What fee? If there’s a fee associated with a warranty, it’s not a warranty. It’s a service plan that they fraudulently told you was a warranty.
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On a newer vehicle like that it might make sense to only replace the one strut. Especially if they notice it is damaged, like if the car hit a big pothole at some point. Were I to have this situation myself , I’d still prefer a new pair of struts, so I’d just pay for the second strut replacement on my dime. I’d keep the old (but still good) strut as a back-up. As posted above, let the dealership fix it according to the way they routinely handle this situation. That way if it doesn’t pan out your complaint will be valid and they’ll have to rectify the problem. If they simply do what you tell them to do, then if it doesn’t work out the result will be yours.
Tester
Tom and Ray’s statements from 21 years ago were;
1; Shocks and struts are sometimes sold in pairs. (they are available individually)
2; Most are replaced because they are worn out, not because of an accident.
The OP has a damaged strut, not a worn out 4 year old vehicle.
I have replaced hundreds of shocks and struts that had failed prematurely or were damaged in a collision, vehicle warranties and insurance companies will not pay for a set of shocks or struts when only one is needed.
The struts are as old as four years old.
In my book, both are replaced. For whatever reason.
Tester
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How can we know that the one new one is the same make and model as the remaining good one?
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It should read “Mopar” on the box. There are several suspension calibrations for this vehicle.
If this is being repaired by some small time operation that uses cheap parts, (the brothers mentioned Monroe and Gabriel) I might decline the offer to repair my vehicle and take it elsewhere.
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The dealership contacted me today about the situation. They went over all their inspections of the vehicle and looked back to see if the vehicle had ever been in an accident. It’s never been in an accident and the original inspection shows the strut was not bent. The dealership is claiming someone who test drove the vehicle way before I was interested must have smacked a huge pothole and bent the strut. They are saying the other strut is in good condition so theres no need to replace the good one. They are paying for the bent strut to be fix, doing a new alignment and reimbursing me for gas money I put in the rental car they gave me. The only reason I asked for advice was I was scared I could potentially lose control of the vehicle, because of the strut they aren’t replacing, with my kids in the car. I’m just going to make sure I get a new inspection in hand just incase the good strut really isnt good. Thank you all for replying!!
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It is a 3 month/3,000 Mile limited Warranty. It states that right on my paperwork…
I can’t imagine you screeching around corners with your children in the car pressing the vehicle to its limits. I doubt that the lap times around the race track will be affected by replacing only one strut, your vehicle performance will not suffer by replacing only the damaged part.
This discussion is blown out of proportion based on $10 shock absorbers from the 1970’s.
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Lmfao ok. One pot hole in Michigan couldve easily broke the strut while I’m driving with it already bent! If youve actually seen the pot holes here you’d understand. Furthermore I do not drive crazy with my kids in the car. Excuse me for trying to protect my kids. Smdh
If that pothole was bad enough to end a strut . . . there may be additional damage
A competent steering and alignment guy will be able to tell. Keyword being “competent”
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I stick with my original premise which I mentioned earlier. If a strut is damaged due to impact of any sort the odds are quite high that other things attached to it are damaged to one degree or the other. The usual suspect is control arms.
I suggest that when this alignment is done that you get and keep the printout of that alignment. You should see before and after specs. If something appears (and likely is) out of kilter then you might post the printout here for opinions.
I don’t think failure to change both struts is going to kill you. The fact remains that both struts are 4 years old and the proper repair is replace both of them.
For what it’s worth, I strongly suspect that vehicle has been in a collision and the dealer is BSing his way through things with the pothole theory.
maybe strut is only damaged part. Vs knuckle or a-arm.
I worked in GM dealers for more than 40 years. When a car is new and still under warranty they only pay for the part that’s bad. If the mechanic or the dealer put the other strut on the dealership would not get paid for the time or of the part. I have witnessed sings like a slight miss at 10 or 15,000 miles and we’re allowed to replace one spark plug and one wire anything else was not covered under the warranty. Even if it took you all day long to figure out what the issue is You would get paid to put the spark plug in and change the wire and that’s it. This is why flat rate really stinks. So by them only replacing One strut They are doing with the manufacturer would pay for it otherwise the mechanic and a dealership would not get paid to do the job and reimburse them for the Other strut and the mechanic, or Should I say technician. I’ve also seen where the factory will come out go through some repair orders and look for the bad part that was replaced. I know it sounds stupid but that’s how they do it
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Struts should be replaced in pairs on vehicles with 50,000-100,000 miles, so you won’t have one good and one wornout. If your vehicle has lower mileage, don’t worry and just get the one replaced
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usually The reason for replacing a strut under warranty would be leaking which is why the car manufacture Would not pay for two. And yes of course with the replacement of any front end part under warranty it gets an alignment which we get paid very well for. You would be surprised how new cars or not aligned 100%, I’ve had issues where I had to shim a rear wheel to get it aligned and straight inclination. I had a service manager one time told me the least the customer knows the better which is just off-the-wall
The other side of the coin believe it or not, you’ll get a mechanic or a technician that sees the strut wet under warranty but doesn’t want to replace it because of such short flat rate time to do it. In which case the car I’ll just keep being driven until it gets out of warranty and then this bonehead mechanic will sell them to front struts And an alignment because he wasn’t honest in the beginning. I guess being around this long I have a conscience these young guys could care less if not all of them but most
This is a 2 year old thread . And how would the dealer mechanic get to make the decision to not fix a warranty problem ? As for selling struts or any other part later that is not part of the mechanics job. That will be handled by the service writer.
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If it was a brand new vehicle, I’d be fine with replacing one strut. This is not a brand new vehicle. If they replace one, they should replace both. However, since the second strut isn’t malfunctioning, I might offer to pay for part of the installation since they’re only obligated to fix what’s broken. Why not negotiate?
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