3.3 and 3.8 V6's, MUST READ FOR ALL!
383man, As I said, I was interested to hear your viewpoint, was not in anyway bashing you for being a dealer tech.
I am also glad that you work hard to do a good job for a customer, to many dealerships are to worried about maximizing profits as opposed to developing long term customer relationships by making for a happy satisfied customer, seems most have that same attitude towards all customers in that they think the customers have no clue when they come for repairs and have a "bad attitude when they come in the door" which I assure you was not the case the first time I had to go there for this problem, I went in KNOWING what was wrong and what the fix for it was and merely stated what was wrong and what I was aware the fix for it was, they gave attitude and said that they would "figure out what was wrong and and let me know" and then proceeded to do a band aid repair that as the TSB states can lead to failure of the new camshaft. Now I am right, and they are WRONG, and they know it or they wouldn't be fixing it on their dime, simple. Had they fixed as per TSB, I would have no complaints. Of course we know why they don't want the average person who knows little about cars to know about this TSB because they would have lost tons of dough on all those customers that got the same treatment but were s.o.l. when the problem re-occured out side of their warranty coverage, and they knew nothing of the common occurance of this problem.
You state that you have only seen it a few times where you are, but maybe that is a factor of tempeture or fuels or whatever, up here we regularly see -20/-30 degrees in the wintertime, so maybe it is a cold weather problem and thats why they see it more up here. I just don't know, I do know it IS a problem, or they wouldn't have come up with the Technical Service Bulletin for it.
I could have "fixed it myself" also, I do know how to work on vehicles, problem is factory warranties will only pay to dealerships to do the work, so I wouldn't have been able to get the parts or labour costs re-imbursed. I bought extended warranty because I know FROM expierence that used vehicles can and generally do become a mechanical expense costing in the thousands and in the long run I have always been saved money by doing so.
But can you blame a person for getting mad? You pay 15, 20, 30k for a car, a couple k more for extend FACTORY warranty, and you get poor service and treatment when you come in to get a "covered" problem fixed within that warranty period.
Maybe the 3.3 is a better engine, I can't say, mine is the 3.8 and those that I have spoke with on the subject say it's generally the 3.8 they have seen it occur in, but the TSB lists the 3.3 as having the same problem so I made sure to include it in this post.
In regards to "helping others on the boards, why come here and respond at all then? You want to be "paid" for your time, so why bother waisting time replying to my complaint against a dealership who by chryslers own documents failed to do the job correctly? I ain't going to pay you anything, don't think anybody else here will either. The fact that you state "you never buy a warranty because you do your own work." Leads me to believe you get cut a HUGE break on the cost of your parts because "you aint getting paid for your time" by fixing it yourself (are you?) when it could be covered under an extended warranty and be "free" (complete misnomer as you pay a deductible for the factory extended "warranty" each time your in for a repair.)
As to bashing "all dealerships" I did no such thing, re read, I am only complaing about Muscatel, as I stated the other dealerships I talked to all said they would have replaced the short block "BASED ON MILAGE, THE PROBLEM AND WHAT THE TSB STATES IS THE FIX" Of course maybe they were giving lip service as a way of bashing Muscatel's and they may have pulled the same crap, I do not know and will never give them a chance demonstrate to me as I will sell this piece of crap in the next year and buy foriegn, as the japs seem to do a better job of producing a long living low maintanance vehicle then the so called "american companies" do, at least in respect to econo vehicles.
And again, do not take this as a bash on you, I aksed your opinion, you gave, don't be offended by what I think.