Complaint Review: Harry H. Miller Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Surprise

About the 2nd week of May 2018 I took my 2012  JKU Wrangler to be serviced at Larry H. Miller Jeep Chrysler for an engine code P304. Cylinder #4 misfire and the cylinder head had to be replaced; all work was covered under warranty. Whenever I have work done to my vehicles I always inspect the work that was done. I am not a certified mechanic however I have been building cars since I was 13; I have above average mechanical understanding and experience. Before dropping my jeep for service I used my vacuum gauge to test how many inches of vacuum my engine was at. Before leaving my house I measured 18" of manifold vacuum @ 800rpm, that is a pretty good reading for an engine with a 100,000+ miles. I had recently replaced all spark plugs and fuel injectors to eliminate the possibility of misfire.

After the work was complete I was at LHM Jeep dealer parking lot picking up my jeep and before leaving I measured the manifold vacuum and my engine, after being serviced by LHM Chrysler Jeep, was at 14" of manifold vacuum. While the engine was idling I could hear a hissing because of a poor intake manifold seal; when I got home I checked the torque of the lower and upper intake manifold they were both very loose, some fasteners were hand loose. I torqued the upper intake M6 bolts are torqued to 89 inch pounds and the lower M6 bolts 106 inch pounds; using my calibrated inch pound torque wrench that has been recently calibrated…………..why? because I like doing s*** right the first time. Since the work has been done to my cylinder head by LHM Jeep my MPG has dropped 18mpg to 14.8mpg.

The other mechanical area was the front suspension when I asked LHM Chrysler Jeep for a front alignment. I was told that my ball joints needed to be replaced and this past weekend May 19, 2018 I replaced the driver side upper ball joint because that was the only ball joint that needed replacement. When torqueing my front suspension I noticed that most of the ball joints I had LHM replaced were NOT torqued to specs; again attention to detail is a problem with LHM Chrysler Jeep service department.

Then when I spoke to the service manager Seth he stated, “I stand by my mechanics”……….even though I proved there was a problem on their part. That is management who does not think proactively and has tunnel vision; speaking from my 20+ years of management experience both in the U.S. and overseas, Seth is an ineffective leader. In a case like mine, punishment would NOT be effective. The effective approach would have the mechanic go through the process again; either hand write the exact processes as per the service manual or have the individual do a walk through, talk through method for other mechanics to observe and learn from. It was the lack of attention to detail for this mechanic that gave the appearance of incompetence. I have actually made this same mistake myself and I developed processes or checks for myself that prevent mistakes like this.