I purchased a brand new 2006 Dodge Ram from Earnhardt Dodge about 13 months ago. Shortly after buying the vehicle I was coming out of the mountains and the front end of the truck shook uncontrollably when I put on the brakes and I was forced to come down the mountain at about 35-40 miles an hour to control the truck. I could not get the brakes to repeat it once I got out of the mountains so I let it go thinking maybe they just got hot. A few months later it happened again. I took my truck to Earnhardt and told them the problem and that it felt like it was more on the right side. After a so-called inspection the service advisor (Ill call him Mark) told me that my truck was due for the front brake pads to be replaced and that must have been the problem even though it first happened at less than 5000 miles. They charged me over $200 to replace the front pads and turn the rotors.By the time I got home with the truck (about 60 miles away) the brakes were squeeling so loud that my neighbor commented about it and my wife heard them from inside our house. When I contacted Mark (service advisor) I was told that was normal on new brakes and Dodge says break noise is going to happen but it would get better as the new pads wore in so they would not do anything. 12000 miles later (only 3 months because I drive alot) my front right side break started grinding and I noticed the pad was totally gone and was grinding on the rotor. I took the truck again to Earnhardt to fix (thinking there was an obvious mistake made). Mark told me that Dodge agreed that was unusual and would fix it for $50. Later he called me back and said the reason for the problem was due to brake fluid contamination and all the parts of the brakes on all 4 wheels would have to be replaced to the tune of about $2800. I told him that he was the last to work on them or touch them so they were responsible. After several arguements with managers (the General Manager originally refused to come out and talk to me when I requested he get involved) they all told me that it was impossible for an error by them to go 12000 miles before effecting the brakes and it must have happened at the oil change place by mistake. So I checked with the oil change company that has done ALL of my oil changes and they gave me their written policy that states they DO NOT touch brakes or even check brake fluid levels during any service. They also have video of all there service areas that proved they didnt touch it. Being only 2 people that have ever serviced my truck and one of them proving they are innocent, my attention turned back to Earnhardt. Earnhardt then told me that contamination would have ruined my brakes in a maximum of 500 miles and it was impossible that it went 12000 miles. I asked them to put there opinion in writing because I was going to check with Dodge about their opinion and they absolutely refused to do it saying "We arent going to put anything in writing, you will get a printout of the service bill like everyone else and thats it!". I called 3 other Dodge dealerships and 2 brake shops and was told the because brake fluid doesnt "flow" through the lines, it is a hydraulic and it primarily moves back and forth a short distance in the lines as the pedal is depressed and released therefore a contamination could have swelled the rubber parts on the master cylinder immediately but would have taken quite some time to get down to the caliper. The opinion of the other dealerships was that the original caliper (that started shaking horribly) was the original culprit and was not caught by Earnhardt during the "inspection".
To make a long story short Earnhardt eventually decided to try to pacify me and said they would do it for cost and only charge me half of their cost to fix it (my half being about $750). They kept my truck for 11 days to complete the job and told me they had great news and got it done even cheaper so my half would only be $536. My final disgust with this company came when I requested the parts that were removed from my truck, they were mysteriously not there, probably thrown away and noone could figure out which parts it might be. I was given a copy of the contamination report supposedly from the lab that was no more than 3 typed lines saying the fluid was contaminated with 16% petroleum product, maybe motor oil, but it looks like it was just quickly typed out on someones computer because it was by no means an official report and had no analysis data at all and no information on the lab submitting the report (looked fake in other words).
So to recap.in 4 months I spent over $700 on my brakes on a truck thats a year old for a mistake that was obviously made by Earnhardt and they refused to accept responsibility. They were very rude. When I told them we would let a small claims court decide who was liable they basically taunted me and said it would be a waste of my time and they would win anyways because I could not "prove" they were responsible.
They then denied ever taking the cap off the fluid resevoir during a break pad replacement anyways. They must have forgotten that they also claim to have done a so-called inspection during that first service to try to find out what was causing the shaking.
I will NEVER again have anything to do with any Earnhardt dealership!!!
M
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
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