cloud car question

[BigAl]

I have a question for a mechanic here. My Grandma has a 98 Dodge Stratus, and the oil plug was somehow stripped out. My uncle looked at it and told my mom it would be around $450 to fix the plug and flush the radiator. Now, worse case scenario, they have to replace the pan, how much would it cost to replace the pan and gasket? I know just for the plug it shouldn't be more that a few bucks.

[Big_P]

HOLY SHYT

Let me get this straight; $450 to thread in a new drain plug and flush the radiator? ---- I'll do the job for $400 :P

Anyway, they make drain plugs that are self-tapping and I think .5mm bigger than whatever comes stock. So it basically taps a new thread. We have used them a few times at work.

According to my sources, a new oil pan is $122 and the gasket is $33.25. Should be about an hour and a half for labor.

[BigAl]

Ok, turns out that its my uncle's mechanic friend, who my mom stopped using as a mechanic, that quoted the high price. I told my mom that if they don't replace the pan, they had better not charge her much at all. Thanks for the info.

[fleckster]

Who stripped the bolt? Did they change the oil? I am pretty sure that your mom wasn't under the car doing it so if they did the work, then they did the damage and shouldn't charge anything. If she has the oil changed elsewhere then she's out of luck and will have to have them fix it with her paying the bill.

Also, the bolts are designed to have the threads softer than the nut welded in the pan. You strip the bolt but 99% of the time, the nut in the pan is fine. You just get a replacement bolt. (less than $5) I would try a new bolt first and if it threads in and is tight and doesn't leak, problem solved.

[BigAl]

Well, I haven't actually seen the car. My uncle went and looked at it and told her to send it to the shop and the guy at the shop told her how much it would be. If I had been there and all it needed was the plug I would have run up to NAPA.

Now, the guy that is fixing the car used to do all the work on all of my moms family's cars, including oil changes. He made my mom and grandma angry so they quit going there. But my uncle and step-dad are friends with the guy so their cars still go there. And it was my uncle that had the car sent there. Unfortunatly they cannot prove that he stripped it out or they he knew it was stripped.

[BigAl]

Well, the car went to the garage. The mechanic proceeded to tell my mom that the oil pan was cracked because someone had overtorqued the drain plug. They "ordered" a "new" oil pan which took a week to came in. When it came in it was cracked too. Sounds to me like they got a j/y part. They ordered a new one from dodge, 3 more days to come in. Now, when they went to put the car back together they noticed a chain hanging down into the oil pan. The mechanic didn't know what it was so he stopped. Any guesses as to what that chain was? Mom looked it up on the net and found out. Yep..balance shaft chain. She proceeded to call dodge and make an appointment for the car. She then called the mechanic back and basically asked him if he knew how to work on the cloud cars. He gave her some double talk. She told him that she knew that the chain was for the balance shaft and it was supposed to be down in the pan. His response " Sug' you just don't know...." mom cut him off their and proceeded to accuse him of being a fraud. The shop owner, who had previously refused to release the car to AAA, told mom he would sign the paper...lol. That was this past Thursday. Dodge said the car will be ready on Tuesday, they said they could just repair the pan, but grandma said she would rather have a new one. They are also replacing the timing belt since its due anyways. Total cost of less than $300. Other mechanic lost a lot of business Thursday.

[raccoon]

thats crazy! your dodge dealership isnt the thief!?

[85daytona]

Wow...I am beginning to hate all mechanics...everyone of them seem to be full of crap GJ on your moms part effin owned :amen:

[dodgeshadowchik]

it is rather easy to strip out the pan in those. I had an oil chance place strip out the oil pan on my Neon. (and of course... they didn't do anything about it) The problem is they impact that drain plug in.... and you really shouldn't do that when the pan is made of aluminium, and the plug is steel.

[looneytuner]

it is rather easy to strip out the pan in those. I had an oil chance place strip out the oil pan on my Neon. (and of course... they didn't do anything about it) The problem is they impact that drain plug in.... and you really shouldn't do that when the pan is made of aluminium, and the plug is steel.


You just have to know how to handle them. Such as The Terminator or retired 6th grade teacher.
My sis always took her Honda to the dealer for everything. At about 80,000 miles a mechanic came to her and said the plug stripped the thread and it would cost xxx.xx for a new pan. SHE told the mechanic that since they were the only ones to touch the car since she bought it, they better find a way to pay for it out of their allowances. Needless to say, all she paid for was the oil change. :thumb:

[BigAl]

My grandma had always taken the car to the dealer for everything except oil changes when she lived in KY. When she moved to NC she started going to this other guy.

[NickKo]

I don't know about the Cloud cars; but I know the PL-body cars have oil pans that are so easy to change, it's almost a joke.

I would imagine that a Cloud car is very similar. It's been a while since I have had to crawl underneath a Cloud car, so I don't recall.

I would scour the junkyards for a good used oil pan, you should be able to find one CHEAP that way.

I think they are ripping her off on all that 'hard labor'. :nod:

- Nick