Your opinions on dealer recommended repairs?

[DickensCPA]

So I dropped my JKU off Thursday and got the report back this morning. P0128 so thermostat is sticking open and they're replacing thermostat, weep hole in radiator under upper shroud and they're replacing radiator and new rad cap and head unit was frying so replacing the head unit all for my $100 deductible.

Jeep has 84k on the odo and they suggested a lot of maintenance that takes place at 100k that I normally do myself anyway that totaled $1264, I told them no on those things. I change my own fluids and spark plugs.

They put the Jeep in some type of water pressure room and determined the roof and two front doors needed new seals/gaskets - $1303. As bad as I hate a wet Jeep every time someone spits in the street I though $1303 was a tad excessive. The real kicker is the water leak is NOT covered under warranty. I would've figured I would be on my own with the radio and the water leak would be covered so I was a bit taken aback.

I can get the "new and improved" front door gaskets for $150 per door myself and my daughter could install those. I haven't priced the roof seals but I can't imagine they'd be anywhere close to $1003.

My response was to let them do a new thermostat, radiator and cap and radio for my $100 deductible. I'll do my own maintenance when 100k comes along and I guess address the leaks myself.

Is this pretty much the consensus of the JK crowd?

 

[BLACKJKU]

The way I look at it the least amount of Mechanics that touch my stuff the better. I do all my own repairs, that way I know in my mind they have been done right. Plus I save alot of money that can be used for other things.

The warranty work would be ok, you would think that stuff they could do right. The other things I think they were just trying to make some money from you that might not be needed done yet, or even at all.

 

[Anybodyhome]

A few years ago I had the same thermostat stuck open adventure. Did all the work myself, and the expenses were the $30 or so for a new t-stat with housing and the cost of the coolant. It took more time to refill the coolant and burp the system doing it than the actual work of replacing the t-stat.
Also replaced all the freedom top gaskets myself with a kit from Extreme Terrain that I think I spent about $20 on and got some generic weather stripping from Lowe's for another $20.
So, yeah, maybe $100 worth of parts and material and a couple hours of a Sunday afternoon.

 

[DickensCPA]

I wouldn't mind having the OEM radiator, cap, thermostat and radio all done for $100 and I did pay for the ext warranty. I'm not sure I could buy those parts plus coolant for $100. My main thing is time. I own a CPA firm and I'm in prime time tax season at the moment. If I didn't have the warranty I would probably do those things myself and just make the time.

I with you guys on the seals/gaskets. I can make some time and I think get the new seals much cheaper than $1303. @Anybodyhome - do you happen to remember the kit you got from Extreme and did it work?

I watched a YT video where a guy got these new improved door seals and in his video he linked them and they were $150 per door but he didn't do anything for the freedom tops. TBH, I thought the door seals at $150 apiece was a bit steep and the link was on Amazon for the OEM door seals.

*** One thing I caught the guy on was one of the "maintenance" items was flushing my radiator for $265. I asked him if they are replacing the radiator and thermostat wouldn't they in essence be flushing it anyway. He hemmed and hawed for a second and said yes. LOL!

 

[DickensCPA]

A few years ago I had the same thermostat stuck open adventure. Did all the work myself, and the expenses were the $30 or so for a new t-stat with housing and the cost of the coolant. It took more time to refill the coolant and burp the system doing it than the actual work of replacing the t-stat.
Also replaced all the freedom top gaskets myself with a kit from Extreme Terrain that I think I spent about $20 on and got some generic weather stripping from Lowe's for another $20.
So, yeah, maybe $100 worth of parts and material and a couple hours of a Sunday afternoon.

Is this the kit you bought? He specifically mentioned my header seal was needing replacing. If it's not in this kit that's an extra $70.

https://www.extremeterrain.com/crown-automotive-jeep-wrangler-hard-top-seal-68026937ab.html

 

[Anybodyhome]

These are small, pre-cut pieces for the corners and a couple edges on the removable panels.
For the perimeter seals, I bought some generic flat, single side adhesive famm weather strip from Lowe's and added it right over the top of the old stuff. It gets so compressed when the top is on, I decided to leave the old on, clean it up so the adhesive would work and just added the new over the old.

Has worked fine for a little over 2 years now. I still have a leak from the top front corner of the driver side door/freedom panel that gives me a very small puddle after rain, but it's not too serious.

 

[DickensCPA]

I got my Jeep back just before they closed tonight and the weirdest thing. Everything is fixed but the water leak and radio. I’m on my own for water leak and they said it would be two weeks before my new programmed radio would be in. I opted not to just leave it there in the meantime.

So I get in the Jeep and my radio was actually in one of its moods where it worked. However, my Sirius wouldn’t play and just showed the Sirius ID on the screen. I thought maybe when they were running tests it unpaired and I called Sirius to have a new signal flashed.

They told me that at 12:53 PM today someone canceled my Jk and my wife’s vehicle and added a 2016 something or other that I can’t remember and a 2012 Jeep Liberty. Before anything on my account can be changed I’m supposed to receive either a text or email and I received neither.

I got charged $15.97 twice for the two new vehicles and both twice again to get mine and the wife’s back on. Plus we both had some promotional deal that went thru April 2025 and since both were canceled we lost our $7.99 apiece and went to $23.99 apiece. I told her to cancel everything and I was livid.

She said she was crediting all the activation fees and giving me three free months on both to get this situated with the dealer. We’ll see, a charge comes thru immediately but it always takes a day or two for a credit to show. I don’t see how they let someone without my info and security change something linked to my card. I wanted to unload but the girl was in the Philippines and we had a breakdown in communication.

 

[Anybodyhome]

I got my Jeep back just before they closed tonight and the weirdest thing. Everything is fixed but the water leak and radio. I’m on my own for water leak and they said it would be two weeks before my new programmed radio would be in. I opted not to just leave it there in the meantime.

So I get in the Jeep and my radio was actually in one of its moods where it worked. However, my Sirius wouldn’t play and just showed the Sirius ID on the screen. I thought maybe when they were running tests it unpaired and I called Sirius to have a new signal flashed.

They told me that at 12:53 PM today someone canceled my Jk and my wife’s vehicle and added a 2016 something or other that I can’t remember and a 2012 Jeep Liberty. Before anything on my account can be changed I’m supposed to receive either a text or email and I received neither.

I got charged $15.97 twice for the two new vehicles and both twice again to get mine and the wife’s back on. Plus we both had some promotional deal that went thru April 2025 and since both were canceled we lost our $7.99 apiece and went to $23.99 apiece. I told her to cancel everything and I was livid.

She said she was crediting all the activation fees and giving me three free months on both to get this situated with the dealer. We’ll see, a charge comes thru immediately but it always takes a day or two for a credit to show. I don’t see how they let someone without my info and security change something linked to my card. I wanted to unload but the girl was in the Philippines and we had a breakdown in communication.

Was this at a Chrysler/Jeep dealership? If so, I would be going directly to Stellaris HQ and not stopping until I either had someone's head on a platter or a lot of my repairs were being comp'd.
A dealership fugging with your credit? I'm not letting that go under any circumstance.

 

[DickensCPA]

Was this at a Chrysler/Jeep dealership? If so, I would be going directly to Stellaris HQ and not stopping until I either had someone's head on a platter or a lot of my repairs were being comp'd.
A dealership fugging with your credit? I'm not letting that go under any circumstance.

Yes this was at a CDJR dealership, the one I bought the Jeep at.

I called this morning and the way it was explained to me was they already ordered my radio which is a refurb from a 2012 Jeep Liberty and it apparently happened as Chrysler was programming the new radio to switch everything on my old radio to the new. DOES NOT excuse Sirius from handling it wrong and making changes on my account and tapping my debit card without my authorization.