Well... about a year ago, I had to take my mother's 1999 Grand Voyager in for a recall for the clockspring. The airbag light was on, the horn didn't work, and the cruise control didn't work. Classic clockspring problems... So, I call up my local dealer, and they had me bring the van down. They verified the VIN and said they had to order the part and would call me when it was in. I didn't get a call for a month, so I called them. "Oh, we don't have it still." A week later, I get a call to bring it in. Drop it off, and pick it up the next day. The airbag light was still on, the horn still didn't work, and the cruise still didn't work. I was told by the service writer "We don't troubleshoot anything on a recall. We just swapped the part." I figured it was something in the column and left it at that.
Fast forward to today. I finally get the chance to get into it. On the advice of my friend, I checked the clockspring first. Guess what... it was bad. Went out to the local pick a part yard and picked one up (from a van that had the recall done).. pinned it out in the yard, and it was good.
Brought it home, installed it.. guess what? THE DAMN HORN AND AIRBAG WORKS NOW!!!
So... what should I do about the dealer? They either never swapped the clockspring, or they put a defective one in and didn't bother to even check it out.
The recall states:
quote:
DEALERS WILL REPLACE THE CLOCKSPRING ASSEMBLY ON ALL VEHICLES WITH 70,000 MILES OR LESS. AN EXTENDED LIFETIME WARRANTY WILL ALSO BE PLACED ON THIS COMPONENT FOR ALL AFFECTED VEHICLES, REGARDLESS OF MILEAGE. DAIMLERCHRYSLER WILL ALSO REIMBURSE OWNERS WHO HAVE PAID TO HAVE THE CLOCKSPRING REPLACED ON THEIR VEHICLES. OWNER NOTIFICATION BEGAN NOVEMBER 18, 2002. OWNERS WHO TAKE THEIR VEHICLES TO AN AUTHORIZED DEALER ON AN AGREED UPON SERVICE DATE AND DO NOT RECEIVE THE FREE REMEDY WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME SHOULD CONTACT DAIMLERCHRYSLER AT 1-800-853-1403
From reading this, they should have replaced the clockspring again. But when I challenged the dealer, they told me they only replace it once.
So I guess I need to talk to the service manager tomorrow and see what they will do. At they least, I would like to get a new clockspring, and not the used one I have.