked (without the belt load on them). Lots of non serviceable plastic parts here that are $$$.

Glow plug check under load (test with DRB or other factory scan tool). The glow plugs are fragile, and if they give your van to "the kid" in the shop to fix, he breaks them off (my current problem)

Front end suspension components. Not a big failure item but costly to fix. By the look of the tires in the above post we either had a camber problem or we like to corner like it's Daytona.:smirk:

The battery cable issue. I ran new cables, the factory cable is, in my opinion, a cheap design. The resulting voltage loss will result in early failure of your battery due to constant under charge. Of note to you Scan Gage users, the voltage reading you see does not always accurately interpret what is happening at the battery. I lost 2 before I did my upgrade.

Rear Springs. There was a recall on a few vans, but if you are under warranty I would get them to do the check physically on your van, not just in the computer VIN records.

Full scan with a real factory scan tool. I am always amazed at the codes that come up at the dealer that generic OBD tools do NOT record or catch.

Complain bitterly about the EGR valve, might as well get a new one (and hopefully the proper clean out) for free.

Once the warranty is up and you are on your own........e-bay and the internet are the best friends you can have to lessen the $$ pain of ownership. This forum alone has likely saved members untold thousands of dollars.
 

shanemac

Active member
These are some great things to watch out for or possibly expect to occur to your van...the nearly impossible factor is convincing a dealership to listen and go the extra mile to help reduce the burden.

It's like a catastrophic failure has to occur to leave you stranded before something is taken serious...sorry still a bit pissed with mine.

Maybe other dealers out there would listen compared to my current one. I know I tried to convince them my erg valve is giving me trouble but it was futile.
 
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jdcaples

Not Suitable w/220v Gen
These are some great things to watch out for or possibly expect to occur to your van...the nearly impossible factor is convincing a dealership to listen and go the extra mile to help reduce the burden.

It's like a catastrophic failure has to occur to leave you stranded before something is taken serious...sorry still a bit pissed with mine.

Maybe other dealers out there would listen compared to my current one. I know I tried to convince them my erg valve is giving me trouble but it was futile.
I gave up on Dodge dealerships after the H44 recall. Since that time the horror stories have only grown in number on Sprinter-Source.

My experience with my local MB dealership is what it should have been: no back talk, they listened, they executed, they managed my expectations and treated nicely. The other MB service customers gave me some pretty unappealing looks, but eveyone that mattered showed me professionalism and were even open to learning from me (I showed them a code - the Freightliner Execution "ZX9" on the EPC data card that allowed them to charge MB USA for the 2002-2003 manifold recall work on a private school shuttle).

That code is missing from MB's other computer systems. I thought it'd be gone by now, after I let the cat out of the bag, but ZX9 lives on and MB of Lynnwood, WA was able to be re-imbursed for VINs that are "Freightliner."

Let me guess: You had a very different experience with your Dodge dealership in Eddy town Edmonton?


-Jon

PS: The service advisor called everyone over to my laptop and said, "He has EPC on his laptop." I started to explain that it was their free wireless network that provided internet access.... but I could tell that adrenelin was blocking any more learning. I did learn from them that they can't access any MB systems from home and passwords change often (daily?). Then again, why should they? It's not like I go home at night and read Doug Comer's books.
 
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