BAWC Forums

So, after months of dealing with my Jeeps retarded starting problem, it has been fixed!

I towed my WJ into the dealership on Friday, along with a brand new transponder key. They agreed to cut and program the key for me for free, since they would have the DRBIII tool hooked up anyways.

I get a call from them on Tuesday saying that the battery is dead and will not take a charge, so in order to diagnose the issue, they will have to replace the battery. This sucked, but the battery is almost 4 years old so I figured it was probably a good idea anyways. They quote me $140 for a new battery. I told them I could buy a batt at walmart for $70 and take it to them. They said they would have to charge me to install it. At this point I'm already getting ripped off by them, but they are really going to be the only ones capable of fixing it. So I tell them to go ahead with the $140 battery...

I get a call on Wednesday, its fixed! It turns out that all of the data in the SKIM module had been erased. How? No on knew. But they reprogrammed it, and programmed both of the keys and it starts up no problem! I was deeply hoping it would be something this simple, and that they wouldnt have to do any real surgery to my WJ.

So... $35 for new key, $90 diagnostic fee, $140 battery, $70 labor = ~$335 Total. Did I get ripped off by the dealer? Maybe, but it really isn't that much money to have my jeep back up and running, and with a new batt.

Insane. Speaking of ripoffs. Before Danyel fixed my car for me she was talking about taking it in to have it fixed. They quoted her 145 to replace the thermostat but first they would have to diagnose it and see what the computer said was wrong and that was 95 dollars more. Then they also said if it had overheated they needed to see if the heads had warped or flexed and if coolant had gotten into the engine. As well they would check the exhaust gasses for contaminants and that was another 150. So they wanted 390 for something already diagnosed, and a 20 dollar part to boot. When I explained to her that it would take 20 minutes to change and that they cant really hook it up to any better diagnostics than my datalogger plus the fact to check the heads properly you just have to pull them and I also know for a fact they dont have the equipment to check the exhaust gasses for contaminents rather they would just see if there was colored smoke from coolant being burnt. Thats when she decided to do it herself.

Obviously in your case you cant reprogram the system, but its just the way most mechanics are.

Good lord
shop ripoffs & Jeep issues, tisk tisk..

ripoff or not. you had no other choice if a module was erased.

[quote=""vr4""]ripoff or not. you had no other choice if a module was erased.[/quote]

Exactly.

But at least it is fixed now. Now if only my Jeep would quit breaking! (Damn rear shock mounts)