Rant time v. DODGE

[TCG Member 5219]

Im sure nobody cares, but I need to rant. This GODDAMN dodge caravan we have is leaking coolant for like the 189734890348093th time. Dodge and their retarded engineers made the aux coolant line connectors (Y pipes) for the rear heater out of plastic. And they crack and leak coolant all over the exhaust and trans. This is every single caravan from 2008+. This is not new Dodge. Its something that happens easily 5 times over a 100k life of one of these vans.

The only alternative has been to construct your own Y pipe connectors with metal replacements from plumbing stores. But they are insanely hard to find. I have never been able to get one.

Now FINALLY someone is making the complete kit with preshaped hoses and aluminum y pipes. Lets hope to god this stops this from ever happening again. Im so fucking sick of this van. Its supposed to be my DD for when I get my nice car because I refuse put 500 miles a week on a new sports car. So I have to keep fucking with this van. Its sucked about $2k out of us in repairs over the last year. Oh the joys of having older cars not under warranty.

Heres a pic of the new stuff for reference that I now get to try and replace in the dead of winter.

Click to read more...

 

[PANDA]

junk it

 

[SinisterSHO]

Plumming?

 

[TCG Member 5219]

junk it

I mean its worth a lot to us. Being a minivan, its great to haul shit and also the kids when we know they are going to be dirty. Like last year we all went to the beach. The inside of the van was covered in sand. It was everywhere in every crack and just worked into the carpet. I cant imagine repeating that trip in the wife's new explorer.

I might see if I can trade it for a like value commuter car tho. It will suck to lose the versatility, but man its a pain in the ass to deal with.

 

[TCG Member 5219]

Plumming?

plumbing. Nice catch. Corrected.

 

[Dasfinc]

One of my employees has a 11+ Ram, and they have a super common ECU fuel relay issue (where you have to replace the entire ECU to fix it).

a third party released a by-pass kit that basically fixes it, and then Dodge themselves now sell the kit as a solution as well

 

[RICH17]

About the same with the plastic coolant elbows on the 3800. Dorman finally went with aluminum ones

 

[TCG Member 5219]

About the same with the plastic coolant elbows on the 3800. Dorman finally went with aluminum ones

Happened with the plastic T stat housing on the older mustangs too. I remember back in 97 when I was test driving a new mustang gt. I admit I was hammering on it hard, and all the sudden it exploded in steam. Coolant poured out of the engine bay and thats when we found out about that plastic t stat housing Ford was using. Atleast on the 99+ cars they changed it to aluminum and offered a TSB for the earlier cars. What a mess that was.

 

[bikrboy128]

because dodge

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Happened with the plastic T stat housing on the older mustangs too. I remember back in 97 when I was test driving a new mustang gt. I admit I was hammering on it hard, and all the sudden it exploded in steam. Coolant poured out of the engine bay and thats when we found out about that plastic t stat housing Ford was using. Atleast on the 99+ cars they changed it to aluminum and offered a TSB for the earlier cars. What a mess that was.

I'll never understand the plastic thermostat housings or just hard plastic in the heart of a cooling system in general.


Our zetec focus had a plastic thermostat housing and every other year, you'd walk out in the morning and there would be a giant puddle of coolant under it because it would crack and pour coolant everywhere.